2023 ZL1 may get the Blackwing
 

No it wont.

not happening, nothing will change with the camaros until they die out or announce a surprise 7th gen (which will be electric/hybrid)

Nice pipe dream. This wont happen.

I really want to believe this, but I just can't see why GM would do this. The Camaro is dead in a few years and the sales have been in last place compared to its competitors. Why would they invest the time in money into R&D into this kind of upgrade for just 1 or two model years for something they are killing off?

First of all, it can't get the "Blackwing" because that's the model of the car, not the engine. The Blackwing is powered by a version of the LT4 so it's possible that they could pass some of those upgrades on to ZL1, if the revised blower will fit.

Porting over some of the tech already developed and in use on the Blackwing seems realistic and at least plausible, especially if it's just suspension and braking systems. Most of the R&D is already a sunk cost. Aren't both cars on the same platform anyway?

I think there are more significant costs to engine revisions so I would be pretty surprised if the Blackwing's drivetrain made it into the ZL1.

Ct5v Blackwing is a slightly modded LT4. Different blower snout and tune basically. It would cost GM little to apply the changes to ZL1 if they wanted to do it.

Almost. Ct4 and Ct5 are on Alpha 2.0. Camaro is on original Alpha 1.0

Maybe the last year as an "exit" edition or something... bring over the blower snout or whatever and an improved intake and maybe the new mag ride 2.0 and perhaps offer the cf brake package for the 1le.

If so the 2022 ZL1 crowd is about to get 2004 GTO'd

A few people get this.

IF, big IF, GM wanted to do a little something, this is the easiest of all to do.

First, I was told years ago, the easiest swap is with the same engine block/family. With this there is very little packaging or changes to do.

Second, it's within an architecture so they will already know the body is essentially validated by judgment for the slight bump in HP.

This would be the easiest powertrain change GM could do and frankly it wouldn't surprise me at all.

Now some have said why not the LT5. Well that's a much bigger jump in HP and that would require some additional validation the Blackwing LT4 would not. Cooling for one, powertrain durability for another.

And with all that fanfare, if the additional 18 HP is even noticeable at that level, I'd be surprised. A numbers game mostly but GM does not hate the Camaro so showing a bit of low investment love might just happen.

That was a much bigger difference. 350 to 400 HP as I recall. 650 to 668 is nice, but 3%?? Also I think the Blackwing LT4 is only up 8 lb ft for torque??

A numbers game to send it out on top.

GTO 350 to 400 was a 15% jump and it was noticeable.

The only thing that would be more likely to hold this up is simply Cadillac needing the LT4 Blackwing to be higher than the ZL1 and not just having a "Camaro engine" under the hood.

Yea, I think from a technical standpoint it should be a modest lift like other items but I do wonder if it requires rounds of re-validation for transmission, cooling, etc. But I was more thinking does the change require a new round of emissions testing, etc. It's the regulatory costs that I'm worried about.