Earlier this year, I flew out to Charlotte, North Carolina for the 10/10enth Motor Club opening and surprised everyone, announcing that the bonkers Corvette ZR1 is coming to my collection and will be the next US Shmemobile. However, that’s only part of the story because a few months later, the secret I’d been keeping finally dropped.

The 1,250 horsepower ZR1X broke cover and I was able to confirm an allocation. I’ve got some exciting news to share today about my build slot. But before that, we need to get the spec built and submitted to production. Hi guys, I’m Shmei. Hello and welcome back to the channel where the Z1X is coming soon.

So, it’s time to build the spec and see what you think. The plan today is to set off from here at the museum, my garage, in the Shelby GT500. We are going to be taking it because firstly, it’s an American car fitting the theme of today. Secondly, that was the first Shimmy that I had ever bought in the United States, taken on tons of tours before eventually importing to the UK.

To bring that down, we’re going to need to move that out the way first. Focus RS moving and then we can get the start up of the V8 off the lock stops and we’ll get it down to the ground. Then the moment we’ve been waiting for. Swing in here and let’s get a cold startup of one of the best sounding cars out there.

So, put on the brake, press the button. It was back in early 2019 at the New York Auto Show that the Shelby GT500 was introduced, and I thought this would be the perfect car to be a US-based part of my collection. And 2 years later, that’s exactly what happened. I took delivery of my Grab a Lime carbon fiber trackpack example in Florida.

We immediately set off on a road trip across the country, driving on the sand at Daytona Beach, a dino run with Hennessy before some drag races on their runway with my friend the Stradman. We hit V-Max at 183 mph across the dry lake beds in Utah and even stopped to visit Shelby HQ in Las Vegas. It took part in Gumball 3000 from Toronto to Miami and then was shipped over to the UK before unloading it from the container, getting my UK plate on and even taking it on trips like over to the Nurburg Ring in Germany for some laps and earlier this year on an

adventure back to the 24 hours of Lemon. Before we go anywhere, we’ve got to do one very important thing. We’ve been installing 70 dash cams into all of the Shimmy mobiles. And given this hasn’t been driven all that much recently, we’ve got to get one fitted. Why am I installing the 70 T800 right here? Well, not only if we’re involved in an incident, do we have it on video, but it’ll also capture some of the crazy driving from other people that we’re inevitably going to see along the way.

The cameras are fully in, ready for the drive that’s ahead of us with the GT500. Now, I have a bit of a habit of taking cars out to America. About 6 years ago, I flew out my Ford GT. What an amazing experience that was. Since then, the AMG GT Black Series has also been over. The Zenvo TSRS went over for car week.

We also took the Ford GT back out again for another tour. And most recently, the Vantage GT8, one of the OGs of the Shimmobiles, went that way, too. But after having owned the GT500, my second permanent US Shmemobile was again a Mustang, the Mustang Dark Horse. I’ve done a lot with that car and very recently actually sold it after over 2 years of ownership.

We might be reunited with it again very soon though. But we’re moving now from one of the American sports car icons to another in the form of Corvette. The C7 generation Z06 was the first Corvette that I ever drove. It was 10 years ago and I joined the team to go from Paris to Lamar to attend for my first time as well the 24 hours of Lear. That year was incredible.

Against all odds, Corvette took the top step of the podium and the atmosphere was unbelievable. Then the ZR1 came along and I got to drive it out in Bahrain before we had the introduction of the all-new car during a big event held in Tustin, California. I had flown out to get to the blimp hangers for the unveiling. The new C8 arrived.

The convertible followed soon thereafter and I went out to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the launch of that as well before getting behind the wheel of the C8 Stingray for the first time out in Nevada shortly thereafter driving it on the road and also getting to experience what the performance was all about on track.

Since then, we’ve also had some collaborations, for example, with Amelia going out in her 1,00 horsepower record setting car. The -ray was presented at the Petersonen Museum. And I also drove with Eddie X in his Z06, getting a feel for what that was about before. Earlier this year, I went to 10/10enth Motor Club, announced the ZR1 was coming to my collection, and then in summer at Quail, the ZR1X was presented, and I could confirm that slot.

