Guido The Forklift

: "Pit stop."—Guido, Cars
Guido is The Anim Forklift of The Recurring character in the Cars series. He is a small, blue, optomistic, and fun pitty, and Luigi's best friend and business partner. Guido's fast speed allows him to perform well as a pit crew member, and he works on Lightning McQueen's racing team to provide Lightning with new tires whenever he requires them.
== Background ==
=== Official Description ===
: Like his boss Luigi, Guido is an avid Ferrari racing fan who dreams of performing a real pit stop on a real race car. To better prepare himself, he practices tire changes at night on wooden practice frames he built in his garage. One of these days, he hopes to set a new world record for the fastest pit stop of all time. But until that happens, he continues his quest to further enlighten himself. Currently, Guido is reading Tire Changes for the Soul, and Four Tires, One Goal.
: Guido isn't just pretty fast with a tire, he's pretty creative with one too, or even with ten.
: Guido, the little Italian forklift, is the backbone of Casa Della Tires. He's Luigi's assistant and best friend, and together they are the biggest Ferrari racing fans in Carburetor County. A car of few English words other than "pit stop," Guido is a force to be reckoned with when he's changing tires in the pits during a race. Joining Team Lightning McQueen for the World Grand Prix, Guido will get to show off his turbo-charged, pedal-to-the-metal pit stops on the global stage...and maybe, just maybe, he'll see some Ferraris!
=== Voice ===
While the first film was being developed, Guido Quaroni gave the character's name as a suggestion to the director John Lasseter and was also asked to do a temporary voice for him, due to originating from Italy. Lasseter agreed to the name, and really enjoyed Quaroni's voice, that he put it into the final film. Quaroni also worked on shadings for the character.
=== Personality ===
Guido is nice and friendly, along with being helpful, like when performing pit stops for Lightning McQueen. He is also fast-talking, shown when he speaks in Italian. Although he usually speaks Italian, due to that he comes from Italy, he can speak several English words, such as "pit stop" (although he sometimes pronounces it as "peet stop"), "OK", "boss", and "modify". He can sometimes get angered at times, such as when he is teased at by the Hostile Takeover Bank team. Additionally, he is determined, as shown for that he would try to make sure he makes a good pit stop. Paparazzi can be annoying for Guido, as seen in Cars 3, when he has to get them away from Lightning.
=== Physical Appearance ===
Guido is a forklift painted mainly blue, having a different shade on his fenders, and brown eyes. According to the Car Finder game, his model is an Alza Tutto Forklift. It also resembles the front of a 1959 BMW Isetta. One time in the first film, Guido wears an Italian flag afro wig and Ferrari crests on his forks. In the second film, he has a sticker of McQueen's racing number on his sides when joining Team McQueen, and during the Radiator Springs Grand Prix, he wears a red and orange afro wig, and a lightning bolt model and United States emblem on his forks.
=== Powers and Abilities ===
Guido has slower speed due to his small size, meaning that he is usually good at races that are suitable for other slow vehicles. He also has good skills for performing pit stops, because of his hard practice. His skills are enough for him to make pit stops that only last a few seconds.
==Biography==
===Early-Life===
Guido was headed to the United States on a cruise ship to pursue his dream of being on a real racing crew, when he overheard Luigi talking about Ferrari to a nearby passenger. After Luigi and Guido started talking, they quickly became best friends, and enjoyed passing the time by playing games and relaxing in the sunshine. After the lengthy voyage, the pair finally arrived in New York City, where they went sightseeing and viewed the remarkable monuments such as the Statue of Luberty, Central Park, the Chrysler Building, the Stock-Car Exchange, and Timing Belt Square. After observing Guido changing a taxi's tire in 2.5 seconds, Luigi requested that Guido would come back to Radiator Springs with him to work at Uncle Topolino's shop, which they would soon aqquire ownership of.
=== Cars ===
Many years ago, Guido and Luigi had been working at a tire shop named Luigi's Casa Della Tires. They and the rest of the Radiator Springs residents used to attract a number of customers until the Interstate 40 was built to bypass the town, leaving it and Route 66 forgotten. Forty years later, Guido and the rest of the residents are spending their time, when they see a racecar named Lightning McQueen being chased through the town and unknowingly destroying the main road while being attached to the statue of the town's founder Stanley. Guido is cross with McQueen the next day and agrees with Sally that McQueen should fix the road with a road-paving machine named Bessie. By the mention of McQueen being a racecar, Guido is pleased by the fact that he and Luigi are fans of racing, but it soon turns out that McQueen is not a Ferrari, since Luigi only watches Ferrari racing.
