There is one thing that loyal GM performance enthusiasts have been demanding for the past decade, and it is a legitimate sports sedan designed to compete with the best Germany can offer. What GM gave us is the 2014 Chevy SS, a rebadged Holden Commodore available with a 415 horsepower LS3 V8 and (unfortunately) a six-speed automatic transmission. There are just a handful of colors and options to choose from, and GM isn’t expecting huge sales from the $45,000 Chevy SS.

But, and this is a big but, if Chevy SS sales prove robust enough for GM’s suits, a hotter model, possibly even with a shift-for-yourself transmission, could make a debut according to Automotive.com.

As it stands, the only two options for the Chevy SS sedan are a sunroof and a full-sized spare tire; even the color palette is a little underwhelming. This helps GM keep the costs associated with different tooling at the Holden factory where the Chevy SS is built to a minimum. GM is only expecting to sell between 2,000 and 3,000 Chevy SS sedans per year at the $45,000 asking price, leaving the automotive aftermarket to step up with performance modifications of its own.

Yet if sales meet or exceed GM’s fairly tame expectations, a manual-transmission version of the Chevy SS could be in the works. Another possibility is a Chevy SS with the Camaro ZL1’s supercharged LSA engine, which is already tearing up Australia as the HSV GTS. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to slap the Chevy SS sheetmetal onto it, giving us a 580 horsepower Chevy sedan that can take on Europe’s best.

But first GM has to meet its modest sales goals. Then, and only then, can we get our hopes up for a little something more powerful.