One generally comes to an auto show to see cars. And when things other than cars come to dominate an auto show, it generally makes automotive reporters covering the show grumpy. Very grumpy. We don’t travel cross country and spend long days walking miles to see things other than cars.

So when I walked onto the General Motors stand at the 2009 Chicago Auto Show and found a 20-foot tall, bright yellow robot looming over me, it was not a good sign. It likely meant that America’s biggest automaker, suffering its own financial meltdown, had nothing meaningful to show us.

The robot was Bumblebee, hero of the 2007 Transformers movie, complete with tires for knees. This was not looking good at all. Bumblebee is not news. And no matter how many times I unfold, twist, turn, and rotate a Transformer toy, I always preferred it as a car. Like I said, grumpy.

It turns out, I was right – and wrong. See, this time, Bumblebee brought along his friends, Skids, Mudflap, Jolt, and most impressively, Sideswipe. And my fellow reporters and I didn’t have to stand around watching a single one of them Transform into scary robots.

Skids and Mudflap are two of the small, B-segment concept cars GM has showed previously: the Beat and Trax, respectively. Now, it turns out, the Beat, er, Skids, is due to become the Chevy Spark small car in 2010 (unless GM comes up with a less, shall we say, combustible, name). And it looks really good, with decent legroom in the back, a flat floor, and reasonable cargo space. (No, I did not sit in Skids, but in a different Beat/Spark on the show floor.) The Jolt (another electrifying name) is none other than a hybrid electric Chevy Volt, whose all-electric range may amount to an automotive super power in the movie, we’re teased.

All well and good, and I’m beginning to cheer up a little by now.

Then out comes Sideswipe! All crouched and silver, muscular and menacing, ready to pounce. Across his haunches is written “Stingray,” and indeed, a ray glides gently down his voluptuous flanks. The resemblance is unmistakable. The stiff, arching creases over the fenders standing proud over a bulging, muscular hood; the angular split windows curving down over a tapered tail scream “I’m a Corvette - from the future!”  (See the Chevrolet Stingray concept.)

It has been more than a decade since a new Corvette concept has appeared. But here is a brash new Corvette concept brazenly squatting in McCormick Place – albeit disguised as a movie character.

So Sideswipe swiped the show, leaving a ray of cheer in this otherwise bleak year in the auto industry. Books may be written about its conception – if it ever comes to be.

Given the tough times GM, and the auto industry at large, face, it may be some time before the Stingray’s influence is seen in the seventh-generation Corvette. I’m OK with the wait. The current Vette is the best ever. Turns out, there is nothing to be grumpy about.

—Eric Evarts

See our complete 2009 Chicago Auto Show coverage.