I took the kids to see "CARS" years ago, and it was a great movie. I think that Lightning McQueen looks a lot like a 250 GTO, could it be he was based on a 250 GTO ?
I'd say no. They make specific mention of the Ferrari and he is decidedly not a Ferrari in the story line. He is a domestic in the story. I think he looks closest to a final gen RX7.
Given Pixar's attention to detail, in their pre-Disney years, I'd say it wasn't intended to look like anything specific. "... described by John Lasseter in the LA Times as "A hybrid between a stock car and a more curvaceous Le Mans endurance racer."" Most everything else in that film is pretty recognizable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cars_characters
I think he's just kind of a generic mash up of American Stock Cars... Chevy, Ford, Dodge, etc... Definitely NOT based on a Ferrari or other European car.
generic 60's Le Mans car. They wanted to create their own car design that they could license themselves.
Everything about Lightning McQueen is present day American Stock Car... the movie is about small town America forgotten and NASCAR racing... "stickers" for headlights, the sponsor references, the race tracks, race announcers, red neck accents, the other cars (Jeff Gordon, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hudson Hornet, etc...), use of country music in the songs... I'm not seeing the RX-7, Le Mans or Ferrari references at all... He has some extra curve to his body style to make him unique and that's normal for anything animated... As a Ferrari guy like the rest of us here... I love this scene. Totally shows the Italian arrogance and a bit of Ferrari elitism. Makes me laugh: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAlHlaWjWyo[/ame] And this scene of course where Luigi, the Fiat 500 and his Italian shop hand (who doesn't speak English) passes out with the sight of a real Ferrari: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qAW0eSKkXA[/ame]
