It seems that the General Motors is trying to up it's brand by 'sponsoring' some of the Autobot's.

First we had the news that Bumblebee has become a Chevy Camero concept, he was a Beetle for feck sakes! hence the name!

Then there was Brawl, he is now a Ford Mustang! and to add insult to injury, poor Ratchet will be a Hummer!

Now I'm not sure about those three , but the last is the best, Jazz will not be the Martini Porsche 935 race car, instead he will be a Pontiac Solstice, the car is not even worthy to be said in the same sentence as the Porsche!

I don't get it, and all though really looking forward to the movie, may not bother to go and watch it purely because of this product placement fiasco!

Leave them alone, GM, please get bought before the movie is finalised, so we can have the real cars back again! Either that or VW/Porsche stump some money up for the product placements!

Have a look over on AIKN for what the fanboys reckon.

Here's some before and after's

BumbleBee

  Going to

Brawl

Going to

Ratchet

 Going to

Jazz

Going to

There has been a few scraggy images of the R8 on the net, but the one that German Car Blog has got hold off is the best one I have so far seen.

The R8 is starting to interest me more and more, it should have the gorgeous V8 4.2ltr lump from the RS4, perhaps in a tweaked state.

Just when you thought it was safe to come out of the closet, and ping the tail on the fastest supercar, Bugatti come along and ruin your thinking.

What do I hear you say? the 987Bhp (1001PS) 250MPH Bugatti Veyron is just too slow! well then please say hello to the Veyron GT! The 'standard' car can do 0-100-0Mph in 9.9sec (faster than a GSXR1000) so what will this monster do?

The GT has 1232Bhp (1250PS) and taps out at 272Mph (438 KPH). A Targa version of the car has also been announced, the T Tops will however need to be left at home as there is no space on-board for them. Bugatti will have a clever slide out fabric however that will keep the car dry if you are caught out. The system is being developed by Webasto who are the company behind the VW Eos folding roof.

If you missed or would like to see the Prodrive P2 that TopGear had on the show last weekend, thn pop over to PaulTan as he has the video of that section on his site.

Well worth a look if you have not seen it, as it has a very clever drive system. 

Autoexpress have found information about the new Skoda Octavia vRS PD170. I think my order may be changing over in this direction. My Fabia vRS is brilliant, torque is theway to go.

Let's hope Skoda announce the DSG gearbox for the car as well, and 4 whee drive……Yup so my order will be vRS PD170 DSG Estate in Race Blue.

The new season of Top Gear aired over the weekend, boy was it good (Download it here if you have an EasyNews account).

They had the new Micra CC (in shocking pink), the Koenigsegg CCX (and the Stig crashing it!) a new reasonably priced car (a Chevy Lacette, or to you and be a Daewoo ;)) with a bunch of 'stars' taking it round the track (looks like it's about a second quicker than the old Suzuki Liana).

This weeks set piece was 'Make a people carrier convertible', which they did using an old Renault Espace, very amusing. I recommend a download if you have not seen it.

Sometimes I'm not sure about our friends over the pond. Forbes have published 'The sexiest cars of 2006". For a start we are not even half way through said year,  and they have certainly not picked the cream of the crop anyhow!

Yes I know the yanks love there 'pickups' but for gord sake the Sexiest Car For "Country Living" is a  Dodge Ram Power Wagon! What? That monstrosity could not be considered sexy under any conditions, the thing certainly hit every branch of the ugly tree on the way down. What's wrong with the Range Rover Sport or the M5. If you do need a 'pickup' then the Toyota Hilux is a much nicer looking creation.

Sexiest Car For College Students is the Saturn Sky, So I cannot really comment on this one as we don't have the Sky in Europe, in fact we don't have the brand, the closest thing we have to the Saturn is the VX220. However Forbes should have chosen the new MX5 anyhow! it's cheaper to buy and run, more reliable and better looking.

Sexiest Car For Desperate Housewives is the Subaru WRX STi Limited. Well yes this is a good car, another car that fell out the ugly tree, but a good car never the less, the European version is a 2.5ltr turbo charged Boxter, not sure if the American's get that one yet. However I would have gone for the Mitsubishi Evo FQ400 here, it's just nicer looking.

Sexiest Car For Hip-Hop Moguls is the Rolls-Royce Phantom, well I would not call the Phantom sexy, but it sure has presence. I could think of a few other's. But they would be too sexy for your average rapper. So yeah this is a good choice, the only other option is the Bentley Arnage.

Sexiest Car For Hollywood Agents is the Lexus RX 400h, what do I know about Hollywood? this car was probably chosen due to it being a 'hybrid'. The people who drive them missed the point though, the electric engine is in there to give the car V8 levels of performance, whilst using a V6 engine.

Sexiest Car For Miami Beach Plastic Surgeons is the Lamborghini Murciélago Roadster, Can't argue here, sexy gorgeous car with attitude. Possible others would be the Zonda or the GTX.

Sexiest Car For Mobsters is the Cadillac Escalade, well lets be honest, mobster and gangsters do not usually have a brain, so a slow, overweight, thirsty, rolly polly piece of rubbish is just perfect for them.

Sexiest Car For Newly Divorced Dads is the Chevrolet Corvette Convertible, well OK, at least this one does look nice! however it's not in the slightest way about to challenge any of the European cars for driving. I would recommend that if you want a bit of fun as well as wind in your hair joys, then get the new Jaguar XK Convertible.

Sexiest Car For Newly Divorced Moms is the Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG, well OK then, good car. A bit expensive for my taste but never the less.

Sexiest Car For People Living In Their Cars is the Honda Element. Another car we don't have in the UK so cannot really comment. I would possibly go for a Volvo XC90, or if you don't want to spend that much then the Smart Four-Four has a very clever interior.

Sexiest Car For Washington Lobbyists is a Cadillac CTS, now again I would not know what a Washington Lobbyist is let alone what they drive. The CTS has not gone down all that well in Europe, something to do with the styling I think. Yes the CTS is meant to b a decent car, let down by it's 'tacky' interior. I would probably go for the Maserati Quattroporte. It's sexy, quick, handles well and it's Italian.

So then, it looks like the US market certainly has a different taste to the European market when it comes to cars. I tend to think that the US market is all about Cubic Inches and us Europeans really don't care about that. We know size does not matter, it's been proven that the old adage "There's no replacement for displacement" is just not true any more. We have 2ltr engines that out perform 5ltr V8's, and diesel lump's with more torque.

Let me know what you think, have I left anything out?

Some pics courtesy of AutoBlog of the new BMW M3, it certainly looks less like a bag of sh** than the 'normal' 3 series. But I'd still have the Audi.

Now in the UK the build quality of the TVR (TreVoR) has always been a bit of a joke. However it has got better (sort of) in the last few years. Both the Sagaris and the T350 are certainly better cars all round than some of their earlier creations.

However the news from Blackpool is not good. It seems that the temporary layoffs that happened last week are going to become permanent. It also seems that just before the companies 60th anniversary (formed in 1947) they will become no more. We need someone who has some money to throw into the company to come along and buy off the current Russian 'baby' owner.

We cannot let a true British bulldog like the TVR to go the way of the MG-Rover, it just would not be right.

You have? well what are you doing here? pop across to the bugatti-configurator and build yourself a Veyron.

If you happen to fancy buying me one, then Bright Silver Metalic and Lemon for me please