Lightning Mcqueen

Lightning McQueen (or simply "Stickers" as Sally usually calls him) is the deuteragonist of Cars 2.

Appearance
In his first appearance in Cars 2, Lightning regains his original red shade, his bolt stickers, and the original Rust-eze appearance of his racing number, and has a dark red bolt that is the same size as his original bolt shape, along with a thin yellow bolt across. The Rust-eze logo is absent at the back of his sides, and he has the "Hudson Hornet Piston Cup" logo beside his front fenders and blue eyes.

When Lightning takes part in the World Grand Prix, he uses a new paint, which removes the Rust-eze logo and bolt stickers, and has the "Hudson Hornet Piston Cup" logo on his hood. His Piston Cup decals, which were all still on the bottom of his sides, are replaced by the World Grand Prix and allinol logos. His ducktail spoiler is replaced by a raised one, which has the name of Rust-eze replaced by the World Grand Prix logo. He also uses different sets of tires outside races and has a large bolt shape that is again orange and yellow in the same locations, but with green borders, and the back of the bolt is styled after flames, which there is also a dark red flame behind the bolt. The borders of his racing number are also changed from white to green. Beside his front fenders, he has an idol that is almost shaped like a crest, which the World Grand Prix logo and symbol inside it on the top, with the United States flag and his racing number beneath. Additionally, he gets his headlight stickers replaced with actual headlights.

Cars 2
In the sequel, Lightning returns, but as a deuteragonist. This time around, Lightning is racing in the first ever World Grand Prix to determine who's the world's fastest car. But the road to the championship is filled with plenty of potholes, detours, and hilarious surprises.

"Number 95 Lightning McQueen is still a hotshot racecar, but his rookie days are past him. Now a permanent resident of Radiator Springs, Lightning has become a bona fide worldwide celebrity as winner of four Piston Cups.

After his long racing season, resulting him winning his fourth Piston Cup, Lightning returns home to Radiator Springs to enjoy the summer. All of his friends excitedly greet him, but none so more than Mater, eager to have a fun-filled summer with him. After an entire day involving riding on railway tracks with no tires and tipping over an enormous haul truck, Lightning politely tells Mater that he wants to enjoy the evening with his girlfriend Sally. However, Mater suddenly pretends to be a waiter at Wheel Well Motel as an excuse to hang out with his friends. After sending Mater off to get his usual drink (which Mater did not know), the couple notice a crowd gather inside the bar. Deciding to find out what's going on, they spot Francesco Bernoulli on TV, insulting both him and Mater over the phone. Lightning pulls Mater away from the phone before he could embarrass himself and anyone else further, making snug comebacks at Francesco that rile him and make him left the stage. Miles Axlerod suggests that the two racers settle their dispute in the World Grand Prix, a high profile, three-part exhibition race that Axlerod previously extended an invitation to Lighting. As Luigi, Guido, Sarge, and Fillmore volunteer to fill in as his pit crew once more, Lightning gladly accepted the challenge. Sally then suggested bringing Mater along, as Lightning had never brought him to any of his races. Despite his reluctance, Lightning gives in to Sally's reasoning and invites Mater along.

With a fresh custom paint job and real working headlights, Lightning sets off to Japan, Italy, and England with Mater in tow for the adventure of a lifetime. But competing against the fastest cars in the world tests more than his racing skills when Lightning realizes his wide-eyed best friend may not be the pit chief nor ambassador he needs to navigate the unfamiliar international terrain."

During a race against several other competitors including an Italian car named Francesco Bernoulli, Lightning unexpectedly loses the race in Tokyo after Mater is unexpectedly mistaken for a spy and therefore abandoning his position as crew chief, unintentionally give him. McQueen gets mad at Mater and claims that he doesn't need or want his help anymore, causing the tow truck to feel dejected. The next morning, Lightning and the others discover a farewell note from Mater, apologizing for what he had done. Lightning then reassured himself and his friends that at least Mater will be safe back home. Little that he knew that Mater had been mistaken from a spy and was caught up in a plot involving Lemon cars and the race.

