Everyone's favourite anthropomorphic car couple will reunite at Porsche Rennsport Reunion 7 in Monterey, California.
Stars of Disney and Pixar's Cars, Lightning McQueen and Sally Carrera, are perhaps two of the most recognisable animated cars ever.
Reunited at last
Lightning McQueen has been a permanent fixture of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California. The fictional star race car's origins remain disputed, but he was designed to evoke Generation 4 NASCAR models with a combination of the Chevrolet Corvette, Dodge Viper, Ford GT40, among others.
Meanwhile, Sally Carrera has a known provenance. She is famously based on a 2002 Porsche 911 Carrera but with a slightly shortened wheelbase. The real-life working example, a 996-generation 911, has been in the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, for some time now.
But the two museums have agreed to loan both model cars for this year's Rennsport Reunion.
“You can’t have a celebration of motorsport and Porsche without Lightning McQueen and Sally Carrera!” said Jay Ward, Creative Director of Franchise at Pixar Animation Studios.
“The life size cars were created back in 2006 for the premiere of the original Cars movie, held at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte. Sally was made from a real 996-generation 911 and actually runs and drives.
"Sally and Lightning often travelled together to celebrate key moments and they got to see a lot of the world as new Cars movies were launched. In the past decade, though, they’ve been on display far apart, an even on different continents – it’s wonderful that they’re being reunited at Rennsport after so many years.” he added.
On top of that, "Sally Special," another 911 inspired by the film character, will be on display at the event. Created in collaboration with Pixar and Porsche, Sally Special features dozens of specifically procured parts and finishes to make it as close to Sally Carrera as possible. It sold for USD 3.6 million (over $6 million) the Sotheby’s auction at Monterey.
Sally and Lightning will be on display at the Porsche Rennsport Reunion 7 in Monterey, California, between 28 September and 1 October, 2023.
