Cars of Transformers 2 Revenge of the Fallen

Everybody is of course well aware that Bumble Bee is a Chevrolet Camaro. There were however some other lesser known models.


At the opening scene in Shanghai, China, viewers with a sharp eye will notice that there were some Chevrolet Cruze police cars in black and white but the camera merely made a passing scene to it. But of course the Cruze was never part of any autobot, there were merely placed there as props for the shooting due to the product placement agreement between GM and Paramount Pictures.


Mudflap and Skidz were based on two of GM's trio of concept minicars. They were first unveiled in the 2007 New York International Auto Show as a design concept study to gauge American consumer's acceptance towards minicars. Skidz's character in vehicle mode is the Chevy Beat (green) while Mudflap's character is the Chevy Traxx. The other model of the trio (not used in the movie) is the black Chevy Groove. Of the three models, the Chevy Beat was selected to be transfered from a design concept into a real production model. The production Beat will be launched as the Chevy Spark in early 2010 in Europe. Introduction in China, India and the rest of Asia Pacific and Europe is also in the plan. There were no confirm plans for introduction in USA, the land of supersize everything, due to American's weird aversion towards small hatchbacks that the rest of the world uses. Surprisingly, the production Chevy Spark (below) retained most of the design elements in the Beat concept. The most obvious change is the adoption of a 5-door body instead of the concept form's 3-door. But even so, the rear door handles are blacked out and is hidden inside the rear window frame. 


Did you know that the first rolling prototype of the Chevy Spark was actually built in India? The three concept minicars however were designed in GM's Design Studio in Inchon , South Korea by Korea's GM-Daewoo Auto Technology subsidiary but with engineering inputs from GM's engineers in Europe. Pre-production models of the Chevy Spark are now in final stages of testing and real-world driving evaluation in India, China and Germany.

There was also an Audi R8 used in the movie, supposedly for a character named Sideways. Audi fans don't bother hoping to see any good chase scenes with the R8, as the car was prematurely cut into half and destroyed almost as soon as it appeared on screen. I wonder why did Michael Bay even bothered with the character. Of course, Audi never had any sponsorship role in the movie. I also noticed in the movie that the Audi badge looks like it has been blacked out, in matt colour instead of the original chrome. Not sure if this was intentional or was it due to the lighting.


Sideswipe is based on a Chevrolet Stingray Concept. This is not an actual production car and GM has confirmed that there will not be any plan to bring this car into production. The Corvette Stingray Concept was built solely to celebrate GM's 100th year anniversary. 


The Corvette Stingray Concept however, was inspired by a real classic Corvette of a similar name - the 1963 Corvette Stingray "Split Window" coupe. The Corvette Stingray is the second generation iteration of the famous Corvette nameplate. As you can see from the image below, the Corvette Stingray Concept is a 21st century interpretation of the original 1963 classic.


There was also a Chevy Volt in the movie, supposedly for an autobot name Jolt. But again there was hardly any character building nor did it had any significant screen time. The Chevy Volt is one of GM's most anticipated new model - it is a petrol-electric "range-extender" hybrid vehicle. Unlike conventional hybrids like the Prius, the Volt is primarily an electric vehicle but is equipped with a tiny petrol engine that kicks in when the battery charge is low, to maintain the battery at a certain level of sustained charge (unlike the Prius the petrol engine will not fully charge the battery). It is however expected to be a lot more economical than the conventional hybrids like Prius. The Volt is expected to be available for lease by late 2010 and public sales will begin by 2011.

Other characters carried over from the first Transformers movie.

Ratchet - Hummer H2, converted into a rescue vehicle.


Ironhide - GM Topkick truck, converted to off-road use specs with off-road tires.


Optimus Prime - Peterbilt 379 rig truck.

There is however one little point that has been bugging me ever since I watched the movie. What model of car is the ice cream van that Skidz and Mudflap was before their "upgrade?" I can't think of any model from the front fascia since obviously this is the only part of the car that is recognisable. The rest of the car has been converted into an ice cream van.