Trivia for
Cars (2006) More at IMDbPro »

• This movie was originally titled "Route 66". The name was changed to "Cars" so as not to imply a connection with the TV show "Route 66" (1960).
  
  
• The music that opens the teaser trailer of this movie is the main theme to A Bug's Life (1998).
  
  
• The film's animators drew up over 43,000 sketches for designs of the cars.
  
  
• Mia and Tia are modeled after the first-generation Mazda MX-5 Miata.
  
  
• Instead of making the cars' headlights the eyes, as is done on most cartoons, the Pixar artists decided to put the eyes up on the windshield, because that made the characters more expressive. This idea was largely influenced by the Disney cartoon Susie the Little Blue Coupe (1952), one of director John Lasseter's favorite cartoons.
  
  
• Flo isn't based on any single car but shares elements of the 1951 Buick LeSabre, the 1951 Buick XP-300, and the 1957 Chrysler Dart - all actual show cars.
  
  
• One of the bumper stickers on Fillmore reads 'Save 2D Animation.' Another reads, "I brake for Jackalopes", a reference to Pixar's short, Boundin' (2003) (paired with the film The Incredibles (2004)), which features the legendary animal.
  
  
• The neon lights on Flo's V8 Cafe in the movie flash in the proper firing order for a Ford flathead V8.
  
  
• The number on the train that Lightning out runs is A113, a reference to California Institute of the Arts, where many Pixar animators studied.
  
  
• Lightning McQueen's original number was to be 57, director John Lasseter's birth year. It was later changed to 95 to represent the year that Toy Story (1995) was released. The car in the final film who has the number 57 (who wins the race in the first teaser) vaguely resembles McQueen, and is probably an earlier production design for that character.
  
  
• The tires of Lightning McQueen are Buzzard models manufactured by Lightyear, a reference both to the real Goodyear "Eagle" tires used in NASCAR and character Buzz Lightyear from John Lasseter's Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 2 (1999).
  
  
• Sally the Porsche's profession as an attorney is a reference to Portia, a nickname for female lawyers, named after the character in Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice".
  
  
• Guido is an Italian name. But it is also the Italian for "I drive".
  
  
• The character Lightning McQueen is a reference to Glenn McQueen, a Pixar animator who died in 2002.
  
  
• Mater's license plate reads "A113", yet another reference to the animation room at California Institute of the Arts, where many Pixar animators studied. Also, the lights on the train that almost hit Lightning say "A113" (See trivia for Toy Story (1995))
  
  
• If you look closely at one of the racing cars, it's white, has the Apple logo, and the number is 84. 1984 was the year Apple released the Macintosh, the computer that revolutionized Apple as a company. Pixar was previously owned by Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple.
  
  
• Designs of the cars: - Ramone is a 1959 Chevrolet Impala or Bel Air two door hardtop, a very popular car with the low riders. - Luigi is a 1959 Fiat 500. - Guido is an ISO Isetta, a "bubble car" originally designed and built in Italy by ISO; the design was later licensed to BMW and to manufacturers in France and Brazil. - Mater is a 1951 International Harvester L-170. - Sally is a 2002 Porsche 911 Carrera (Type 996).
  
  
• The original idea was about an electric car living in a gas-guzzling world.
  
  
• Additionally, when seen from "above", the hills around Radiator Springs resemble the hoods and fenders (complete with ornaments) of classic cars.
  
  
• Among the cities closed for race day is the city of Emeryville, California, the home of Pixar.
  
  
• WILHELM SCREAM: Used by one of the cars in Lightning's dream sequence.
  
  
• The morning show crew from www.RadioAlice.com (a local favorite radio station) lend their voices to a number of ancillary characters in the film (like Kori Turbowitz, Not Chuck, Traffic Copter and Reporter #9).
  
  
• The Cozy Cone Motel's design is based on the two Wigwam Motels along Rt. 66; in Holbrook Arizona and Rialto, California. These were once two out of seven motels, with individual cabins shaped like tepees. Another motel from the chain survives in Cave City, KY. The name "Cozy Cone" was inspired by the Cozy Dog Drive-In of Springfield, IL, which lays claim to being birthplace of the corn dog.
  
  
• The character "Fillmore" was at one time to be named "Waldmire" after Bob Waldmire, a self-proclaimed hippie artist known to Rt. 66 fans for his detailed pen-and-ink maps and postcards of the route. Though Waldmire's family owns the Cozy Dog Drive-In in Springfield, IL, Bob, now a vegan, preferred not have his name put on a character that would become a Happy Meal toy.
  
