With the character being the star of Pixar’s Cars franchise, it’s important to note what kind of car Lightning McQueen is. In the 2006 original, the hotshot celebrity racer becomes stranded in a small town and adapts to the locals’ values while working off a community service order. The character then continued to lead the ensemble of anthropomorphic vehicles in two hugely successful sequels, resulting in one of the animation studio's biggest franchises.
A big part of the longevity of the Cars series is its lovable characters, comprised of vehicles with human traits. Most of the character designs in Cars are taken from specific classic automobiles. Luigi is a 1959 Fiat 500, Sally is a 2002 996-series Porsche 911 Carrera, Mater is an International Harvester L-170 tow truck with some 1950s-era Chevrolet parts, and Doc Hudson is a 1951 Hudson Hornet, later revealed to be the historic “Fabulous Hudson Hornet.” But it’s harder to pin down exactly what kind of car Lightning McQueen is.
Lightning McQueen Is A Combination Of Different Kinds Of Cars
The design of Lightning McQueen in Cars isn’t based on any particular kind of car. Cars director John Lasseter described Lightning McQueen’s design as “a hybrid between a stock car and a more curvaceous Le Mans endurance racer” (via the Los Angeles Times). Bob Pauley, one of the production designers for Cars, gave a more accurate description of Lightning McQueen’s design in an interview with Autoweek. He explained, “We took the best of our favorite things, from GT40s to Chargers... just sketching them out, we came up with what McQueen looks like.”
Cars fans can’t just go out and buy their own Lightning McQueen, because the character isn’t based on any one specific kind of car. He’s an amalgamation of a few racing cars, muscle cars, and sports cars, with a couple of unique characteristics of his own. Lightning McQueen is a representation of every star athlete – in a world full of talking cars, racers have the star power of boxers, baseball players, football players, and basketball players all rolled into one – so it would make sense for his design to represent every fast car.
Owen Wilson's Charm Made Lightning McQueen More Likable
In developing the character of Lightning McQueen, Bob Pauley and his team looked at “great personalities that were really cocky but really likable.” He name-checked such iconic sports stars as Muhammad Ali, Charles Barkley, and Joe Namath as real-life figures who managed to strike the balance between cocky and likable that they wanted for Cars’ protagonist. The writers were able to find that aspect in Lightning McQueen’s character when they chose the perfect voice actor. Pauley explained, “Once they started writing the character as an Owen Wilson character, it really accomplished that.”
The look of Lightning McQueen in Cars, particularly the kind of car he is, gave audiences their first impression of the character as a fast racer with a colorful personality. But it was Wilson’s vocal performance that made the character an icon. Wilson has a natural warmth and a relaxing on-screen presence that make him likable. Whether he’s playing an adulterer in The Royal Tenenbaums or a vapid male model in Zoolander or the world’s worst house guest in You, Me, and Dupree, he’s impossible to dislike. Wilson’s charm gave Lightning McQueen legs to carry the Cars franchise.
