Flo (Cars Franchise)

Flo is a character that debuted in Cars, first appearing when Lightning McQueen comes speeding through Radiator Springs. She serves as the proprietor of Flo's V8 Cafe. She is Ramone's wife as well as a former showgirl. Flo's backstory is detailed in the World of Cars storybook, where she, Rhonda, Laverne, and Sheila arrive in Radiator Springs after Miss Victoria breaks down, and befriend Ramone. Since her debut, Flo has become a recurring character in the Cars series.
=== Early-Life ===
Flo spent around forty years running her cafe without the presence of customers.
=== Cars ===
Flo is one of the townsfolk who are mad at Lightning for ripping up the main road. She is always talking to Lightning and the others, as she owns the gas station.
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One night, while she is working in her shop, racecar Lightning McQueen drives wildly through Radiator Springs while he is being chased by the town's police car Sheriff, hitting some of the oil cans that Flo had placed around the cafe, and inadvertently destroying the main road in the process. The very next morning, Sheriff takes McQueen to the courthouse, where everyone, including Flo, is cross with McQueen for his behavior. Although Doc Hudson, the town's judge, immediately wants McQueen to leave the town, the attorney, Sally, points out that they need McQueen to fix the road, since, without a road, travelers cannot come to anyone's stores. Flo states, for example, that without customers to come to her gas station, she will have to close it down and depart the town, even meaning that the whole town is left without gasoline. To Flo and everyone else's delight, Doc agrees that McQueen must fix the road, and is not permitted to leave until he does so.
Presently, while McQueen starts his work, Flo sees two travelers, named Van and Minny, approaching Radiator Springs. She tries to sell some fuel to them, but Van politely declines, saying that they were already filled up. While the rest of the townsfolk try to get them to purchase something from their own shops, Van and Minny state that they are only struggling to find the Interstate, and soon leave after being given a souvenir by Lizzie. With Van and Minny gone, Flo and the townsfolk get back to work, as Sally comforts them with the fact that the travelers are sure to tell their friends where they went. Shortly, however, McQueen, who is determined to get his work finished in time to get to his big Piston Cup race in Los Angeles, uses his maximum strength to pull the town's road-paving machine quickly, but it only makes the road worse, not pleasing any of the townsfolk. To see who should repave it, Doc challenges McQueen to a race, and Flo and the other citizens watch the race take place near Willy's Butte. Although Doc makes a bad start, McQueen soon falls into a cactus patch, giving the victory to Doc. Flo is present along with Mater, Fillmore, Sarge and Ramone when McQueen does work removing the old tarmac that evening and claims that she herself is getting thirsty from watching the progress. She and most of the other citizens go to sleep by the time McQueen begins repaving the road.
When she wakes up the next day, Flo and the others find that the section of the road going up to the crossroad had been finished, and the tarmac looks smooth enough that Flo and Ramone decide to take a cruise on it. While McQueen gets back to work on the rest of the road, Flo observes Ramone cleaning a house's fence, and is impressed by his work. The following day, the rest of the citizens, except Doc, come to Flo's cafe to take a relaxing time, and she admires her husband's new paint job, just as McQueen arrives to tell them that he just heard Doc used to be a Piston Cup champion. However, neither of the townsfolk, including Flo, believe him, claiming they have never seen Doc drive that fast. Yet, Flo and the others watch Sally take McQueen for a drive up to the Wheel Well Motel to show him about the town's past. Unexpectedly, a stampede of tractors drives into the town, having gotten loose after Mater took McQueen out tractor tipping last night. Ultimately, with Mater's help, the tractors get rounded up.
Surprisingly, Flo and the others wake up to find that the road has been finished and there is no sign of McQueen. Flo assumes that McQueen has left, but ironically, he has not, as he decided to help everyone in town, including to help Flo fix her neon lights and everyone else's in time for the evening, perfect for everyone to take a cruise around the town, including Flo to cruise with Ramone. Before long, Flo notices a lot of people approaching the town, and the townsfolk suspect they are customers, but they turn out to be the press and McQueen's transporter Mack, relieved to have finally found McQueen, and soon take him to the Los Angeles International Speedway to prepare for the final Piston Cup race. Sad to see McQueen go, Flo and her friends head back to their homes and turn off their lights, along with hearing that Doc had called the press to tell them where McQueen was.
