Lightning McQueen

Lightning McQueen
Cars character
Lightning McQueen
First appearance	Cars (2006)
Created by	John Lasseter
Voiced by	Owen Wilson (Cars, Mater and the Ghostlight, Cars: The Video Game, Cars 2, Cars Toons: Tales from Radiator Springs and Cars 3) Keith Ferguson (Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales, Cars Mater-National Championship, Cars Race-O-Rama, Cars 2: The Video Game, and Cars Toons: Tales from Radiator Springs)
Information
Full name	Lightning McQueen
Nickname(s)	Stickers
Species
Gender	Male
Occupation	Piston Cup Racer (in Cars and in Cars 3), World Grand Prix racer (in Cars 2) and Mater's best friend
Significant other(s)	Sally Carrera (girlfriend)
Nationality	American

Lightning McQueen, typically referred to by his surname McQueen, is an anthropomorphic in the animated Pixar film Cars (2006), its sequels Cars 2 (2011), Cars 3 (2017), and TV shorts known as Cars Toons. The character is not named after actor and race driver Steve McQueen, but actually Pixar animator Glenn McQueen, who died in 2002. His design is partially inspired by a Chevrolet Corvette (C6), although his overall proportions are closer to those of a 1994-1998 Ford Mustang. His styling takes cues from a wide variety of other sports cars and race cars (some features, like his headlights, are generic and not based on any particular model) and many of his features, such as his rear spoiler, are directly taken from NASCAR race cars. During the scene where he helps restore Radiator Springs to its 50's heyday, he is painted much like a 1950's Chevrolet Corvette C1, once again hinting at his Corvette lineage. His number was originally set to be 57, Lasseter's birth year, but was changed to 95, the release year of Pixar's first film Toy Story.

During the initial research for the first film, John Lasseter met with General Motors designers to discuss the new Corvette design but subsequent changes to the storyline left both Lightning McQueen and rival Chick Hicks and Jackson Storm as generic.

“He’s the new rookie/veteran, he’s sexy, he’s fast, he’s different. So he’s invented. We took the best of our favourite things, from GT40s to Chargers… just sketching them out, we came up with what McQueen looks like.”