What I'd Do Differently - Transformers 4 Age of Extinction Director Michael Bay Talks Wrecking Cars

MB: In the new movie, they’ve been in hiding and had to change body styles. We thought it was cool retro, but then Bumblebee goes back to being the new version of the Camaro.
1996 Ferrari 550 Maranello
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C/D: You’ve worked a lot with GM. Do they swing open the doors to their studios and let you pick and choose what you want?

MB: I walked into a special secret facility they have where they develop prototypes, and they said, “Let us show you what we’ve got.” I saw the new Camaro, and I think they were on the fence about making it, and I said, “That’s the car.” So they made a prototype for us. We took that car to Jordan, to just a little, poor town, and these kids were gathered around it and they were all saying, “Bumblebee!” Bob Lutz said that this was the best car-movie tie-in in history. I don’t know if that’s true, but they certainly treat me like that. When I go to GM, Ed Welburn, their global design vice president, literally takes me through all their design rooms and says, “What do you like?”

C/D: Did you wreck anything big-time on this new Transformers movie?

MB: Yeah, we had some crashes. But this movie feels very different from the other ones—in a lot of ways. We had everything from souped-up government Cadillac Escalades to a Bugatti Veyron and the [Local Motors] Rally Fighter.

C/D: Is there anything you wanted but couldn’t get?

MB: There always is. Now that we’ve done four [Transformers movies], car companies have found out about it, and a car will be at an auto show in Europe and then they literally fly it to my office. That’s what they did with the Bugatti and that’s what they did with the Pagani.