  
• Since the movie has lines in Italian, the Italian release (where foreign movies are mostly dubbed) was handled with a twist. Luigi was dubbed with a slight Modena accent (the home town of Ferrari) and Guido was dubbed with a thick Modenese dialect. The Ferrari in the end of the movie has been dubbed by Michael Schumacher as in the original version (but of course in Italian, with some German accent). A nice coincidence: Marco Della Noce, who dubs Luigi, is an Italian comedian whose trademark act (several years before the release of "Cars") was indeed a pretend of the head mechanic of Ferrari; actually in the dubbing he managed to slip some half lines from his routine.
  
  
• The Italian name for "tire" is "gomma" (rubber), and there are actually a widespread number of tire shops in Italy called "Casa della gomma" (House of the tire).
  
  
• The other song in the teaser trailer is Green Day's "Westbound Sign" from their 1995 album "Insomniac".
  
  
• Joe Ranft's final film.
  
  
• The fictional town of Radiator Springs was inspired by several real life locations along historic Route 66. In 2001, a creative team from Pixar, including directors John Lasseter and Joe Ranft, toured parts of Route 66 in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Their guide along the way was author and Route 66 historian Michael Wallis. Wallis went on to provide the voice of the Sheriff car in the film.
  
  
• Though not credited as such, Michael Keaton is the voice of the security guard who yells "Hey, no press!" during the instant replay sequence after the first race.
  
  
• Fillmore, the VW Microbus voiced by George Carlin, has license plate '51237'. This is Carlin's birth date; May 12, 1937. It's entirely coincidental, but 51237 is also the ZIP code for George, Iowa.
  
  
• When Lighting McQueen finally gets pulled over by the sheriff after destroying the road, the Sheriff says, "You're in a heap o' trouble, boy." This is a direct reference to Dodge commercials featuring 'Joe Higgins' as the sheriff which aired in the early 70's.
  
  
• Dinoco, the big sponsor Lightning McQueen is pursuing, is also the name of the gas station in Toy Story (1995) where Buzz Lightyear and Woody are stranded.
  
  
• The hill at Radiator Springs (with the white letters RS for Radiator Springs) resembles the top of a radiator with a cap.
  
  
• At the beginning, after the first race, when Mack and McQueen travel to California, and they pass some power poles you hear and see some birds (just for the blink of an eye) which are from Pixar's fun short For the Birds (2000).
  
  
• During the epilogue, the films shown at the drive-in cinema are amusing "car-world" parodies of earlier Pixar productions: - Toy Car Story (Toy Story (1995)). - Monster Trucks, Inc. (Monsters, Inc. (2001)). - A (VW) Bug's Life (A Bug's Life (1998)).
  
  
• The red-and-white metal-flake paint job that Ramon does for McQueen duplicates that of the Corvette used in "Route 66" (1960).
  
  
• The voice of Lightning McQueen's agent Harv, is provided by Jeremy Piven who also plays Vincent Chase's agent in the TV-series "Entourage" (2004). The UK release featured the outspoken "Top Gear" (1978) host Jeremy Clarkson as the voice of Harv.
  
  
• The character "Mack", Lightning McQueen's transport driver, is based on a Mack Superliner semi-truck.
  
  
• On the DVD, in the Bonus Features section, the background graphics are postcards from route 66. The icon to return to the main menu uses the Canada Post logo.
  
  
• Radiator Spring's surrounding rock formations, shaped as recognizable hood ornaments from over the years, are labeled "Ornament Valley" on the road map. This is a reference to "Monument Valley", an expanse of grand, natural rock formations spanning Arizona and Utah, though not actually near Route 66.
  
  
• The King is a 1970 Plymouth Superbird, one of Richard Petty's most famous rides. The Superbird was created to get him back into a Plymouth for the 1970 racing season and Petty himself provides the voice. The King's paint scheme is exactly as King Richard's was in the 1970 NASCAR season.
  
  
• The character of Fillmore, voiced by George Carlin, is a version of Al Sleet, the hippie-dippy weatherman, a popular skit that Carlin performed in the 60's and 70's.
  
  
• Even with a farm of computers that ran four times faster than the ones on The Incredibles (2004) each frame of Cars (2006) took an average of 17 processor hours to render.
  