When Van and Minny come through Radiator Springs while trying to find the Interstate, Guido and Luigi attempt to get them to buy tires, but they decline everyone's attempt to buy something. Guido and the other residents get unhappy when McQueen causes the road's new tarmac to get sloppy and bumpy due to pulling Bessie too fast but is cheered up by the news that he challenges a race against Doc Hudson because he attempts to perform a pit stop. This attempt, however, fails after McQueen points out what Sheriff said about the race is only one lap. Despite this, he still cheers on for McQueen when he makes a perfect start, only to soon see McQueen come off the final bend and into a cactus patch, leaving Doc to finish the race and forcing McQueen to repave the road at a much slower speed.
While the road is being fixed, Guido and Luigi begin polishing their tire shop, even being congratulated by Sally. The next day, McQueen tells everyone that Doc used to be a racer, but none of them believe him, having not been told by Doc before. That evening, a stampede of tractors (who are in the role of cows) comes into Radiator Springs, and Guido tries to get one of them out of the store. The next morning, everyone sees that the road has been completed and there is no sign of McQueen. Immediately, McQueen turns up, having decided not to leave yet because he wants to help out the residents after hearing about what happened to the town when the Interstate was built. At the tire shop, Guido performs a pit stop on McQueen to give him a set of whitewall tires. It also turns out that the neon lights of every building have been fixed, and everyone decides to take a cruise around, until the press arrives to take McQueen to the final Piston Cup race of the season, due to Doc calling them after being displeased by the fact that McQueen did not leave.
By the time the race takes place at the Los Angeles International Speedway, Guido and most of the other Radiator Springs residents travel to the circuit to be part of McQueen's pit crew, with Doc being crew chief, and Guido being the tire changer. However, Chick Hicks' pit crew begins to tease Guido by telling him that he is not fit for changing tires. Guido tries to pay them back, but Luigi stops him to say that he will soon have his chance. During the race, Chick purposely punctures McQueen's tire, bringing out the pace car. With no time to lose, Guido performs a very quick pit stop, lasting four seconds, making McQueen able to get back on the track in front of the pace car. His performance also leaves Chick's pit crew shocked and their grilles, which represent mustaches, to fall off.
On the final lap, McQueen gets into the lead, and the whole townsfolk cheer on for him before Chick purposely rams The King off the track. When McQueen sees this, he screeches to a halt before he could cross the finish line, leaving Guido and the others confused, until they see that McQueen is deciding to let The King finish his final race. As a response, Guido and everyone else congratulate McQueen for his heroism. Soon after the race, Guido and Luigi decide to redecorate their shop, when they notice Michael Schumacher Ferrari arriving in the store with his friends to buy new tires. Luigi faints at the excitement of a Ferrari being in his store, and Schumacher speaks in Italian to Guido that Luigi is fantastic, causing Guido to faint as well. Meanwhile, McQueen sets up his racing headquarters in Radiator Springs, attracting customers once again.
=== Mater and the Ghostlight ===
In the short, Guido and Luigi are building a model of the Colosseum made out of tires, but faint when Mater comes out from inside the model and scares them. At Flo's V8 Cafe, Guido and the rest of the residents listen to Sheriff telling them a story about a couple who got haunted by a blue light called the ghostlight, adding that no one must make the sound of clanking metal. Immediately, everyone leaves for their homes to get some sleep. However, Guido and McQueen decide to play a trick on Mater by hanging a lamp on his tow hook to make him think he is being chased by the ghostlight. By the time Mater realizes the truth, everyone laughs at him, to which he replies sarcastically that he knew about it all along. Everyone then drives back to their homes for the night, but not before Doc warns Mater about the Screamin' Banshee.
=== Cars 2 ===
In the second film, Guido welcomes McQueen back home, congratulating him for winning the Piston Cup for a fourth time. That night, Guido serves drinks to the townsfolk at the Wheel Well Motel, when they hear Mel Dorado on the television talking about Miles Axlerod hosting the World Grand Prix to promote his fuel allinol for using clean energy. When one of the WGP racers, Francesco Bernoulli, begins to make insults about McQueen, Mater calls into the show to tell him that he should not insult McQueen. Guido and the others watch shockingly as Mater and Francesco's conversation continues before McQueen soon gets on the phone. He agrees with Axlerod to take part in the World Grand Prix, with Guido, Luigi, Sarge, Fillmore, and Mater being part of his pit crew.
