Lightning McQueen is the main protagonist of Disney/Pixar's Cars 1 and 3, however the deutaragonist in
Cars 2.
Background[]
Personality[]
At first, Lightning is self-centered and overconfident, feeling he can win the Piston Cup on his own without help from any pit crews or coach. He is so full of himself to the point where he claims he does not need any friends and cannot even get anyone's names right. Because of his attitude towards people, he turned out to be rather friendless and became lonely, which is shown when his agent Harv gave him a few tickets to give his ‘'friends'’, unaware that Lightning had no friends.
However, he is also something of a perfectionist and will not cease to get something done right, even if it was not in his best interest to indulge in it in the first place as seen when he was tasked by the townsfolk to fix the road that he himself destroyed when he first arrived at their place. After a few grudging performances in his attempts to fix the road, he finally manages to do so. His sponsors are Rust-eze, a small company selling soothing ointment for rusty old cars, which Lightning hates.
However, he transforms into a more sympathetic, understanding, and selfless character during his time in Radiator Springs on Route 66. During the final race, his new personality made him change his ways when he decided to accept defeat by forfeiting the Piston Cup so he can help Strip Weathers finish his last race, realizing that helping others is more important than winning even if it allowed Chick Hicks to win. He has since learned to enjoy making friends and treating others with respect.
Physical appearance[]
Lightning has blue eyes and primary has warm colors in his paint jobs. His car model is said to be a stock car and a more curvaceous Le Mans endurance racer mixed together, while the Cars Blu-ray Car Finder game states it to be a 2006 handmade one-of-a-kind car.
When he is originally sponsored by Smell Swell in the World of Cars book, he has a red ducktail spoiler, the Smell Swell logo on his hood, and his racing number, 95, painted green on his sides, along with a thin, yellow lightning bolt.
When Lightning gets sponsored by Rust-eze, he has the team's logo on his hood and the back of his sides, along with the name put on his spoiler, which is still a ducktail. His own name is seen on each side of his roof, and he has chrome bolt stickers on his front fenders. He has a large lightning bolt shape on his sides that is yellow at the front, and orange at the back, and has individual black and white lines. His racing number is painted yellow, orange, and red, and is located on his roof and sides. Additionally, he has several decals of the Piston Cup teams over and under the end of the bolt shape, as well as stickers that look like headlights, which he does not actually have, and are the reason why he is usually called "Stickers" by Sally. His racing number is also displayed on one of them. He even has black tires which have on them the Lightyear brand, that is a reference to Goodyear and Buzz Lightyear, and red rims. His back bumper is painted yellow, which references the yellow back bumpers of NASCAR rookies' cars.
While he helps out the residents of Radiator Springs, he gets a new paint job, which is a darker red, with a half of a long oval shape painted in wheat and with a thin bolt shape inside. His racing number, name inscription, bolt stickers, and sponsor are absent along with his spoiler, and he gets his racing tires replaced with whitewalls. However, when he gets taken to the Los Angeles International Speedway by Mack and the press, he gets his Rust-eze customization and racing tires back.
After finishing the Piston Cup season, he gets another repaint, which regains the oval shape and thin bolt but slightly shorter, with his racing number in black inside a white circle that has black borders. Additionally, his bolt stickers are again absent. He also regains his spoiler and has fewer Piston Cup decals, which are all located on the bottom of his sides. He uses this when he is not racing, as he has his original paint job in Cars: The Video Game.
In his first appearance in Cars 2, Lightning regains his original red shade, his bolt stickers, and the original Rust-eze appearance of his racing number, and has a dark red bolt that is the same size as his original bolt shape, along with a thin yellow bolt across. The Rust-eze logo is absent at the back of his sides, and he has the "Hudson Hornet Piston Cup" logo beside his front fenders.
When Lightning takes part in the World Grand Prix, he uses a new paint, which removes the Rust-eze logo and bolt stickers, and has the "Hudson Hornet Piston Cup" logo on his hood. His Piston Cup decals, which were all still on the bottom of his sides, are replaced by the World Grand Prix and Allinol logos. His ducktail spoiler is replaced by a raised one, which has the name of Rust-eze replaced by the World Grand Prix logo. He also uses different sets of tires outside races and has a large bolt shape that is again orange and yellow in the same locations, but with green borders, and the back of the bolt is styled after flames, which there is also a dark red flame behind the bolt. The borders of his racing number are also changed from white to green. Beside his front fenders, he has an idol that is almost shaped like a crest, which the World Grand Prix logo and symbol inside it on the top, with the United States flag and his racing number beneath. Additionally, he gets his headlight stickers replaced with actual headlights.
Soon after, as shown in Cars Toons: Tales from Radiator Springs, Lightning regains his bolt stickers and has all of his World Grand Prix markings removed. He regains the same number of decals from his original Rust-eze paint job, put in the exact same locations. On his spoiler, he has an inscription of Radiator Springs' name as well as a symbol of Radiator Cap Mountain.
In his first appearance in Cars 3, he has a new design which is a large bolt but with his sponsor's name Rust-eze at the back of the bolt. He has a bolt on his hood with the same Rust-eze word, retaining his actual working headlights from the second film and ducktail spoiler from the first film.
Four months after his crash in the Los Angeles International Speedway race, he is seen in his primer colors while still sporting the 95 decals on his sides before being repainted in his original paint job by Ramone.
Once in the Rust-eze Racing center, he receives his electronic suit which enables Cruz Ramirez to track his top speed through her agent Hamilton (only at close range). With the help of Mack and Luigi, he covers himself in the mud under the alias Chester Whipplefilter in order to keep himself low profile in Thunder Hollow before Cruz Ramirez accidentally exposes him to the public after her victory. He finally accidentally loses his electronic suit in Thomasville during his training with Cruz, Smokey, and the retired veteran racers at night.
After his (indirect) and Cruz's victory in the Florida 500 race, he gets a new paint job as the Fabulous Lightning McQueen, sporting Doc Hudson's colors, the Rust-eze logo on his hood, and 95 on his backside, his lightning bolt stickers on his front sides, and the Fabulous Lightning McQueen logo on his sides. On his rear, he sports For Doc Hudson as he assumes his career as Cruz's crew chief and mentor in Dinoco-Rust-eze.
In Cars on the Road, Lightning was given a simple paint job for the road trip with Mater. He maintained his signtaure lightning bolt and number "95" on his sides, but did not feature his Rust-Eze sponsor or racing livery. On his hood, his Rust-Eze logo was replaced with the symbol of Radiator Springs with the words "On the Road" underneath. On his rear, he had a "95" sticker next to his right brake light.
Trivia[]
- His real name is Monty
- He's made cameos in Finding Dory and Ralph Breaks the Internet.
Gallery[]