  
• The Rust-eze sponsors each send Lightning off with a warning: "Don't drive like my brother!" This is the sign-off phrase for the popular NPR radio show "Car Talk", hosted by Tom Magliozzi and Ray Magliozzi, who also voice the sponsors.
  
  
• The code title for this film, used during production, was "Surgery".
  
  
• Wait until the end of the credits to see whatever happened to the two tourists that drove into Radiator Springs looking for the highway.
  
  
• Chick Hicks's sponsor is Hostile Takeover Bank (htB).
  
  
• If you look at any sky scenes, all the jet contrails are tire marks.
  
  
• The design of "Los Angeles International Speedway" is based on 3 venues located in southern California. The outer facade is similar to the LA Memorial Coliseum, the speedway's seating bowl and interior architecture is much like the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and the track layout is reminiscent of California Speedway in Fontana.
  
  
• The rotating sign on Flo's V8 Cafe briefly forms a "hidden Mickey" as the sign rotates.
  
  
• When Sarge and Fillmore are talking during their introduction, Fillmore waxes about the blinking pattern of a street light. Sarge notes "The sixties weren't good to you." This is the exact same line that George Carlin (who voices Fillmore) gave to Bette Midler in the movie Outrageous Fortune (1987).
  
  
• The make of the white wall tires Lightning McQueen gets from Guido and Luigi is "Fettuccini Alfredo."
  
  
• Cars seen at the drive-in movie theater during the closing credits: left to right: front row--Mater, Sally, Lightning, Sarge, Fillmore; second row--one of the the Ferraris, Doc, Sheriff, Flo, Ramone, Guido, Luigi, and Lizzie; rows further back--Mack, Junior, Red, Mr. and Mrs. The King, and the Twins. And if you look closely, in the very back behind the fence, you see Frank and the tractors; note that more tractors appear each time they switch to an audience shot.
  
  
• The King's wife is voiced by Lynda Petty, who is Richard Petty's real-life wife. Mrs. "The King" is a 1974 Chrysler Town and Country station wagon, modeled after the car in which the Pettys drove themselves and their children to the races during the 1970s.
  
  
• When the Sheriff backfires and Lightning thinks he's being shot at, he says "Serpentine, serpentine." This is a reference to a scene from The In-Laws (1979) where Vincent (Peter Falk) instructs Sheldon (Alan Arkin) to run serpentine style to avoid being hit by bullets.
  
  
• Michael Schumacher is one of the speakers in the German version, as well as Giancarlo Fisichella in the Italian and Fernando Alonso in the Spanish version.
  
  
• In the Danish edition "The King" is renamed "Tom Kilerem" and is voiced by 7-time Le Mans champion Tom Kristensen.
  
  
• The mountain range behind Radiator Springs resembles the Cadillac Ranch. This is an installation of a row of half-buried, nose-down Cadillacs, near Amarillo, TX. The map in "Cars" refers to the Cadillac Range.
  
  
• The fictional track Motorspeedway of the South (MSS) is based on Bristol Motor Speedway, where NASCAR holds races for its premier series.
  
  
• The city Mack is seen driving through after leaving the track seems to be Nashville, TN, considering most of the roads on the signs pass through Nashville. It's also probable Mack would drive through Nashville on Interstate 40 after leaving Bristol (which MSS is based on.)
  
  
• Every third blink of the stoplight in Radiator Springs really is slower by 1/2 second, confirming Fillmore's observation.
  
  
• Scenes from the movie are used in a 2008 road safety ad on US television. Oddly, the last scene in the ad has been flipped, so that the word "Lightyear" on The King's tires appears back-to-front. This was done because the scene takes place behind a curtain bearing the Piston Cup logo seen from behind, i.e. reversed. Viewers seeing the scene out of context would have been more likely to notice the reversed Piston Cup on the curtain than the reversed Lightyear on the tires.
  
  
• The model for Ramone’s shop is an actual old time Conoca Service Station in Shamrock, Texas. Shamrock is on the old Route 66.
  
  
• John Lasseter came out with the premise of the story after his soul-searching trip in 2000 along Route 66.
  
  
• The Michael Schumacher Ferrari, voiced by Michael Schumacher, speaks Italian to Guido, saying, "Spero che il tuo amico si riprenda. Mi dicono che siete fantastici." This translates to "I hope your friend recovers. I was told that you are fantastic."
  