The first thing I have to say about today is it’s about as bad as it could get for driving this car. It is 3° C and we have a very powerful rearw wheelel drive car on Michigan Cup 2 tires. But we will take it and take it carefully. It’s not the first time this car saw snow actually when it was out in the United States on the first tour I did across the country.

Where’s Shmei USA back in 2021? We went through Huntsville, Alabama and it was snowing in February that year. Anyway, we’ve got a few hours ahead of us so let’s get a move on. I comment about the snow because this morning there was snow falling down. But interestingly, we are following a century little convoy of imported cars here.

It’s quite fun always driving a lefthand drive car here in the UK, a car that you couldn’t buy here. And that is of course currently the case with the ZR1X or the ZR1X. You can’t currently buy that model here specifically, which we’re going to talk more about later on. The good news is that we’ve got some sun poking through the clouds.

We might be in luck for what we’re actually doing today, which I haven’t fully explained. Although, first up, we’re pulling into some services, get a quick bite to eat, have a little break, and then tell you a little bit more. Don’t let the sun deceive you. It is freezing cold here. But before we go in, I do want to say thank you to the supporter of the channel, 70.

This car is, of course, equipped with the 4K T800. It’s the same model of dash camera that we had in the Vantage GT8 in the US. You remember when that deer went running across the front of the car? That was a close call. It’s the world’s first three channel dash cam with front and rear 4K recording, so you’re protected from every angle.

The T800 has three channel HDR recording, my color vivid plus solution, and 70 m night owl vision, which is especially helpful when driving in the dark. It’s winter now. It’s going to be dark for our drive home later on. And also for when a shady person is taking a look around your car and you might want to know what they’re getting up to.

Plus, you’re always connected, so you’re always protected with 4G connectivity and 24/7 parking surveillance. Luckily, nothing even remotely stupid could possibly have happened here in the car park, but we’re going to go in, grab some lunch before we get back on the road. Time to warm up. First really cold day of the year here.

Time also to get into noisy mode. My mode because this is this is silly. Corvette is also silly. Right on we go. Our destination today is right off this roundabout. We have come to visit Graange Corvette Birmingham. Now with the Corvette from the C8 generation arriving in the UK, the dealers have been opening and the guys here have not only a regular Stingray as you can see in the showroom, but they also have the Z06, Z06 and an E-Ray. Now this is very interesting.

I went to the launch of the -ray, but I have never driven one and they have invited me up to come and take a look today to have a look at the cars, talk a bit more about what they’re like here in the UK and to go for a drive. So, let’s part this up, go inside, meet up with Jack from the dealer here and go see what they have.

Hi, Tim. How’s it going? Lovely to meet you. Welcome to Graange Corvette Birmingham. Let’s have a look at some cool cars. Here we are. So, come on then. Talk to us about the models, the showroom, the life of Corvette in the UK. It’s fascinating, isn’t it? It is really fascinating. I mean, they’re very new to the UK, the right-hand drive model and stuff.

Um, we’re really excited to now be selling them. As you can see in the showroom here, you’ve got the Stingray, which is kind of the entry- level model to the family, as you say. You’ve got the Z06 over here, and then you’ve also got the new -ray over there. Ever since the C8 came out, I found it amazing the presence that the car has here.

And it’s a strange thing, strange concept if you’re from the US and you see lots of these, right? But here, this punches so far above its weight. Do you find that when customers are coming and talking? 100%. I mean, we’ve got customers coming from other brands that have spent an awful lot more and you tell them the figures on this and they’re blown away by it.

They’re like, “Wow, I can afford a brand new one.” Instead of having to look at something used and the excitement, the engagement of the drive that this gives to the person driving is incredible. So, I’ve been lucky to spend a bit of time around the Stingrays, coupe and convertible, driven Z06 of course as well, but I had never, other than when the launched and I went to the original introduction of it at the Peterson Museum, spent any time around this.

Okay. Around the E-Ray, which I think is super interesting because this was the first electrified version of the car. It is. Yep. You’ve done a bit of driving in it. Have indeed. I know it has, you know, certain elements like it has a fairly small battery, so it’s very performanceoriented. It’s got the kind of stealth drive away.

