Exactly 20 years ago, the animated film “Cars” - lighthearted, colorful, and witty - hit theaters. It remains beloved to this day, watched again and again, and shared by parents with their own children.
The experts from the used automobile shops in Indiana couldn't resist joining the celebration; here is the story of how the world inhabited by automobiles was created, which real-life cars made it into the film, and which celebrities took part in making “Cars”.
The Story Behind the Making of “Cars”
Renowned animator John Lasseter - a pioneer of computer animation and the director of “Toy Story” - first conceived the idea for a film about living cars back in the early 1990s. Car culture and motorsports had always been close to his heart (he had worked part-time at a Chevrolet dealership since the age of 16), but the technology of the time couldn't produce visuals of the required quality.
Early script drafts by Jorgen Klubien centered on a small electric car struggling to survive in a world of gasoline-powered vehicles; the Danish writer’s concept was essentially a unique reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Ugly Duckling”. Lasseter, however, envisioned a different story.
The director was deeply influenced by the American documentary “Divided Highways”, which analyzed the economic impact of the US interstate highway system - specifically, the benefits of high-speed roads set against the decline of small towns bypassed by the new routes. The theme seemed full of potential; furthermore, Lasseter had traveled along the once-famous Route 66 to visit relatives in St. Louis as a child. To craft a compelling narrative from this, the screenwriters drew inspiration from the comedy “Doc Hollywood” starring Michael J. Fox, in which a young surgeon crashes his car in a backwater town and is sentenced to perform community service. With minor modifications, this story became the foundation for the future animated film.
From the very beginning, the artists wanted to create memorable and appealing characters. One of the director's key mandates was to create a believable world where cars were living beings. To gather reference material, Lasseter turned to Route 66 historian Michael Wallis (who voiced the Sheriff of Radiator Springs). Wallis organized a nine-day expedition along the surviving sections of the highway, during which the artists interacted with locals, took notes, and made sketches.
Who Is Lightning McQueen Based On?
Lightning has no single specific prototype. As the director explained, he is a composite character drawing from several generations of the Chevrolet Corvette, Dodge Viper, Ford GT40, and other sports cars of the era, adapted for NASCAR circuit racing (Gen 4 specifications). This implies that under the hood, McQueen would have a naturally aspirated, pushrod V8 engine with a 5.9-liter displacement and a restrictor plate, tuned to produce 725 horsepower. Real race cars with this type of engine could accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds and reach top speeds of 215 mph on the track.
While developing the protagonist's look, John Lasseter visited the design studios of General Motors and Ford to learn about the intricacies of developing new car models. McQueen was originally assigned the racing number 57 - in honor of John Lasseter’s birth year - but during production, the number was changed to 95, marking the year Pixar released its first major project, “Toy Story”.
The sports car’s name was also chosen for its symbolic significance: he was named McQueen in honor of one of the studio’s top animators, Glenn McQueen, who passed away in 2002. However, it is impossible to avoid associations with the professional driver and actor Steve McQueen, who played famous racers - Detective Bullitt and Michael Delaney - in the film “Le Mans”.
The Legendary Doc Hudson
The choice of the Hudson Hornet as Lightning’s mentor was no accident; in the early 1950s, the car was a true racing legend. It featured an innovative body design known as "Mono-Bilt," in which the body and frame rails formed a single, integrated structure. This lowered the center of gravity, resulting in improved handling and passenger comfort.
The model was equipped with the company’s own 5-liter H-145 engine. This "Super Power Dome" inline-six, featuring dual carburetors, produced up to 170 horsepower. The company also produced special "crate engines" for racing use; these featured a higher compression ratio and larger intake and exhaust valves, boosting output to 220–240 hp. Ultimately, this racing engine proved superior to the V8s used by competitors. Cars bearing the "Fabulous Hudson Hornet" moniker secured 81 victories in top-tier NASCAR races between 1951 and 1955. The 1952 season was the best: Hudsons won 24 out of 37 races.
Unfortunately, the advanced design also had its drawbacks: while competitors could easily update their cars' body panels every year without modifying the chassis and updating the bodywork was an extremely costly endeavor for the Hudson Motor Car Company. Consequently, despite its racing successes, Hornet sales steadily declined.
The final blow for the once-iconic model came with Hudson’s merger with Nash. The new entity was named the American Motors Corporation. The Detroit factory where Hornets were assembled was shut down, and the model's next generation was built on the Nash Ambassador platform.
Bringing Cars to Life
When creating the characters, the artists started from the premise that the heroes were cars - made of metal, with sturdy bodies and structural integrity. Early animation tests were unsuccessful: the cars were too fluid in their movement and bore little resemblance to real vehicles. Lasseter insisted that the team take the materials' physical properties into account. He opposed "clay-like" body physics and forbade animators from unrealistically stretching or squashing the cars. Of all the tools for emotional expression, the characters were left with only their bumpers, wheels, and eyes, which were placed on the windshield rather than in the headlights.
To ensure the animated cars retained their charisma while looking authentic, the studio turned to Dave Deal, a renowned American automotive illustrator and Hot Wheels toy designer. Ultimately, each car was given a distinct personality and unique traits based on its age and structural characteristics.
Chrome, which reflects its surroundings, proved to be one of the most challenging materials for the animators to render. They strove to make it as realistic as possible; the team even had to invent its own ray-tracing technology. This required immense computing power: even though their supercomputer cluster (comprising 3,000 machines) was four times more powerful than the one used for “The Incredibles”, rendering a single frame took 17 hours!
At the same time, the artists paid attention to the finest details. For instance, even the insects were reimagined as tiny flying cars with wings, while natural landscapes were designed to resemble the bodywork of classic automobiles. Red sandstone formations were transformed into shapes reminiscent of hood ornaments and the pontoon-style fenders of vintage Chevrolets, and the valley visible in the background of Radiator Springs serves as a direct nod to the famous "Cadillac Ranch." This is an iconic installation on the outskirts of Amarillo, created in the mid-1970s. At that time, artists Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez, and Doug Michels buried ten Cadillacs from various generations in the ground, leaving only their signature tailfins sticking out.
Who Else Was Invited to Appear in The Animated Film
"The King" - car number 43 - is none other than Richard Petty, a living legend of American motorsports, winner of two hundred races (including 27 victories in the 1967 season alone), and a seven-time champion.
The sky-blue Plymouth Superbird with the massive rear wing is the actual car he raced in 1970. To meet racing homologation requirements, Chrysler mass-produced 1,920 of these sports cars, featuring a fiberglass "nose cone" and high-performance engines delivering 375–425 hp.
Other NASCAR stars also made it into the film. Cameo appearances included Mario Andretti (driving the No. 11 Ford Fairlane), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (car No. 08), and racer-turned-commentator Darrell Waltrip (driving a Chevrolet Monte Carlo).
Michael Schumacher voiced the Ferrari F430 that visits Luigi’s tire shop (in the Italian dub, the role was played by Giancarlo Fisichella, and in the Spanish version, by Fernando Alonso). Incidentally, Luigi’s license plate - "44.5-10.8" - corresponds to the coordinates of the Ferrari factory in Maranello. Jeremy Clarkson voiced Harv, Lightning McQueen’s agent. The roles of the owners of Rust-eze - the bumper ointment brand and Lightning’s title sponsor - went to famous U.S. radio hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi, who had hosted a long-running automotive show.
The director explained that the focus on details was intended to make the film engaging not only for children but also for professionals in the automotive industry, including those involved in motorsports, manufacturing, maintenance, tuning, and restoration. This is largely why “Cars” remains interesting to rewatch even twenty years later.
