Lightning McQueen

Lightning Mcqueen is a race car that he does races in the Piston Cup race on the Island of Sodor or USA (as seen in Pixar Cars).

## Overview

### Country (origin)

Island of SodorUnited States (Disney Cars)

## Technical Details

### Basics

Chevrolet Corvette C1, with "some Lola and some Ford GT40"

## Biography

In 2006 Lightning was running in the race to win the Piston Cup with the incentive that the winner would be the replacement for Dinoco's old mascot, Strip Weathers, who was retiring. However, during the race, he denied tire changes from his pit crew, requesting only gas. But about 100 yards from his Piston Cup, his back tires blow out. Rather than winning the race, he barely manages a tie with Strip Weathers and Chick Hicks. His pit crew abandon him after he tells "Not Chuck", one of his members, to get out of the camera shot. Strip Weathers (also known as "The King") admonishes him for his overconfidence and lack of teamwork, but Lightning does not listen because he is lost in thought about the joys of working for Dinoco. Afterwards, he is forced to go into his sponsor Rust-eze’s (a company that sells a rust-cleaning product) tent that is full of rusty old cars, which Lightning hates. He then has a talk with his agent Harv, who explains how he got tickets for Lightning to give to his friends, but Lightning is unable to respond to this due to the fact that he has no friends.

Now on his way to the tie-breaker race in Los Angeles, Lightning ordered his driver Mack to drive all night, but he inevitably falls asleep. Lightning ended up lost in a little ghost-town called Radiator Springs and after tearing up their main road, he was sentenced to community service to repair the road.

While he was in town, he met a selection of cars, most notably being Doc Hudson and Sally Carrera. Although at first rude to Doc, McQueen did find out his past as a Hudson Hornet who won 3 Piston Cups until a devastating crash put him out of season which caused him to be replaced by a rookie. With Sally, the two took a drive and McQueen began to learn about Radiator Springs past and how it used to become a landmark until the interstate highways took over. As a result, he soon came to realize how arrogant and selfish he had been and that there is more to racing than just winning and what people in the real world have gone through in their lives. He also made friends with every car in town, especially Mater, a rusty tow truck who chooses him as his best friend, even going Tractor Tipping with him and showing his signature backwards move. At the end of the film, Lightning, Chick Hicks, and The King vie for the Piston Cup in a tiebreaker race in Los Angeles. During the race, he thought about his new friends which cause him to spin out off the track, but regained confidence when he found out that Mater, Luigi, Guido, Fillmore, Sarge, along with Doc Hudson who has acted as McQueen's new crew chief arrived to support him. McQueen even learned new tricks in the race when Chick Hicks played dirty such as driving backwards and doing Doc Hudson's signature move when he goes out on the grass once more.

Lightning was about to win the race by several car lengths when The King was wrecked badly by Hicks. Lightning is reminded of Doc Hudson's horrible crash that brought an end to his career and unable to bear the thought of something similar happening again, he abruptly skided to a stop just in front of the finish line, allowing Chick to win the title. Humbily accepting his loss, Lightning headed back down the track to save The King and helped him across the finish line to give him a respectable finish for his final race, coming in third place, a best finish for him much to the crowd's amazement.

Impressed by his good sportsmanship, Dinoco offered the contract to be their mascot to Lightning rather than the now unpopular Chick Hicks, but Lightning turned it down, saying he needs to complete his contract with Rust-eze, the company who gave him his big break, first. He then sets up headquarters in Radiator Springs, drawing attention back to the little town and making it popular again and simultaneously returning it to the map. In the process, Route 66 becomes a historical tourist attraction.

In 2017, Lightning had now won a total of seven Piston Cups, and had been racing in the Piston Cup for quite a lot of seasons, winning Piston Cup races alongside racers like Cal Weathers and Bobby Swift, who he has a good friendship and friendly, competitive rivalry with. However, during mid-season, a next-generation racer named Jackson Storm began to win races, while many veteran racers, including Cal and Bobby, getting replaced by new racers throughout the season when they fail to win any more races. At the same time, Lightning also struggled to finish ahead of Jackson Storm. In most races like the Data Shift 400 he got 2nd place, in the Dinoco Light 350 he got 2nd and in the Gears and Glotry 450 he got 4th place. At the race at the Los Angeles International Speedway, when the two rivals pit, Guido changes Lightning's tires in time for him to come out of the pits and take the lead, but Jackson Storm shortly catched up to Lightning and retakes the lead, building up a long gap, while two other racers (Danny Swervez and Chase Racelott) easily overtake Lightning. In shock, Lightning tried to catch up by pushing as hard as he can, but both of his rear tires burned out and he lost control and sufferd a terrible crash. Four months later, Lightning seeked help from new trainer Cruz Ramirez to learn some new tricks for challenging Jackson Storm in the Florida 500. In addition, Lightning was forced to make a wager with new Rust-eze owner Sterling: if he lost the Florida 500, he would have to give to give up his racing career forever in favor of a spokesman for his brand.

Unfortunately, Lightning did not improve his speed. Instead, he spent most of the day helping Cruz get used to a sandy coastline outside the training center. Later, they went to a dirt track for inspiration, but accidentally compete in a demolition derby. Cruz had won the derby, and Lightning got humiliated on national television. Lightning got furious at Cruz for wasting his time and breaks her trophy. Cruz later revealed that she wanted to become a racer.

Later, Lightning was aware of Storm's new top speed record, even seeing his old rival turned announcer Chick Hicks berating McQueen's experience at Thunder Hollow and also realised that his career might be over due to being ranked 95 percent on television. Disappointed, he called Mater for advice. Mater suggested that he search for Smokey, Doc's old mentor. McQueen then later apologized to Cruz for his rudeness to her. Lightning and Cruz do so and find Smokey and some of Doc's old friends. Smokey told Lightning that he is not the racer he once was and tought Lightning and Cruz ways to outsmart Storm, knowing that even though he couldn’t beat Storm, he could be smarter than him.

During the Florida 500, Lightning started the race first and begins outmaneuvering next-gen racers to gain advantage. But after finding out that Sterling was sending Cruz back to the training center, and realised that she has always wanted to become a racer, he decided to substitute Cruz into the race. Cruz then remembered advice both Smokey and Lightning gave her and finally managed to come into second place, behind Jackson Storm. Jackson Storm tried to ram Cruz against a wall, but Cruz flipped over him and won the race, though she and Lightning are credited with the victory, thus he wins the bet with Sterling and decided to continue racing, but before that, he had something he wanted to do first.

Later, back at Radiator Springs, Lightning got a new paint job honoring Doc Hudson, and raced Cruz around Willy's Butte. During the credits, Lightning spended the rest of the season as Cruz's crew chief, and the two enjoyed their time together as a team.

## 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. He has since learned to enjoy making friends and treat others with respect.

## Appearances

**Alsop Productions**

TBA

**Pixar Cars**

Cars 1 (feature-length special/film)

## Voice Actors

* Daniel Alsop (season 1-7
* Niafan18 (Sodor's Finest Engines onwards)