Memory is a funny thing. One of the first cars I remember ever seeing as a kid was my grandfather’s rusted old white Stingray, sitting up on blocks in his driveway. I don’t think he ever got around to fixing it, and I’m not sure I ever knew what year it actually was (hey, I was 4 or 5 at the time)…but it was striking. And memorable. Even underneath all the rust, which of course was made even more obvious by the fact his ‘ray was white.

Fast-forward to the modern era, and GM’s unveiling of their contributions to the new Transformers film storming our theatres this upcoming summer, and you get Sideswipe, the gleamingly silver Corvette concept that will be leading the charge. Or, at least, in your mind, it will be. It’s remarkable. And strange. Familiarly alien, maybe. Seeing it in person is not entirely unlike a UFO sighting, and I mean that in a good way. Also, the wing mirrors are incredibly impractical, but I love them anyway.

The Bumblebee Camaro is also on display (both in disguise and not), as is the Chevy Beat concept (which is actually rather nice in person—much nicer than previous photos I’d seen had led me to believe). The Beat will be playing the dual role of two Autobots named Skids and Mudflap in the upcoming film.

Incidentally, before you head to the gallery (and in the spirit of “everything old is new again”) here’s a video someone did pairing footage from the most recently-released Transformers movie with what is easily the best iteration of the Transformers theme. Because sometimes, sometimes, a thing cannot be improved upon at all.

[Photos: Joe Lucente]