It’s a bit hard to believe, but the movie “Cars” is turning 20 this year, so to commemorate the occasion, Porsche decided to arrange a little meet and greet between Lightning McQueen, Sally Carrera and some fans ahead of the 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race in Florida this weekend. Of course, those fans just so happened to be pretty famous in their own right: the number 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 LMDh racecar and “Rexy” — AO Racing’s iconic 911 GT3 R.
Lightning is, obviously, a Piston Cup stock car, so he’s not participating in this weekend’s race, but it’s always nice to see a legend like him show up and support other racing series, and it wouldn’t be the same if he didn’t have Sally right there alongside him, would it? I’m sure she’s busy running her very popular cone-themed hotel chain, but it was always kind of her to take time out of her hectic schedule to drop on down to Florida.
There’s no word on where Mater, Doc Hudson or the rest of the Radiator Springs gang were for the photoshoot, but I’ll just assume they were busy doing important carmanitarian work around the globe. In any case, I’m sure both the 963 and Rexy were more than awe-struck by being in the presence of such legends. It’s also safe to assume that the other seven Porsches running at Daytona this weekend were too shy to actually meet heroes like Lightning and Sally. I know I would be. After all, I was smack dab in the middle of the key demographic for that movie when it came out in 2006, considering the fact that I was a few months away from my 10th birthday. (This is where you crash out about being so much older than me.)
Porsche and Sally
Porsche has clearly been a fan of Sally for quite a while now. Back in 2022, it worked with Pixar to build a modern interpretation of her based on a 992 911, complete with bright blue paint, throwback wheels, a 911 GTS engine and a seven-speed manual transmission. While this car was cool, it’s still no Sally, who was and still is an early 996 911. It then went on to sell at auction for an astonishing $3.6 million, which is far less than what I’d be willing to pay if I had the money.
Andy Kalmowitz / Jalopnik
If I can be real for just one moment, it’s not exactly clear who built these two life-size models of Lightning and Sally. I’m assuming it’s Disney, as one time, while at Disneyland in California, I spotted McQueen in the Radiator Springs section of the park. It was a surreal moment for me, I’ll tell you what. You can imagine my excitement when he moved under his own power, too — utilizing some sort of electric drivetrain.
Anyway, I just think it’s so lovely that Porsche — a company not usually known for doing silly and fun things like this — took a swing and did something both fun and silly ahead of one of the most important endurance races on its calendar. Fingers crossed, we continue to see Lightning and Sally pop up more and more as we get closer to the actual 20-year anniversary of Cars’ release, which is in June of this year.