It does. Yes. It’s got stealth mode which effectively is a mode where you can drive on the road. Um it obviously doesn’t fire up the engine. And it’s also got something called a shuttle mode which limits it to about 15 mph. You can drive it around your estate, your driveway without having to start it up and fully get the car going.

Interesting. Don’t wake your neighbors up early in the morning. That’s it. Because they do sound quite good. You get carbon ceramics as well with the Yes, they are standard um on the E-Ray which is a massive thing cuz not many cars especially again in this price bracket come standard with such brakes. Are you finding that if you take the car out people are kind of what is that? Do they know what it is? Does the very much so. Yes.

Um a lot of people rearview mirror presence in it looks very similar to a lot of other cars cuz it’s very aggressive at the front. Um so you find a lot of people going what is that? Is it a Lamborghini? Is it Ferrari? and you tell them it’s a Corvette and they’re like, “What’s that?” And then you explain it to them and they’re like, “Wow, it’s come from America.” Blah blah blah blah blah.

So, in a moment, we’re going to get the ERA convertible out. Certainly are. Watch out for these carbon fiber wheels because we do not want to risk damaging the take it for a little run and see what it’s like. That’s it. It’s going to be time to take a listen. Going to have to get the uh the cold start, the proper start.

Not bad. So, this is the Stingrays V8, but once we pulled it outside, we’ll talk a little bit more about it. Nice. It’s a very good looking thing. That is really, really nice. Especially in that color. Is it riptide blue? Suits it well. Right, let me show you a little bit more around the car. This is it then.

The -ay, the electrified Stingray. The engine back here is a 6.2 L naturally aspirated V8. It made around 500 horsepower in the Stingray. In this, it makes 634 brake horsepower and 778 new m of torque thanks to the motor up front, which has a 1.9 kWh battery. So, you’re only going to get about 4 or 5 mi of electric range and can only drive up to 44 mph on it.

But that’s not really the point. It’s the additional power, the additional performance, and the support that it gives. Now, on this car with the full painted sections everywhere you look, it actually also has, by the way, on the -ay the wider body of the Z06. So, it has the wider flared out look to the bodywork as you go around it.

It also has the full carbon fiber wheels, which look superb, the Corvette logo on them, the five-spoke design. You can also opt for different wing positions setups. This being the regular style at the back. And unlike the Z06, but like the Stingray, it has those quad exhaust tail pipes, which as you’ve just heard, make quite a nice sound.

Obviously, right-hand drive. So, we have the button wall running up over towards the left side, the passenger side. And with the newer cars, the cars coming in in the next couple of months or next year at least, it will have the updated infotainment and systems. But regardless, this is looking very nice, especially with that tan color to the interior.

I think we should get some plates on this and go drive it. It’s always amazed me how there are so many displays that tell you a lot of what’s going on. Right. That’s it. Yes. And you can customize them. Play around with what you need to see. You’ll be able to put it where you want it. So driving modes, you twist this sport and then track. Okay.

Drop some gears. It’s getting a little bit more noise out of it. But then you also have settings the other way. Yep. So you’ll be something for bad weather. My mode, which is the customizable mode. Play around with the engine, the brake field, suspension feel, and the steering feel. Okay. What do we have? Weather. Yeah.

Obviously, that’s not all. No. So on the steering wheel, you’ve got a Z button. If you click that, you can then start playing around with the traction control settings, the speed of the gear changes. It’s almost like a push to pass button. Yeah. You click that and it’s have some fun. You found a nice road.

I like that kind of ability to be able to play. I think this will carry through the different cars. Yep. And then manual is obviously that’s with the UK cars. Can you spec the lift system? You can do this has got it. What? Where is it? Oh, it’s just there. That button there. Yes. So, but the great thing is it can remember up to 300 GPS points. Cool.

So, if you raise it on the dash, it will come up saying remember or dismiss. If you hit remember, when you next come to that location again, it will lift it up for you. So, if you’ve got that drive home with annoying speed bumps, but holes or your driveway, the car knows, it will look after you, which is such a simple thing, but it makes a huge difference.

