As you may have seen from either Shmee or our content recently the famous Tim Burton aka Shmee spent the day at Fabspeed Motorsport during his USA tour. Our COO David Van Allen sat down with Shmee to have a quick chat to learn more about who is Shmee.
Dave:
Thank you, for coming out to Fabspeed
Shmee:
My absolute pleasure
Dave:
We really appreciate it you're on your big USA tour on the East Coast you go anywhere else besides down in Miami?
Shmee:
I'm heading all the way around the entire country that's the aim so I'll be across in California, loads of stops along the way and on the way back there's a lot a lot a lot
Dave:
Well I'm sure you put a lot into making this whole trip I'm interested in you and how you became such an influence for the exotic cars, supercars, hyper cars. There's a lot of people out there doing this
Shmee:
There are I think it's a fascinating world even for me still following it because of course for me it actually started out of the love of cars you know people to motive industry new cars exciting cars noisy fast cars, whatever it may be so I just started doing what I really liked you know I pictures I make videos I put them on the internet and I guess fortunately for me this whole world wind has grown to an audience that's now following all of these trips and visits and things I'm getting up to so I'm incredibly lucky to be in this position and it's amazing to be able to come to places and meet people like yourselves
Dave:
Well that's that's wonderful 1.7 million YouTube followers/subscribers on Youtube. Do you realize that you have more YouTube subscribers than Elton John does
Shmee:
Ohh do I? Hey that's quite a fun statistic
Dave:
He has 1.2 million you have 1.7 million half a million people like you better than Elton John
Shmee:
Has he only just started his Youtube channel?
Dave:
No he’s been writing music for 50 years
Shmee:
No I wonder if maybe the channel had just been open maybe a week ago which is why he doesnt have so many yet. But anyway, do you know what this is one of the things I find the craziest because it's 1.7 on YouTube it's also about what a 1.3 I think on Instagram and 2 and a little bit on Facebook and those numbers are just insane that's a big city in some cases it's a country of people and I find it amazing how many people are following this journey following the content so it's really cool
Dave:
Well it's fascinating first of all you have a great personality and I think that attracts people in and then you're smart understanding these cars. What makes “for you” a supercar or a hyper car or an exotic car
Shmee:
I think so you know it's visually the design the flow of the car what it looks like the engineering elements of the car the aerodynamics the way the car is created I'm fascinated by pushing the boundaries of Technology and engineering and how manufacturers are doing that then of course you have the emotional aspects the driving experience the noise and sound of the car pretty topical of course certainly at this current time and it's the excitement of them I these cars one of my favorite things is how they bring people together you can be you know myself I can be here in Philadelphia or it can be in a different state or I can be in a different country but you instantly have something in common with people who like cars and you can talk forever well you probably know this as well as I do it's the way supercars bring people together with the shared passion is what I particularly enjoy about them
Dave:
So Enzo Ferrari once famously said I've got the quote here aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines
Shmee;
He did say that
Dave:
That's kind of an interesting quote
Shmee:
It is indeed it is indeed
Dave:
In your world if you have to pick one what comes first the engine or the design
Shmee:
Oooo this is this is difficult
Dave:
You’re on the spot
Shmee:
I am on the spot I'm not gonna lie I am partial to a Ferrari naturally aspirated v12 I think they do that better than just about anybody
Dave:
Old-school old-school
Shmee:
The way you know 8 or 12 something just screams up through the revs the sound is to die for but then equally you know I've come to visit today in my Ford GT which is a car heavily aerodynamics based
Dave:
Right
Shmee:
You know it's about maximizing performance keeping it light weight without pushing too far on the power and engine size in fact it's got a three and a half liter v6 so it's a relatively small engine and that's a car that's very Aero based so I think I'm kind of split in the middle I quite like the extremes in this I like all focused on the engine the Ferrari kind of grand tour of way or will focus on the Aero like the Ford GT and the Senna and these kind of fascinating cars especially the next generation cars like the Mercedes AMG One, Aston Martin Valkyrie all of these kind of cars which are so much more focused on there aero dynamics I think it's fascinating that what the engineering can allow the car to achieve
