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The cars and trucks of 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts'

The latest spectacle in the Transformers franchise is about to hit the theaters. The final trailer was released, giving us peeks at what appears to be a pretty boilerplate story about the end of the world. There's some kind of ancient interplanetary war brewing and it's up to some teenagers to sort it out with the help of their robot buddies. But this is Autoblog, so we're not even going to try to suss out a plot so thin it won't hold a spittle globule's worth of water. We'll just go over the cars. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts | Official Final Trailer (2023 Movie) Porsche 911 Carrera RS 3.8: Mirage So far the star of the film, car-wise, looks to be a blue-on-silver 964 Porsche named Mirage that is voiced by Pete Davidson. It's been the most promoted of the movie cars, even more so than formerly central characters like Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. Except, this isn't just any ordinary 911; it's a Carrera RS 3.8, a European-exclusive model of which Porsche only built 55 units. As the name implies, it came with a bored-out M64 turbo flat-six as opposed to the 964 Turbo's 3.6. It wore the Turbo's wide-body badonk with a bi-level rear wing, but Porsche reportedly stripped out 570 pounds' worth of weight despite embiggening key performance parts like brakes and wheels. Fortunately, no actual RS 3.8s were used in the movie. Producers instead built five cars for different purposes — shooting closeups of actors, jumps, the obligatory driving backwards real fast — out of lesser 911s. However, the sound department did record the engine note of an actual RS 3.8 for accuracy, as the higher crank speeds of the 3.8 have a distinctive sound.  In the original 1984 Transformers lineup Mirage was a Ligier JS11 Formula 1 car, complete with faux Gitanes cigarette branding (on a children's toy!). An F1 racer would raise an eyebrow on the streets, so it made sense to update to a street-legal sports car. If you're wondering why this Porsche isn't the character Jazz, whose original vehicle mode was an ultra-cool Martini-liveried Porsche 935, well, he was remade into a Pontiac Solstice voiced by Darius McCrary during the GM product placement rewrite in 2007's Transformers reboot, then unceremoniously killed. 1977 Chevrolet Camaro: Bumblebee Formerly the franchise star, Bumblebee gets far less screen time in the trailers. He's still a Camaro, but because Transformers: Rise of the Beasts takes place in 1994 he's not a fith-gen.

2016 Nissan Altima gets SR model, 39 mpg, 3 press releases [w/video]

UPDATE: After taking exception with Seyth's reaction to press-release overdose, a Nissan spokesperson commented,"It gets 39 mpg. That's ******* epic." The Mazda 6, rated 40 mpg highway, is the only car among the Altima's peers to do equal or better. (See a full list of gas-powered non-hybrid cars that do 39 mpg highway or better here.) It seems that Nissan just can't stop selling its hot Altima midsizer. At least, that's what the bullet points of the press release for the new, 2016 version of the car tell me. The model has seen five consecutive years of sales growth, occasionally hitting the 30,000-per-month figures that heavies like Camry, Accord, and Fusion regularly nab. And, as we all know, a key to keeping midsize sedans fresh is the mid-cycle refresh. Here we have it. Nissan has reshaped the front and rear of the Altima to better match the look of its handsome new Maxima. That means a deep-v wrought in chrome on the front fascia, new (optional) LED headlights that look like reverse check marks, and a lower bumper that mirrors the shape above it. There are new taillights, bumper, and trunk lid for the rear of the car, too. You'll likely have to stare at the pictures pictures of the posteriors on the old and new cars for a few minutes (as we did) to pick them out, but they're there. The press release says so. Changes to the interior are subtle. We spotted a new center stack, and new cup holders next to the gearlever. Your weird friend Brian who hosts the Altima Altimatics fan forum could probably lend more detail here, but the non-enthusiast eye sees a mild rethinking of a nice interior. The excellent Zero Gravity front seats are still standard on all trims, which is probably half the reason Nissan is selling so many of these things. (How did that not make the bullet points, guys?) Change is more evident in the new-for-'16 Altima SR trim. The lighting profile is different for the model's most athletic variant, with smoked lenses, daytime running lights and revised fog lamps. More importantly, the SR gets its own suspension setup, revised dampers, stiffer front and rear stabilizers, and a more aggressive wheel/tire package. Nissan also offers drivers the ability to paddle-shift the SR's CVT transmission. The SR grade can be had with either Altima engine option. As for the motivating forces behind Altima's new nose, well, they're mostly the same.

Is your new-car warranty good at the race track?

We've all heard the horror stories. Your buddy knows a girl that was dating a guy whose best friend's brother once broke his brand-new, recently purchased performance car while making runs at a drag strip or laps at a track day, and the manufacturer wouldn't cover the repair under warranty. True story? Urban legend? Complete crap? Yes, no, maybe. One thing's for sure: Automotive warranties have always come with caveats. In 1908, an ad in the Trenton Evening Times clearly stated: "All Ford Cars Guaranteed for One Year." Although it changed over time, by 1925 the Ford New Car Guarantee only covered 90 days on material and 30 days on labor, and it clearly stated that that there was "No guarantee whatever on Fan Belts, Glass, Bulbs, Wiring, Transmission, Bands, Hose Connections, Commutator Shells, Rollers, Spark Plugs or Gaskets." Whether or not Ol' Henry would pay to fix your Model T if you broke it shaving a tenth off your lap time at the local board track seems to be lost to history. We're guessing no. But what about today? Do new-car warranties in 2017 cover cars when they are driven on race tracks? We researched the warranties of 14 auto brands to find out, and the answer is yes, no, maybe, depending on the brand, in some cases the model, and whether or not your car is modified from stock. Acura has been out of the high-performance car game for a number of years, but jumps back into the party in 2017 with its hybrid-powered $173,000 NSX supercar. And Acura's warranty, as well as Honda's, clearly states that it does not cover "the use of the vehicle in competition or racing events." View 33 Photos So we asked Sage Marie, Senior Manager of Public Relations for Honda and Acura. "If the car is stock, the warranty covers it on a track just as it does on the street. No question," he told us. "However, if the car is modified, say with slick tires or other components that would put higher stresses on the vehicle's parts and systems, then we would have to investigate the circumstances further." Marie went on to say the same would be true for any Acura model or Honda vehicle, including the new 2017 Honda Civic Si. This became a common theme. Chevrolet actually started this practice with the fifth-generation Camaro on the high-performance ZL1 and Z/28 models.