But yeah, cuz it’s what you forget. When we come to the UK and we drive on these roads, and it’s cliche to beat on about it because everybody’s heard it before, but the roads here are bumpy, are rough, and it is such a test for a car how well it handles this kind of ground. Yeah. And this does a much better job than I was expecting.

It’s very delicate and gentle to drive. Yeah. You’ve got that rumble of the V8 behind. Yeah. Makes these occasional burles and pops. And luckily, considering European regulation, it didn’t have to sacrifice too much power to get through. And lots of extra baffles and things they have to put in the exhaust. I like how well it drives. though.

I’m getting quite excited right now, although I kind of wouldn’t mind having one here as well given how rare they are at this stage. We’ve actually got a bit of sunshine on us. It’s fantastic. Oh, this is a great place just to feel the steering. Yeah. Connect the car. Of course, it’s a electric steering setup, but it does a pretty nice job.

Considering the weight of the buses up front, always slightly excuse things. That sounds good. Yeah. Like really the whole car and you feel it. Yeah. It It feels like a bit old school but a bit emotion driven. Like it’s not just I don’t know. It’s not just sanitized. It’s a bit like, yeah, we’re still making a V8 mid engine.

Enjoy it. Have fun with it. When the car comes back into the showroom, then thoughts. Firstly, much better drive here in the UK than I expected from it. Secondly, the electric system is just working in the background. It just does its thing. Obviously, it’s four-wheel drive. We’re not pushing the performance envelope, so nothing crazy going on in that capacity.

Obviously looking at the different cars, this is the convertible where you have the buttresses of the folding hardtop on the back of it. Uh we saw it with the roof down earlier. We see it with the roof up now. Whereas I mean again convertible. The coupe has the rear window. There’s a split in the rear window for the ZR1 and the X.

And then the removable target panel, this central piece which lifts off and you can store it away in the storage behind. And I quite like that removable roof mechanism. This is also with the full carbon wing. the ZTK package. It’s all the Arrow, the performance package, all the upgrades basically, which I think are a bit of a must.

On this topic, to open up the rear hatch, first thing to talk about, luggage space. It’s not bad. Obviously, you can fit a set of golf clubs back here. You can also probably fit two trolley bags and some small luggage around it. I need to prepare for this for the road trips ahead, fitting one or two weeks worth of luggage in there. What you’ve got here is the 5.

5 L V8 in the Z06. The ZR1 and ZR1X have twin turbos on that. You’ve also got a really large glass window back there to give you an amazing view back through towards this hatch with this one large piece which happens to have soft clothes as well. When you drop it down, just press it into position that will tuck itself down nicely.

Now, in these cars, you also have a bit of storage in the front. And there’s a bit of a trick here which not everybody knows. There’s a button right underneath there. Press that, pops it up. You then get a little beep and it’s ready to open up the frunk. Got a small storage space area. You lose a tiny bit of this with the electric motor.

Only about a cubic foot they say. And obviously in the Z1 Z1X you have air flow through there instead for the extra downforce. So you don’t have any storage space in the front. But even this actually can close down and give it a small press. Soft close tucks it away. Now other options to touch on with the cars here.

So with the Stingray convertible, this has the GT2 seats. So there is a standard GT1 seat. This is the GT2, so a sportier seat, but not necessarily as hardcore as the seat in the Z06, which is the competition seat, which I think suits the more track focused nature of the car, right? Having the extra supports, side bolstering, and the design to it as well.

So, this is some great food for thought for me looking at the different options and I’m going to try sitting in them as well to see where we land. It’s time to get back on the road. Thank you to Jack and the team here at Graange Corvette. They have been incredibly helpful. That was a fun experience, but we have a journey ahead of us before it gets snowy again later on.

The thing I have to remember now is that it’s still only 3° C and therefore pretty cold and slippy. Although from one noisy American beast to another in the GT500. What a drive though. And in fact, what an interesting experience to drive two very different American cars today. Very different experiences, very different styles.

This just really shouty, angry, and aggressive. The flagship of the previous generation Mustang. and to experience the -ray and how everything just happens. I said it already, but it just happens in the background and the car gets on with stuff, which is kind of what you want for us. Now though, we’ve got a fair trek back down the M6, then the M1.