Thereafter, to make it up to them, Doc invites Flo and most of the citizens, to the Los Angeles International Speedway to be part of McQueen's pit crew during the race, while Sally, Red, and Lizzie stay behind to watch it on TV at Flo's cafe. Their presence comforts McQueen, since he was struggling in the race due to thinking about his new friends, and helps him to concentrate on catching up to his opponents. With a backward lesson learned from Mater, a fast pit stop from Guido, and the use of an old trick taught by Doc, McQueen takes the lead and is just about to take the victory when all of a sudden, Chick Hicks, fed up of being in third all the time, rams The King off the track and sends him into a horrifying crash. To Flo and pretty much everyone's confusion, McQueen screeches to a halt before he can finish the race, and goes back to assist The King to the finish line. Delighted, Flo and her friends congratulate McQueen on his great sportsmanship, and in return, McQueen moves his racing headquarters to Radiator Springs, in hopes that it can be popular again. With the town back on the map, customers drop by to fuel up at Flo's cafe, and she also hires McQueen's biggest fans, Mia and Tia, as her waitresses while continuing to spend some time with her friends.
=== Mater and the Ghostlight ===
In Mater and the Ghostlight, Flo is one of the townsfolk listening to Sheriff's story. She laters helps the others trick Mater into thinking that the Ghostlight is chasing him by placing a lamp on his tow hook.
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Flo makes a non-speaking appearance in the short, where she and her friends are gathered up at her cafe right as Mater, who had been playing a lot of pranks, plays one on McQueen. Presently, Sheriff tells them all a story about the ghostlight, a blue light said to haunt anywhere at nighttime, and that they should all be careful as they head back to their homes, before wishing them a good night, and everyone except Mater rushes back to their homes. To pay Mater back for his pranking, McQueen and Guido trick him into thinking the ghostlight is after him, and Flo and the others watch him drive around the county panicking until he becomes exhausted and finds out that it was only a lantern that was making the blue light. With Doc warning him about the Screamin' Banshee, Flo and everyone else wish Mater a good night and rush back to their beds.
=== Cars 2 ===
Flo only had a minor role of greeting Lightning McQueen when he comes back to Radiator Springs. She also sees him off at the airport when he leaves. When McQueen calls her and the rest of the Radiator Springs citizens she comes to London. She also helps fights the lemons by hurting Vladimir Trunkov's eyes using her bright headlights. Back in Radiator Springs, she notes the big dent that Holley Shiftwell has in her rear fender and offers her husband's services to sort it out which Holley kindly declines, stating that the dent is "Too valuable." At the end, she and Sally admire Francesco Bernoulli's open wheels.
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Flo returns in the second film with a much minor role. When McQueen comes back home from winning his fourth Piston Cup trophy, Flo and the others congratulate him on his win, and are honored to have him back. That evening, Flo and the other citizens go to the Wheel Well Motel to spend some relaxing time. At one point, Mater calls into the Mel Dorado Show to have a conversation with Francesco Bernoulli about McQueen. Intentionally, Francesco brags about how McQueen would come to a race with him, which catches the attention of everyone at the motel. Presently, McQueen comes to the scene and takes the phone to handle Francesco himself. To bring the conversation to an end, Miles Axlerod invites McQueen to compete in the World Grand Prix alongside Francesco, and McQueen agrees, much to Flo and her friends' delight. As McQueen, Mater, Luigi, Guido, Fillmore and Sarge board their flight to Tokyo, Flo, along with Ramone, Sally, Sheriff and Red, bids goodbye to them all, and they all watch the plane take off.
Weeks later, McQueen radios the town to report that Mater has gone missing. Eagerly, Flo goes with Ramone, Sally, Sheriff and Red to meet McQueen and his crew in London, just as the final World Grand Prix race is minutes away from starting. While Sheriff and Sarge get help from the police and British Army to search for Mater, Flo stays with the others to support McQueen in the race. Sometime during the race, Mater comes down to the pit lane to warn the team that some hostile lemons have planted a bomb in the pits, and orders them to evacuate. Just then, secret agents Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell radio Mater to alert that he had been tricked and the lemons have actually put the bomb on him instead. A few moments later, McQueen comes into the pits and spots Mater. Panicky, Mater flees from the pits to keep everyone out of danger, but McQueen chases after him, and Flo and the others watch the rest of the action on their television, where McQueen grabs onto Mater's hook, and Mater uses a pair of rockets to make themselves go at a faster speed and zoom through the streets of London.