As Team Lightning McQueen arrive in Luigi and Guido's home town in Italy, a depressed Lightning began to feel guilty over his fight with Mater. Luigi's Uncle Topolino tells him that he has been too harsh on Mater and should accept him for who he is.

In Porto Corsa for the second race, Lightning manages to win one over on Francesco. However, they then spot most of the other racecars having suffered engine damage from the Allinol fuel in their tanks exploding. Though Axlerod is forced to suspend Allinol's use from the final race in London, Lightning announced that he would continue to use Allinol, stating that Fillmore said it was safe, and that "[he] didn't stand by [Mater] recently, [he wasn't] going to make the same mistake twice". Unknown to him, the Lemons decided to target and kill him during the final race to fully discredit Allinol.

Lightning later called Radiator Springs to talk to Mater, only to learn that he didn't return home. In response, Sally and the others joined him in London, Sheriff and Sarge departing their company to consult respectively with Scotland Yard and the British Military to find Mater. He was then personally approached by Axlerod, who thanked him for giving Allinol another chance. When Sally reminded him that Mater would want him to race, Lightning resolved to race in his best friend's name.

In the middle of the race, Lightning spotted Mater in the pits, only for the latter to desperately drive away from him. He chases Mater through the streets, trying to apologize, not knowing that he had a bomb in his engine. After the chase, they hear from Professor Z that it's voice activated and can only be deactivated by the one who activated it in the first place. Mater soon realizes that Miles Axlerod is the criminal behind the World Grand Prix, but is worried that nobody will believe him. Then, Lightning tells him what he learned, and Mater goes to the palace and forces Miles to deactivate the bomb. For that, Lightning decides to bring Mater to all his races from now on.

After Mater is formally knighted by the Queen, everyone returns to Radiator Springs, where they receive a visit from Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell. Lightning then questioned why the Lemons' EMP camera didn't ignite the Allinol in his tank, to which the spycars had no answer. They all turn to Fillmore, who admitted that Sarge switched his Allinol with Fillmore's organic fuel, hence why Lightning didn't explode.

As all the WGP racers are invited for the Radiator Springs Grand Prix, Lightning and Francesco's rivalry had toned down, as they both agreed that the race is better off without cameras or press. As he turned to introduce the Italian to Sally, Francesco quickly addressed her and stated that Lightning is the luckiest car to have her as his girlfriend, before adding that he'll need luck to beat him. Lightning then sported off his new stickers saying, "Ka-Ciao Francesco", which amused his rival.

In the middle of the race, Mater joins the racers on his rocket jets and races Lightning for first place as the film ends.

During the credits, Lightning and Mater are seen visiting many places around the world before returning home.

Personality
Lightning lashed out at Mater for costing him the first race at the World Grand Prix in Tokyo, thinking Mater was yelling nonsense at him (Mater was caught in the middle of the fight between Finn McMissile and the Lemons, but failed to properly explain this to McQueen), but later felt guilty about it.

McQueen is also known to get angry whenever his biggest rivals (Francesco Bernoulli in Cars 2) taunt and belittle him, which further increases his desire and desperation to win races against them. In Cars 2, McQueen was especially happy to beat Francesco in the second race in the World Grand Prix in Italy.

Specifications
Lightning McQueen is a 2006 Custom-Built Piston Cup Racing stock car.
 * Top speed: 205 mph -330 kph (200 mph - 322 km/h at the time of Cars 2)
 * Acceleration: 0 to 60mph (100kph): 4 seconds (was 3.2 at the time of Cars 2 )
 * Engine: Stock Car regulation, 5.8 litre (358 cubic inches) V8
 * Drivetrain: Front Engine, Rear Wheel Drive layout
 * Horsepower: 750HP (even though he once said that he had over 900HP/560KW)
 * Fuel System: Carburetor.
 * Transmission: Stock Car Regulation 4 Speed + Reverse
 * Brakes: Vented, air-cooled, cast-iron disc brakes on all wheels, 4-piston front and 2-piston rear caliper.
 * Suspension: Coil-over shocks (Rear), Double Wishbone (Front)

Lightning also has air flaps on his roof to prevent flipping. As is Stock Car regulation, he has a quick-fill fuel cap on his left side (although he has one on both sides in Cars 2 and its related Media. Lightning has all his chassis and undercarriage exposed in every piece of Cars media except those relating to Cars 2. Lightning has no visible grille; and has a high-speed adjustable racing fin on his rear. Until Cars 2, Lightning had no headlights, just stickers in place of them, like most other stock cars.

