I guess my observation is that since Fred Gibb ordered so many ZL-1's, without any buyers on hand, had trouble selling them and many were sent back due to the inability to move them, that surely, If I walked in his dealership at just the right time, stated I wanted one of his 50 ZL-1's, only I wanted to add an RS front end, deluxe interior, power windows, heck, maybe even a convertible and JL8 along with some vigilante light monitoring system, throw in the rear tire traction control squirters as well, and I plunked down the full purchase price on his desk, I strongly feel there is a highly likely chance I would have gotten what I wanted. I mean, if Mr. Gibb was willing to take a chance on 50 Camaros that may not sell well, surely he would attempt to make a definate sale if all he had to do was check off a few extra option boxes on his order. After all Mr. Gibb was a business man and GM wanted to sell Camaros. If they were willing to take a chance and put an all aluminum race motor in a stripped down Camaro and "HOPE" someone will buy it, then it is highly likely they would have gone just a little bit further if someone dropped $8,000 in front of them.
They had paint deletes and special colors and striping requests that were probably more inconvenient to the factory than simply putting a ZL-1 motor in a nicely optioned convertible instead of a plain jane coupe. I wish I could test my theory, but I can't. However, I bet it is more likely than not it could have been done. Again, I could be wrong.