Real-Life Transformer Fulfills All Our Childhood Fantasies

This video of a real-life Transformer snapped rolling on Hollywood Boulevard has been making the rounds on YouTube for a few months. No, it's not a lame viral marketing attempt by Citroen or a trailer for a new shaky cam Michael Bay / Jerry Bruckheimer movie.

It's a guy in a transforming Transformers costume. How cool is that? Remember when you were a kid and you had that cardboard box that you used to hold around your waist, pretending to be a fire truck? This is like that, but a million times cooler.

The video says its Optimus Prime but come on; everyone knows Optimus is a big rig. Binaltech has a Mustang Transformer called Wheeljack, but that's pretty obscure even from a fanboy perspective. It could be Barricade from the 2007 movie but if so, where's the police get up?

The pièce de résistance of course is the vinyl roof. Well, it's either that or a convertible roof, but the former is much funnier.

By Tristan Hankins

Aston Martin's New Le Mans 24 Hour Race Contender

Meet Aston Martin's new LMP1 racer with which the British firm plans to compete in the 2011 edition of the famed Le Mans 24 Hour race. Pictured here in a teaser sketch dressed in Gulf Oil livery, the new race car is being designed from the ground up with an Aston Martin open cockpit monocoque chassis and a new purpose-built race gasoline engine.

The automaker said work on the new chassis and powerplant has been progressing for several months at Aston Martin Racing's headquarters in Banbury, UK and the first of a limited number of six cars will hit the tarmac in early 2011.

Aston Martin Chairman, David Richards said:

"Having won the GT category twice at Le Mans in 2007 and 2008 and the Le Mans Series outright in 2009, we still want to achieve our ultimate goal of winning the 24 Hour race overall to bring the title back to Britain."

"In recent years, it has been impossible for petrol cars to compete on equal terms with the diesels. However, we now have assurances from the ACO [Automobile Club De L'Oues] that, with the adoption of the 2011 regulations, they will properly balance the performance of these new cars. Under these circumstances we have been prepared to develop Aston Martin's first purpose-built racing chassis and engine for more than 50 years."

"Even with this new car, it will still be a 'David and Goliath' fight against the massive resources of our competitors, but we have become accustomed to this and relish the challenge."

The first and only time Aston Martin won the Le Mans was in 1959 with the DBR1 of Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby. However, the British firm has had two GT1 class victories at Le Mans in 2007 and 2008, and an overall Le Mans series win in 2009.

Mystery Audi Sports Coupe / Spyder (R4?) Filmed at Ski Resort in the Alps

Audi gone viral or someone at the right place, with... almost the right equipment at the right time? Well, we can't answer that, but we do know that a Youtube user filmed a series of videos showing a mysterious Audi sports coupe (or Spyder) in covers being transferred via helicopter to the Olympia Ski Resort in the Tyrolean Alps, close to Innsbruck, in Austria - or at least that's what we understood, so any corrections welcome. The person who filmed the car said Audi was making some sort of a promotional video.

The mysterious Audi sport coupe's shape looks very similar to the e-Tron Concept model shown at the Detroit motor show earlier this year, but that's all we could make about the vehicle from the videos we've added below.

While the possibilities are almost endless, recent reports from Germany suggest that along with the A7 Sportback and S1 hot hatch, Audi will lift the covers off a more production ready version of the e-Tron Concept called the R4 - possibly in Spyder form- at this month's Paris Motor Show.

Could this be that car or is it something different such as a concept version for a new TT? Watch the videos below and share your thoughts in the comments section.

Hat tip to Marcus!