[spitstickler]

So I'm following my daughter in her 2008 Mazda 3 Hatch (2.3L with auto) to get her moved in to her dorm for college and all of a sudden she has white/grey smoke pouring from the back of her car. I quickly get her pulled off to the side of the road and get the car shut down. When I pop the hood, there is a lot of smoke coming from the engine compartment. I'm already thinking it's probably a head gasket, but once it cools down a bit I can see there is automatic transmission fluid all on the firewall as the back of the transmission, steering rack, exhaust etc. So now I'm thinking all the smoke is coming from the transmission fluid burning off on the exhaust.

We are in the middle of no where and have about an hour wait for a tow truck. There are no check engine lights so once the car has cooled down while we are waiting, I decided to start it back up and see if I can see where the transmission fluid is coming from. When I started it up, it immediately gave a puff of smoke out of the exhaust pipe and then not much after that while the car was idling. I can't see where the transmission fluid is coming from. So when I get back in the car, I decide to give it a little throttle to see what happens. Instant James Bond smokescreen coming out of the tail pipe.

I guess there is a chance that the tailpipe smoke and the transmission fluid leak are unrelated, but it doesn't seems likely. Does anyone have any ideas? TIA