Oh, that was a nice little noise from this. So, we will enjoy the other side of what this car is good at. Just enjoying the drive. And we are back in the garage. Now, we haven’t had anything too crazy today. Nothing like when with the GT8 we were driving along and somebody just pulled out right in front of us on a 70 mph road without even using the joining lane.

But we have seen more than our fair share of people getting themselves in a right muddle in the wrong lane choices. When it comes to the T800, it’s recording in 4K. It’s always super crisp and clear, and even in low light and dark situations, you can read license plates clearly. In fact, I often go back to look at the footage later on.

And maybe one day I should make a bit of a compilation of everything we’ve seen because you can imagine spending a lot of time on the road, we’ve seen a lot of things. And if you want to get a 4K T800 or one of 70 Mi’s other dash cams, right now is the time. There’s a Black Friday sale with up to 40% off via Amazon or via 70 Mi’s official store.

All of the information is right down below with the link, so check it out. What are you waiting for? Thank you to 70 for sponsoring today’s video and for supporting the channel. For now, shall we go finally reveal the spec of the newmobile, the ZR1X? Let’s do it. Here goes nothing. It’s time to build this car together and to see what you think.

Now, I have already submitted the spec, so I hope you’re going to like it. They now have launched the 2026 ZR1X configurator. So, previously, I’d been using the 2025 configurator, which had obviously the earlier interior, so a few differences, and it was for the ZR1, not the ZR1X.

And there are a few changes in the options, which I’ll talk about as we go through. But the thing I want to say before we build this is remember specifications are immensely personal. What I love you might hate. And that’s okay because it’s good to be different. If we all liked exactly the same thing and every car was built identically, how boring would that be? Variety is the spice of life.

And I like a bit of a twist. So, let’s see where this is going to go. Now, previously, I’d shown you three different examples. The first was Hysteria Purple, a new color, and I’m a big fan of purple supercars, but in person, I wasn’t the biggest fan of it. Then, next, competition yellow. that link back to Corvette in motorsport, but potentially a little predictable.

Then we had Sebring Orange armed with some blue accents, the launch color of the C7 ZR1, but I’m not necessarily sure if it’s right for the C8. They’ve also for 2026 introduced Roswell Green. And if I hadn’t recently bought a bright green supercar, I might consider that a little bit more, but I don’t like things to be too similar.

So, should we do this? Shall we begin? And the first thing is the body style, convertible or coupe. We spoke about it earlier. I don’t see myself putting the roof down. We’re going to go straight in with the coupe. You can still take off the target panel if you want to as well. Next comes the model.

So, the 1LZ specification or the 3LZ, which gives you the bows, the sportier seats, a bunch of other upgrades. Again, I think a bit of a no-brainer. We’re going 3 LZ. Then we get to colors. We get to colors. And my word, colors are always a very big talking point. So, should we go straight in with this? Drum roll, please. We are going with competition yellow tint coat metallic.

I can’t get away from that story. Being with Corvette back in 2015 when they won at Lemore with a yellow car, having just driven my first Corvette, a yellow car, it’s just too much meant to be. But there is a twist that’s coming and maybe we should skip straight to that. So, I’m going to scroll right down because I do like a racing stripe on a car.

And there are quite a few options here. For example, you could do the full edge red dual racing stripe. Maybe a bit too much. What you could, however, change it to is to go with this carbon flash with red accents. That car in 2015 was yellow with red accents, the mirrors, and some other details. And I think it’s too perfect not to.

This suits the car so well. So the other options to go with that brake calipers of course we are going to go with the edge red painted brake calipers to match with the color of the stripes the exact same shade. We are also when that has loaded going to talk about tires because you can change from the Pilot Sport 4S to the cup 2RS on a car I’m going to take delivery of in the middle of winter. Yeah, Cup 2 RS.

We’re going to do it because track focused car. That also means you need to add the ZTK track performance package. Again, a no-brainer to me for this car with the Magnaride suspension and also the carbon fiber aero package with your big wing and your cannards. So, you can absolutely bet that is happening because I don’t think you should have this car without. We then also have the wheels.