Dave:
Right so we have a kind of new supercar entry coming in with a C8 where do you put that
Shmee:
So I was lucky enough to go to the launch of the new Corvette eighth generation and what's particularly fascinating is it looks like a supercar it's got a mid-engined it's it's got 500 horsepower you know you can't take that lightly that's 500 horsepower thats a big number and where I'm kind of slightly mixed is I often I've talked before about this kind of in my mind how you can define different categories of supercar or hyper car and a supercar has to have a number of aspects right it has to look the part it has to have the performance but it also has to have I'd say a level rarity around it and that's one of the interesting things with the Corvette because at $60,000 weather starting entry point everybody's gonna be lapping them up what you get for the money is just insane so where does it fit, is it a supercar this is where I'm a little bit I'm not quite sure
Dave:
Does it fit in the beginning and then maybe later on
Shmee:
Looks like a supercar I imagine it's gonna drive like a supercar the only thing that will not have is the rarity because it's so good for the money it's slightly like catch-22 isn't it
Dave:
Right it most certainly is
Shmee:
but I mean it's a no-brainer I have been very impressed by it when they launched it
know
Dave:
You know Tim you you you've been now a couple of days here in America you brought your car in you've been driving it I saw that you met some of New York's finest on video you just know that's gonna happen as you drive this car around you're gonna find that most of the time that you're getting pulled over if you get pulled over the officer is more interested in the car
Shmee:
yeah I’ve been told that might be the case let's see what happens
Dave:
And you'll have some fun on the way down but outside of cars as you're cruising through America’s East Coast and West Coast what other things are you finding interesting
Shmee:
So I mean part of why I got into doing, how I got into doing all of this is that I love traveling I love going to places just meeting people seeing places I'm not number one fan of walking around a museum for hours or that kind of thing I wanted to see things just to see go to the next to pack in as much as possible so this for me is kind of the dream road trip because I'm going to so many cities on this tour I mean New York, Philadelphia, Raleigh, Atlanta, Miami then across to LA, San Francisco, Vegas, Phoenix. I'm trying to think of everything, Austin, Houston,Chicago, Detroit this is kind of the plan as I'm going to see so many different areas of the USA I mean there are plenty more Id love to be able to stop in at as well but ultimately it's a massive country and I don't have forever but the best thing for me is to just see an experience all of these different places and take it all in and kind of enjoy it
Dave:
Right how long is the trip? When does the trip end?Shmee:
So the first kind of part is two months or so and then I think I'm going to do a return for an extra leg so yeah a little bit more afterwards
Dave:
We had a great time with you today you've seen our shop here at Fabspeed you spent some time doing some videos you've met our people so as much as this has been beneficial for you in your stop. We’ve really enjoyed the interaction with you with all of our folks and giving you a chance to see a little bit about Fabspeed
Shmee:
Well for sure it I appreciate it I've actually been very impressed by the setup that you have in the sense of doing everything here but also the cleanliness and air conditioned environment and the quality of everything has all been really impressive.
Dave:
Well I'll tell you something all of the folks that are here as you know are a craftsman and we make all of this stuff ourselves everybody out there takes part in putting together what we consider to be a little bit of a work of art for each one of the customers one by one and just to show our appreciation for you coming down here I got something I'd like to give you this is the Fabspeed Phoenix we have a little plate on here and you know it's just thanking you for coming over on the date but here's the significance of this every one of these tack welds is by one of the welders
Shmee:
Ohhh really!
Dave:
that's here today for the visit so not only do you take home a little something about Fabspeed but each one of our great craftspeople gave a little bit to this as well
Shmee:
That's cool thank you very much
Dave:
You're welcome Tim thank you very very much for stopping by we really appreciate it do me one favor. You open every video with look right over there
Shmee:
Hi guys I'm Shmee and then we go to end it as well okay Cheers