The Transformers franchise has been mixing cars and robots in an epic way since 1984. In 2007 came the first live-action movie and since the number has risen to six. Now, a seventh Transformers movie is in the making, and it seems to be going back to its roots. The seventh installment, dubbed Transformers Rise Of The Beasts, seems to be heavily influenced by the early series, Transformers Beast Wars. Stephen Caple Jr. is at the director’s helm, but more importantly, we see an epic mashup of vehicles, not least of which is an air-cooled Porsche 911 Turbo.
New Vehicles In Transformers 7: Rise Of The Beasts
The new movie gives a chance for new transformers to be made up and new, iconic vehicles to be used, and the addition of an air-cooled Porsche 964 is certainly a welcome one. The classic Porsche scores what resembles an Arctic Silver finish (Porschefiles will confirm or correct me) with classic blue exterior accents and a whale-tale rear spoiler. From the trailer, we can also gather that the Porsche is one of the good guys as it features an Autobot logo on the steering wheel centerpiece. It also has the ability to make holographic projections of itself to distract the enemy, which in this case was a period-correct Chevrolet Caprice police car.
The 964 generation of the Porsche 911 was produced between 1989 and 1994. We can assume the movie will feature the most powerful version of the car and give the robots’ ability to transform into any vehicle they want, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t assume it is the 964 Turbo S 3.6. This means 385 horsepower (283 kilowatts) at 5,750 RPM and 383 pound-feet (520 Nm) at 4,200 RPM from the M64.50, 3.6-liter, turbocharged, flat-six. The 964 Turbo never had the option of an automatic transmission, and we clearly see this one has a manual. Whether it’s the original, five-speed manual or a newer unit depends on whether this is an original 964 Turbo or a resto-mod.
In the later Transformers movies, we have started seeing an influx of female transformers, mainly on the Autobot side. Transformers Rise Of The Beasts is no exception as, among the new characters, we see a mysterious, female Autobot with an interesting red and white color theme. An Instagram post by the director, Steven Cable Jr. confirms that this is a Ducati bike and the “Ducati” logo on her right leg confirms it. There’s also a classic, brown, and white Volkswagen Bus, which also appears to be on the Autobot side.
A Heavy Hitter And A JDM Legend Make An Appearance
A YouTube channel called transfqc, shared footage from behind the scenes where the trio of Desepcitons can be seen among some of the Autobots, including the Porsche 964 Turbo. The mysterious new enemies in the 2023 Transformers movie have a few tricks up their sleeves too. What appears to be one of the main villains transforms into a GMC tow truck with a blower sticking out of the hood, which also doubles as a rocket launcher. There's also an apocalyptic semi-truck, which looks like it came from Mad Max, and will, likely, be a part of a climactic battle with Optimus Prime, towards the end of the movie.
Here’s the kicker. There’s a modified, Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R, which will surely spark some interest among Japanese car enthusiasts. The R33 is, generally, regarded as one of the least desired GT-R generations, but we have seen in the past how rather undesirable cars have achieved iconic status because of their movie stardom (ahem, Mk IV Supra in the original Fast and Furious). The modified Godzilla has a sinister look, including a tall rear wing, and a wide-body kit with side-mirrors mounted on the front fenders. While not confirmed, it looks like it will be a part of the bad guys’ auto park.
Familiar Vehicles
Aside from that, we see familiar characters like Optimus Prime and Bumblebee donning classic outfits. In the case of the Autobot leader, he’s back to a 1987 Freightliner cab truck as opposed to the Freightliner FL86 cab over a semi-truck we first saw in 2007. As for his yellow Lieutenant, he has always been partial to the Chevy Camaro, and in the upcoming movie, he is back to being a 1977 Camaro, although we also see an off-road version of it later in the movie.
Period-Correct Car Pool
The film is set in 1994, which means the timeline is after Bumblebee and before the 2007 movie. The vehicles are period-correct, down to the Chevy police interceptor, which unceremoniously crashes after a failed attempt to capture what appears to be the highlight of the trailer – the Porsche 964 Turbo. The 1990s was also when import tuning started gathering momentum albeit in very early stages, and the R33 generation was a brand-new car at the time.
It is worth noting that the R33 GT-R came out in 1995, so if the story takes place in 1994, what we see may be a lesser version like an R33 GTS-t for example. The Skyline GT-R is known as Japan’s answer to the Porsche 911, so we may see an epic showdown between the two. Of course, we have to mention what sets apart this Transformers movie from the rest and that’s the beasts. Their leader is what seems to be the robotic equivalent of King Kong, and we get a glimpse of a few other characters, among which are a leopard and a fire-breathing…bird? June 2023 is when the movie comes out, which is when we will get a better look at all the new (and old) characters.