And I know what you’re thinking. Yellow car, it’s got to have black wheels. I’m not a black wheel fan. I’m sorry to all of those of you out there who do like black wheels. It’s not for me. So, we’re going to do the bright machined forged aluminium wheels, the dual tone, which I think suits it well and will tie into some of the other options.

Lastly, you actually have the option for the electrochromic dimming roof panel, but to do that, you’d have to remove the stripes. So, two things here. Number one, I have a few cars with glass roofs. I don’t tend to enjoy them or appreciate them all that much. So, you’re adding some weight, you’re adding some cost, and you have to get rid of the stripes.

It’s not for me. So, we’re not going to be doing that one. I love how this thing looks already. But let’s get to the interior. Now, if you did full red, you’d end up with a very McDonald’s spec car. Yellow over red too much. Black on its own is a little bit boring. But the first thing I want to do is the seats.

So, we have the GT2 style seat. One step of upgrade with the package from earlier, but I want the competition sport bucket seats sitting in them earlier. They were really good. That’s absolutely what we’re going to do. So then in terms of choosing the colors to go with those wheels that I mentioned before, we are going to go with skycool gray.

Bringing just a little bit of gray into it and also bringing the carbon fiber with sueded microfiber steering wheel. So this does the lower parts of the dashboard, the A-pillars, just a bit of that silver look and the gray stitching to go against the full black of the interior. But there are still some more options to come. Seat belts, we’re going to leave them black cuz all of the other color options are a bit of a clash.

So, if we go to the other options for the car, we’ve got the performance package and the aero package. As I mentioned, there are lots of small things you can change. I considered doing the red Corvette script across the rear, but maybe a little bit too much for this. However, one thing absolutely we have to do is the carbon fiber split rear window trim.

The link to the original split window. One of the reasons for choosing the coupe with its rear deck presentation over the convertible to begin with. We’re going to do the carbon fiber mirrors, another must for me. We’re going to do the Corvette museum delivery collecting the car in Kentucky and also coming with a plaque inside it as well.

If we keep going through, you’ve got lots of luggage and storage options. You get the plaque as I mentioned, carbon fiber trim. We’re going to do the level two interior carbon fiber, which gives you the central console and a few other things that it didn’t show before. And there are a host of different options here, but going straight to the ones I’ve gone for.

The battery protection package. It’s a CEK, but I’m going to be leaving the car parked sometimes for months on end. So, we want to be able to leave it plugged in and charging. And lastly, the front lift with memory. You’d be a bit mad to have a car with a very expensive carbon fiber front splitter and not have the front lift. So, let’s click straight to the summary to share with you then in full screen.

This is the new ZR1X Shmemobile. This is what we’re doing. Competition yellow, the Edge red and carbon flash accents. The wheels contrasting on the exterior but matching to the gray of the interior. And we’ll go through a few different angles right here so you can see it in more detail. The ZR1X badging on the side, but otherwise visually identical to the regular ZR1.

Massive wing, silver exhaust pipes matching with those wheels as well. This thing looks like an absolute mad machine and I cannot wait. Also on this, we can put the top down so you can see what that looks like. taking off the roof panel, stowing it away in the boot, or leaving it at home. I wonder if you can get a stand to mount that some way, although probably more useful if you actually have a permanent home, unlike me.

And then the other thing to show you, the interior in a little bit more detail, because the options aren’t too complicated, but you can build this car, and that is exactly how we’re going to have it. So, you can see the carbon fiber over the cup holder storage area, the larger and triple display setup that has for the dashboard of the 2026.

This is what is coming very soon to the Shmeobbiles and I am super super excited about it. I cannot wait. In fact, we got to go back to that one. That’s the view. Lots of the gray to bring out a contrast with the black interior. I’m excited. So, tell me, what do you think? Competition yellow, right choice? Wrong choice? I’m sure everyone is going to have an opinion.

I’m looking forward to seeing the competition yellow here one day, but for now it’s going to be delivery in the not too distant future in the United States. So, what do you think of the choice? If you’ve enjoyed this video, make sure to check out the one right over there. But that’s it for this time, and I’ll see you again very soon. Cheers.