When Flo and the others go to help them, they find that the lemons are surrounding McQueen, Mater, Finn and Holley, and jump in to help them battle the lemons. Flo gets involved by shining her headlights in Vladimir Trunkov's eyes, blinding him long enough for Sheriff to place a parking boot on him. After every lemon gets arrested, everyone has their eyes on the bomb, which is already ticking away. At that point, Mater figures out the solution and heads to Buckingham Palace, with Flo and everyone else following him. When he gets there, he expresses that Axlerod is the leader of the lemons, and the only one who can deactivate the bomb with a voice command. While Axlerod denies this, Mater continues, saying that Axlerod and the lemons have a hidden oil reserve that is supposed to make them rich if everyone gives up alternative fuel, and in order to make that happen, they made engine blowouts occur during every World Grand Prix race with Axlerod's supposed renewable fuel, allinol, coming into contact with an electromagnetic pulse. With no other choice when he gets confronted, Axlerod deactivates the bomb, and is confirmed to be the mastermind. That evening, Flo and the others attend a knighting ceremony to watch Mater get knighted by the Queen.
When Flo and her friends head back to Radiator Springs, Mater tells them all his story of being involved in Finn and Holley's secret mission, during which Flo serves drinks to all the tourists listening to Mater's story. Presently, Finn and Holley arrive to greet Mater and all of his friends. Flo is the first to notice that Holley had gotten a dent from when she was saving Mater and McQueen from two particular lemons, named Grem and Acer, while they were in London, and promises Holley that Ramone will get it fixed, but Holley prefers to keep it so that she can remember it forever just like Mater. Subsequently, the town hosts a race for every World Grand Prix racer to compete in. Minutes before the start, Flo and Sally make positive comments about Francesco's appearance, and Flo expresses that she "is about to go get herself some coolant." They both join their friends at Willy's Butte to cheer on for McQueen as he takes the lead in the Radiator Springs Grand Prix, and later experience Mater join in with the use of his rocket jets.
=== Cars 3 ===
In Cars 3 Flo appears at the beginning of the film watching Lightning race. Later she re-appears at Radiator Springs after McQueen's crash, working at her shop. When McQueen tells everyone he's going back to racing, Flo and every townie celebrates in response to his decision. She also tells Rusty and Dusty that she created a drink after them which Mater tells them name of it, being: Rust-Eze Medicated Bumper-bomb. She's also seen saying goodbye to McQueen, Mack, Luigi and Guido as they head off to the Rust-Eze Racing Center. She later reappears back in Radiator Springs to see Cruz and Lightning's new paint jobs and watches Lightning and Cruz race around Willy's Butte just like Lightning and Doc did.
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Flo returns in the third film, but makes fewer appearances than in the second film. While McQueen is racing against a pack of rookies in the Piston Cup, including a very competitive car named Jackson Storm, Flo continues to work at her cafe while Sally, Mater, Luigi, Guido, Fillmore and Sarge support McQueen at his races. As McQueen recovers from a recent crash, everyone watches Rusty and Dusty Rust-eze on a videophone telling McQueen to come to the newly built Rust-eze Racing Center. Flo stays behind in Radiator Springs while Luigi and Guido also go with McQueen and Mack to the center, where McQueen gets trained by the center's trainer Cruz Ramirez in an attempt to fight back at Storm in the Florida 500. At the end of the film, Flo and the other citizens watch McQueen and Cruz have a race around Willy's Butte.
== General information ==
=== Physical description and traits ===
Flo is simply based on a Motorama Show Girl, modeled after a 1957 GM Motorama Show Car. She is a modified 1955 Lincoln Futura with large tail fins. Her license plate reads "SHO GRL", a reference to the fact that she was a show girl before she came to Radiator Springs. Flo is painted light green, with cream stripes on her sides and long fins on her rear.
=== Personality and traits ===
Flo is a kind and caring character, though her sassiness can get in the way of her other traits at times. Nonetheless, she still has a helpful persona, and enjoys helping and socializing with her customers.
=== Powers and abilities ===
Flo has been depicted as an expert on fuels and oil, as she has proven to have a vast knowledge on various occasions.
=== Relationships ===
Flo is married to Ramone, and the two have been a couple since Flo first arrived in Radiator Springs.
She is also good friends with all of the Radiator Springs residents, particularly Lightning McQueen. She is also friendly to the many visitors and tourists that visit around Carburetor County.