Trivia

 * His racing number, "95", is a reference to the year 1995, when Pixar's first feature-length film, Toy Story was released. Originally, his number was going to be 57, which references 1957 the year John Lasseter, the director of the first two Cars films, was born.
 * Speaking of Toy Story, McQueen and Woody from the Toy Story films are the only two Pixar film protagonists to be the protagonist of more than one movie.
 * Lightning's last name "McQueen" is a reference to Glenn McQueen, a supervising animator at Pixar who passed away in 2002.
 * In the first official teaser trailer of Cars 2, for unknown reasons, Lightning McQueen has on his original Rust-eze customization, which never appeared in the sequel. It may be because the new paint job wasn't finalized at the time of the release of the teaser trailer.
 * Lightning, along with other countless versions of him, have been released in the Cars 2.
 * Lightning's design was inspired by stock cars, and a more curvaceous Le Mans endurance racers. Mcqueenheadslight.png
 * After Lightning's redesign in Cars 2, he has working headlights instead of stickers. However, Sally still calls him "Stickers."
 * Capture_plein_écran_2011-06-17_145045.jpg Tokyo, an advertisement for a vacuum cleaner named "Lightning McClean" is seen.
 * Lightning has several names in other languages:
 * His Spanish name is Rayo McQueen. In Spanish, "rayo" means "lightning", "beam" or "ray."
 * His French name is Flash McQueen.
 * In Polish, he is called Zygzak McQueen. (z-ih-g-z-ah-k) The word "zygzak" means "zigzag" in Polish.
 * His Danish name is Lynet McQueen. The Danish word "lynet" means "the lightning."
 * His Dutch name is Bliksem McQueen. The Dutch word "bliksem" means "lightning."
 * His Hebrew name is "ספידי מקווין" (spidi mekwin, "Speedy McQueen"). "ספידי" is a transliteration of "Speedy", and he is named after the Warner Brothers character Speedy Gonzales.
 * His Italian name is Saetta McQueen. The Italian word "saetta" means "flash of lightning."
 * His Swedish name is Blixten McQueen. The Swedish word "Blixten" means "the flash."
 * His Albanian name is Vetëtima McQueen. The Albanian word "Vetëtima" means "lightning."
 * His Portuguese name is Faísca McQueen. The Portuguese word "faísca" means "spark."
 * His Finnish name is Salama McQueen. The Finnish word "salama" means "lightning bolt."
 * His Hungarian name is Villám McQueen. The Hungarian word "villám" means "lightning".
 * His Czech name is Blesk McQueen. The Czech word "blesk" means "lightning".
 * Lightning and his girlfriend Sally appear in Radiator Springs Racers as audio-animatronics who greet guests in their ride vehicle. They announce the qualities that a racing champion needs and who can provide the tire changes by Luigi and Guido or paint refreshes by Flo and Ramone, while the computer controls the way that the ride vehicle turns into each character's business.
 * Lightning McQueen has 14 different paint variants, ranging from subtly different amounts of dirt and dust to the completely new paint jobs near the end of the film.
 * In Planes: Fire & Rescue, Mayday uses Lightning's famous catchphrase: "Ka-chow!", although the home video subtitles say that he is sneezing.
 * A 1:55 scale die-cast of Lightning McQueen, along with Chick Hicks and Brush Curber, is used for one of the exhibit elements at The Science Behind Pixar.
 * Lightning McQueen was used in the Jumping Tiles and Jumping Arrows game on Novel Games on September 10 2019.