As soon as they arrive in Tokyo, Guido and Luigi get excited when they notice Ferraris at the opening ceremony, and rush off to talk to them. While they later meet up with the rest of the team, Mater starts to say that someone had asked him out for a date the following night, which Guido does not believe at all. On that same night, the first race takes place, and Guido works hard with the rest of the team to make sure McQueen wins. However, McQueen eventually loses the lead to Francesco, due to a miscommunication from Mater when he was being guided around the city by a few secret agents while being chased by a group of lemons. The next day, the team finds a letter from Mater saying that he has decided to go back to Radiator Springs after McQueen had earlier got into an argument with him for losing the race. In response, the whole team feels sad for him leaving.
When traveling to Italy for the second race, the team stays in a village called Carsoli, which is the former home of Guido and Luigi. They immediately reunite with Uncle and Mama Topolino, and the whole village hosts a celebration for their return. During this, Guido attempts to dance with a lady named Franca, only for Luigi to bump in. The two then get into a fight with each other until another lady named Francesca arrives, allowing Guido to dance with her while Luigi dances with Franca. A couple of days later, the team travels to Porto Corsa, which is the place in Italy where the second World Grand Prix race takes place. Before the race, Guido and the others notice that McQueen is feeling sad, all because he is missing Mater. With the race getting underway, Guido again works hard with the team to get McQueen into the lead. This time, McQueen beats Francesco, but the celebration is immediately stopped when they notice that the other racers had crashed because their engines got blown up.
By the time the team travels to London for the final race, most of the other Radiator Springs residents had come after they were called by McQueen to talk to Mater, who had not actually been able to get back to Radiator Springs due to being involved in a mission with the secret agents. Soon, Mater rushes to the pits to warn the entire team about a bomb having been put in the pit stall, only to immediately hear from one of the secret agents, Finn McMissile, that the group of lemons, who are sabotaging the World Grand Prix, had actually put the bomb on Mater. Guido and the others then watch as Mater tries to get away from McQueen, and soon see on the television that McQueen is holding onto Mater's tow hook while a pair of rocket jets have activated. They soon rushed to the scene, where they help Mater, McQueen, Finn, and Holley Shiftwell fight the lemons. During the battle, Guido removes tires from a couple of Gremlins so as to prevent them from moving. After all of the lemons are arrested, Guido tries to get the bomb off Mater by using his wheel gun, but it would not fit the bolts. Mater immediately figures out who could turn the bomb off, and the others listen as he explains to the police and British Royal Family that Axlerod is responsible for trying to make the world think alternative fuel is unsafe so that they buy regular oil from the lemons' oil field. Eventually, the bomb is turned off by Axlerod, and Mater is knighted by the Queen.
Arriving back in Radiator Springs, Guido and the rest of the townsfolk listen to Mater telling the tourists about his spy story, before Finn and Holley soon come for a visit. As Holley mentions to be Mater's girlfriend, Guido now believes Mater, having his jaw drop. Additionally, the townsfolk decide to host an unofficial race involving McQueen and the World Grand Prix racers. During the race, Guido and the others cheer on for McQueen from Willy's Butte, then notice Mater taking part in the race with his rockets.
=== Cars 3 ===
Guido first appears at the beginning of the film watching Lightning McQueen's races until, during his last race, he and the other citizens of Radiator Springs witness him during a crash during a race against Jackson Storm. Later, he and the other citizens talk to Rust-eze and Dust-eze in Florida after McQueen watches a tragic video of Doc Hudson's last race before his death. He and Luigi later accompany McQueen during his training with Cruz Ramirez to help beat Jackson Storm upon arriving in Rust-eze Racing Center, Fireball Beach, Thunder Hollow Speedway, and Thomasville Speedway. Later during the Florida International Speedway, he appears attempting to put tires on McQueen but asks him to put tires on Cruz Ramirez to help win against Jackson Storm before McQueen.
== Relationships ==
=== Luigi ===
: “Luigi: "Why the tires are here?"
