Video: YouTube uploader catches Michael Bay sampling himself for Transformers 3

The attached video explains it all, so we’ll keep this simple. It seems Michael Bay directly cribbed scenes from his 2005 movie, The Island, for 2011′s Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which is gobbling up people’s disposable income this weekend.

Extreme credit goes to the YouTube user who recognized Bay’s clever use of CGI and called him out on it. This also proves that at least one human being actually saw The Island. Hit the jump to watch the side-by-side video comparison.

Video: China opens 26-mile-long road bridge over water, claims world record

China has just opened up a new roadway that stretches for a distance of 26.4 miles. Not impressed? That’s 26.4 miles over water. It’s called the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge, and stretches for a span longer than a marathon. The bridge took four years to build, opened on June 30 and was then recognized by Guinness as the longest roadway bridge over water.

You would think that a 26-mile bridge would be used to shave serious commuting time off an otherwise long journey. Strangely, the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge only saves commuters 19 miles and 20 minutes of travel time.

Click past the jump for videos of China’s new king of bridges.

Bowler has big plans with former Land Rover chief engineer

Bowler is not a well-known automaker, and with good reason. Its vehicles, based on Land Rover mechanicals, aren’t street legal. They’re rally-raid off-road racing machines; Defenders with an attitude. But Bowler has big plans, ushered in by new ownership and management.

The company was recently bought up by CPP – the same Coventry-based coachbuilder that now owns Spyker as well. Bowler’s new managing director Steve Haywood comes to the company from his previous position as chief engineer at Land Rover, so he knows a thing or two about producing capable off-roaders.

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Audi eyeing small car market in India

AudiThe Indian automobile market is predominantly compact car market with most of the sales coming from the small car models. In this light, German luxury car maker Audi is evaluating various options to enter the domestic small car segment, including rolling out its recently-launched compact hatchback A1, according to reports.

It was reported that Audi’s competitors such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz have already announced plans to launch small cars in India. The reports quoted Anil Reddi, Head (Sales), Audi India as saying “There is definitely a huge market in India for such cars (compact). We are evaluating various options (to tap this segment). The important questions are what car, at what price and the target segment. Our customers in India are very demanding and want the latest.” But he, however, declined to put any time line for the proposed roll-out.

Audi has recently launched A7 Sportback, a luxury sedan with a price tag of over Rs 65 lakh. The reports mentioned that Reddy stated that the company would be launching a brand new version of its existing A6 model in India in the fourth quarter of 2011. “The current A6 model is priced at about Rs 38 lakh. It is too early to put a price tag to the new A6 model that we will be launching. It will be on the same A6 platform,” he said. It was also reported that when asked about the likely roll out of its premium sports utility vehicle Q3, he said the company is currently working on the launch of the five-door coupe crossover, which is likely to make its debut in India by late 2011 or early next year.

Delay in Fisker Karma release… again

Fisker Karma may have been driven for “a couple of laps” around the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix by Prince Albert of Monaco in late May, but that doesn’t mean that it’s going to hit dealerships in the U.S. anytime soon. In fact, word is the promised delivery date of the Karma plug-in has been pushed back again. Sort of.

According to Green Car Reports, Roger Ormisher, Director of Global Communications for Fisker Automotive, says that the “first dealer [demonstrator vehicles] and customer cars will arrive on these shores in July.” Of course, that means the automaker will log zero sales in May and, as Ormisher told GCR, “probably not June either.” Previously, Ormisher told AutoblogGreen that:

We will start shipping cars to retailers and importers in both U.S. and Europe to arrive during May/June and the first deposit holders will be in their cars in the June/July timeframe.

Let’s hope this is the last of the Karma’s already numerous delays.

Source: Autoblog