[VIDEO] Watch the Reveal of the 2026 Corvette ZR1X from the Corvette Assembly Plant

Last week I received a surprise invitation to visit the Corvette Assembly Plant for a “Employee Celebration” event. “This sounds interesting,” I said as I booked my flight to Nashville and a car that would take me to Bowling Green. One of my personal rules is that anytime you can get inside the Corvette Assembly Plant, you say YES and get your butt up there ASAP! Three days after making those travel plans, we got the news that Chevrolet would be revealing a new model teased with the letter X on the very same day. So, it turns out that “ruse” by the Assembly Plant was indeed an opportunity to witness the reveal of the 2026 Corvette ZR1X to the workers who will have the honor of building it.

The reveal was set for Tuesday morning at 10 AM ET and I was part of a group of guests and family members of plant employees that were escorted through the plant to an area where they do presentations and have their employee meetings. We saw guests from the National Corvette Museum including President Bryce Burklow, NCM Insurance Agency’s Adam Boca, and our friend Mike Furman was there as well. All of us were pretty excited as in front of the stage under a black cover was the ZR1X, just waiting for the cover to be pulled.

Corvette Plant Director Ray Theriault welcomed us and we heard some opening comments as well from the UAW representation before the mic was handed over to Vehicle Corvette Chief Engineer Josh Holder to do the reveal. Josh shared some great info about the car and its performance capabilities. During his remarks, he said there were questions (not from car people but from others) who ask “Why build a car like this?” Josh says the answer came from the C4 ZR1 press release which said, “Because we can.” “That’s pretty bold,” said Josh who then said he wanted to augment that statement to “because no one else can do what we do,” saying the ZR1X is a true hypercar that competes with others that cost 10x more.

During the presentation, the ZR1X was started up and given a few gentle revs much to the delight of those in attendance. Afterwards, there were two ZR1Xs to check out in both Sebring Orange and the new Roswell Green. The plant had also set up several displays including one of each of the four Corvettes currently being produced (Stingray, E-Ray, Z06 and ZR1). The 2026 Z06 on display was wearing Blade Silver which returns for 2026. One of the really cool displays was from the paint shop which showed a body with all 10 colors represented on it with various panels while the hood showed the various stages from primer to clear coat on the new Roswell Green.

Tuesday was one of the very rare days where cameras were permitted inside the plant, so we appreciate the opportunity to able to share this with Corvette enthusiasts. It’s always an honor to be invited to these events and especially one at the Corvette Assembly Plant where our dream cars are built. We learned that there are few opportunities coming up for Plant Tours during the year including the week of the NCM 31st Annual Celebration at the end of August. We’ll have more on that as well.

In the meantime, enjoy this presentation to the workers and guests at Bowling Green Assembly and make sure you check out the bonus photo gallery below:

Source:
Photos and Video by Keith Cornett

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