  
• Fillmore is a late-1960s Volkswagen Type 2, otherwise known as the Transporter, or "Microbus." It was a very popular vehicle among hippies in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and even made its way into popular culture. It is heavily referenced in the Arlo Guthrie song "Alice's Restaurant Massacree."
  
  
• Fillmore is named after the famous Fillmore Auditorium or Fillmore West, a highly popular music venue from the 1960s and 1970s. It was the focal point of music and arts for the counterculture, or "hippie" movement.
  
  
• The Doc Hudson character is based on real-life NASCAR pioneer Herb Thomas, who drove Hudson Hornets to Grand National championships in 1951 and 1953. He was beaten out for the title in 1954 by Lee Petty, father of Richard "The King" Petty. Crashes in 1955 and 1956 effectively ended Thomas's career.
  
  
• Also during the drive-in cinema epilogue, Mack, voiced by John Ratzenberger, quips "Wait a minute here! They're just using the same actor over and over. What kind of a cut-rate production is this?" The actor he's referring to is, of course, himself.
  
  
• When Mater and Lightning McQueen tip over the cow tractors, as the tractors are upended, they give off an electronic "Moo!" sound. The electronic "Moo!" is taken from Milky the Marvelous Milking Cow, a Kenner toy introduced in 1978. Milky the Marvelous Milking Cow would raise her head and give off an electronic "Moo!" sound when you moved her tail like a pump handle.
  
  
• The two tourist cars mention a trip to Shakopee to go to Crazy Days. Shakopee is a real city in Minnesota famous for the amusement park Valley Fair, and the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Shakopee does not have a Crazy Days as stated in the film however.
  
  
• The piston cup is an obvious reference to the famous NASCAR race, The Winston Cup.
  
  
• When Chick's pit crew taunts Luigi at the big race, Luigi retorts in Italian: "Con chi credi di parlare? Ma, con chi stai parlando?" This roughly translates to English as: "Who do you think you're talking to? Who are you talking to?" Coincidently, these lines resemble the infamous "You talkin' to me?" quote from Robert De Niro's character in Taxi Driver (1976).
  
  
• The character of Mack was originally going to be a Peterbuilt, but was changed because John Ratzenberger's father drove a Mack in Chicago.
  
  
• This was the last feature film for Paul Newman before his death of lung cancer in 2008. It also turned out to be the highest-grossing movie of his career.
  
  
• "Cars" has a lot of repeated character names from the Isaac Asimov short story "Sally" where robotic sentient cars are the main subject.
  
  
• The DOT regulations that Mack begins to quote to Lightning McQueen require drivers of property-carrying commercial motor vehicles to stop driving after reaching the end of their 14th consecutive hour after first coming on duty. The 14-hour limit was specifically designed to reduce fatigue-related accidents on the nation's highways.
  
  
• When Red sprays water on Lightning McQueen, he's blowing off bits of prickly pear cactus still stuck on McQueen from when he drove into the cactus patch for the second time. When Red sprays even more on McQueen's hood & windshield, after Sally says "You missed a spot", it's to get off one more bit of prickly pear still stuck to McQueen.
  
  
• Ramone's comment about "Von Dutch style" pin-striping to Minnie and Van is a reference to Kenny Howard, the man who revived the art of pin-striping on motorcycles and vehicles in the 50s under the name Von Dutch.
  
  
• The car used for Mario Andretti's cameo is the Holman-Moody Ford Fairlane Andretti drove to victory in the 1967 Daytona 500 - a race in which Richard Petty was one of the favorites to win. Petty dropped out of the race due to a blown engine.
  
  
• Near the end of the film the Sheriff arrests four cars for speeding. These are the same four cars that tried to lull Mack to sleep near the start of the movie. Mack's almost running off the road because of this resulted in Lightning McQueen being lost.
  
  
• After the credits there is a short sequence showing the tourists Van and Mini still lost. A small blue car/fly is flying beside them. It runs into the camera and leaves a blue "nose-print" on the lens.
  
  
• In the very first shot of The Hustler (1961), Fast Eddie Felson and his partner Charlie Burns arrive at a small bar/pool hall to pull their first "hustle" of the film - the car in which they arrive is a Hudson, exactly like the one Paul Newman voices in "Cars".
  