: Guido: (speaking Italian) "Sono sempre stati qui."''
: Luigi: "They were better where they were before."
: Guido: "Stai sempre a parlare."
: Luigi: "Guido!"”
: “Guido arguing with Luigi”―{{{3}}}
Guido works as Luigi's assistant at Luigi's Casa Della Tires. While the two are best friends, they can sometimes argue, usually because of what Guido has done. During the first film, Luigi was wondering why Guido had moved several tires over to a different spot, to which Guido argued that the tires had been there the whole time and that Luigi always talks.
During the second film, Guido got into a fight with Luigi while in Carsoli, because they were both trying to dance with Franca, but Francesca's arrival put their argument to an end. While this was happening, Uncle Topolino explained to McQueen that Guido and Luigi were like this when they used to work for him, always fighting over who is the best Ferrari car, and sometimes over people who are not Ferraris.
=== Lightning McQueen ===
: “Vai! Vai, vai!”―Guido cheering on McQueen
When Guido first met McQueen, he was not very pleased with him, because that he unknowingly destroyed the town's main road, and wanted him to fix it. Again, he was not pleased when McQueen did not pave it properly, but during McQueen's race against Doc, Guido felt excited, wanting to give McQueen a pit stop. McQueen declined the offer, but Guido still felt happy, and cheered when McQueen started perfectly.
Throughout the week, Guido started to become friends with McQueen, especially when he asked for a new set of tires, as it gave him the opportunity to do a pit stop. However, Guido felt sad when Doc had the press take McQueen away for his race, but did get cheered up when the townsfolk decided to be part of McQueen's pit crew. By the end of the first film, Guido and Luigi attracted customers once again thanks to McQueen setting up his racing headquarters in Radiator Springs.
=== Mater ===
: “Guido believe you now.”―Luigi translating Guido's expression to Mater finally proving he and Holley are a couple
Guido did not have much interaction with Mater in the first film, although he was surprised when a stampede of tractors came into Radiator Springs as a result of Mater going tractor tipping. After Mater played tricks on the townsfolk in Mater and the Ghostlight, Guido decided to teach him a lesson by teaming up with McQueen to make Mater think the ghostlight was chasing him.
In Cars 2, Guido did not feel impressed when Mater mentioned that he had got a date planned, and did not believe it was true, even when Mater showed Team McQueen to Holley while in Tokyo. However, Guido was very upset when hearing that Mater had left the team to go back to Radiator Springs, sobbing as Lightning reads his friend's letter. While in London, Guido was surprised to see Mater coming back, trying to warn them about a bomb. Soon, Guido tried to save Mater from the bomb, but to no avail, although Mater immediately figured out a way to turn it off. After coming back to Radiator Springs, Guido was surprised to hear that Holley had become Mater's girlfriend, now convincing him.
=== Hostile Takeover Bank pit crew ===
: “Mitch Gunk (Wide Chick Pitty): "Hey, shrimpie, where did McQueen find you, huh? Those round things are called tires, and they go under the car!"
: Chick Hicks' Pit Crew: (all laugh)
: Guido: (angered) "Con chi credi di parlare? Ehi! Ma, con chi stai parlando?"
: Luigi: "No! No, no! You'll have your chance, Guido. You will have your chance."”
: “Guido feeling insulted by the HTB pit crew”―{{{3}}}
While helping McQueen at the Los Angeles International Speedway, Guido came across the pit crew for Chick Hicks, who began to tease him. Guido felt angered by their behavior, wondering who they were talking about, and tried to teach them a lesson, only for Luigi to tell him to be patient. The entire pit crew soon got their comeuppance from Guido when he did a quick pit stop on McQueen, proving to them that he is more skillful than he looks.
== Gallery ==
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== Trivia ==
* Guido's name references the Italian verb "guidare". This means in English, "to drive."
** His name may also be a reference to the slang term, "Guido" meaning "a working class urban man".
** He shares his name with his voice actor, Guido Quaroni.
* In the English version of Cars, Guido speaks Italian. In the Italian version, he speaks dialect and is voiced by professional race car driver Alex Zanardi. This is to preserve the language barrier between him and the other characters speaking with Guido in the Italian dub.
== References ==
== External links ==
* Guido on Pixar Wiki
* Guido on World of Cars Wiki
* Guido on Planes Wiki
* Guido on Disney.com