  
• Lightning McQueen, being a first-year "Piston Cup" racer, displays the traditional yellow "rookie stripe" on his rear bumper.
  
  
• The insects seen in the film are in the shape of 60's era Volkswagen Beetles. "Bug" is the popular nickname of that model car.
  
  
• Luigi's license plate reads 445-108, which is the latitude and longitude for the main Ferrari factory in Modena, Italy.
  
  
• John Lasseter's first directorial effort since Toy Story 2 (1999).
  
  
• The final film made by Pixar before it was bought by Disney.
  
  
• Premiered at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina.
  
  
• Cars (2006) merchandise broke records for toys based on a Disney/Pixar film, with an estimated $1 billion in sales.
  
  
• The last film worked on by Joe Ranft who ironically died in a car crash in 2005. The film is dedicated to his memory, as is Corpse Bride (2005).
  
  
• John Lasseter hatched the idea for Cars (2006) whilst taking a cross-country trip on Route 66 with his wife and five sons in 2000, mainly at the behest of his wife who felt he was spending too much time at the studios. Upon returning to work, he contacted Michael Wallis, a famous historian on the subject. Wallis then took 11 Pixar animators in rented white Cadilllacs on two different road trips across the route to research the film. The animators picked up artefacts en route - such items as wheat, thistles, snake skin and road kill. All these items were attached to the cars as hood ornaments and then ceremoniously buried in the desert at the end of the trip.
  
  
• The computers used in the development of the film were four times faster than the ones used on The Incredibles (2004) and 1,000 times faster than the ones used on Toy Story (1995).
  
  
• To build the cars, the animators used computer platforms very similar to the ones that real car manufacturers use.
  
  
• This sold 5,000,000 copies in two days when it was released on DVD.
  
  
• Paul Newman considered his performance as Doc to be the best he'd done since The Verdict (1982).
  
  
• John Lasseter is the son of a car-parts manager.
  
  
• The longest Pixar movie to date.
  
  
• The first Pixar movie to create its own world, ie, no humans in sight.
  
  
• Unusually for a Pixar film, the lead marketing focused on the voice talent, namely Owen Wilson and Paul Newman. Unlike other animation companies, Pixar tends not to draw attention to which stars are providing the voices.
  
  
• The release of the film was held up by Pixar boss Steve Jobs for a year as it acted as good leverage in his negotiations with Disney.
  
  
• The first Pixar film to use the technique called "ray tracing" which allows the animated cars to credibly reflect their environments.
  
  
• More than 100 unique car characters were created for the film and the merchandising.
  
  
• Lightning McQueen was designed to be a cocky, arrogant yet likable character. To that effect, the animators looked at real people like Joe Namath, Muhammad Ali and Kid Rock as reference points.
  
  
• The 2nd highest grossing film of 2006 and the 10th highest grossing film in the Disney canon.
  
  
• Michael Jordan was the human inspiration for Lightning McQueen.
  
  
• Nancy Lasseter, John's wife, told her husband that he needed to make this film for all the people - largely women - who don't care about cars. Hence, the film's nickname during production was The Nancy Factor.
  
  
• The production wanted to use a little known version of the song "Route 66" by Chuck Berry which had appeared on the b-side of one of his singles. They approached Berry's record company who didn't know anything about such a version. It was only after they had trawled through their record vaults that they realized that Pixar were right.
  
  
• The crowd scene at Piston Cup showdown at the end features 105,000 separately animated cars, including 13,000 cars entering the stadium alone.
  
  
• 44 different monitors are featured in the TV studio covering the Piston Cup race, which means there had to be 44 different versions of the same shot.
  
  
• Michael Schumacher recorded his lines in 4 different languages - English, German, French and Italian.
  
  
• Every now and then, Lightning McQueen's tongue pops out when he's thinking about something. This is actually a characteristic of director John Lasseter which his animators gleefully incorporated into the film.
  
  
• In early drafts, the scene where Sally takes Lightning McQueen up into the hills to look down on the effects of the interstate on Route 66 actually had Doc Hudson telling the story of Radiator Springs' fate.
  
  
• Early drafts featured Doc Hudson having a heart attack, and being jump-started by Sarge.
  
  

• SPOILER: Chick Hick's car number is 86. 86 is a slang for 'thrown out'. He got thrown out of the team at the end of the film. 86 is also a reference to Luxo Jr. (1986), the first short film produced under the Pixar name.
  
  

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