Radiator Springs is a fictional small
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
town and the principal setting of the
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
/
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californi ...
franchise ''
Cars
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.
The year 1886 is regarded as t ...
''. A composite of multiple real-world locations on the historic
U.S. Route 66
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...
from
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, it is most prominently featured in the
2006 film
The following is an overview of events in 2006, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies and festivals, a list of films released and notable deaths.
Evaluation of the year
Legendary film critic Philip French of ''The Guardian'' de ...
, and is home to a majority of the franchise's characters.
Cars Land
''Cars'' Land is a themed area of Disney California Adventure, inspired by the Disney·Pixar franchise, ''Cars'', and Route 66 in America. The area, built as part of Disney California Adventure Park's $1.1 billion expansion project, opened on Ju ...
, a part of
Disney California Adventure
Disney California Adventure Park, commonly referred to as California Adventure or by its acronym DCA, is a theme park located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Park ...
in
Disneyland Resort
The Disneyland Resort, commonly known as Disneyland, is an entertainment resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division and is home to two theme parks (Di ...
, is based on the setting.
Vicinity
In the movie ''
Cars
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.
The year 1886 is regarded as t ...
'', the town of Radiator Springs is seen on a map as situated in northwest Arizona.
The in-film community is a composite of multiple locations; before making the film, Pixar sent a group of fifteen artists with
Route 66
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...
historian and the voice of
Sheriff
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
Michael Wallis
Michael Wallis (born October 7, 1945) is an American journalist, popular historian, author and speaker. He has written seventeen books,Danna Sue Walker"Award-winning author speaks to library backers" ''Tulsa World'', March 7, 2010. including ''R ...
as a guide to take photos, talk to denizens of
Route 66
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...
and learn the history of the tiny towns situated along more than of road through five states.
In one restaurant,
John Lasseter
John Alan Lasseter (; born January 12, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, voice actor, and the head of animation at Skydance Animation. He was previously the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, ...
ordered one of every item on the menu for the Pixar group and spent four hours talking to the owner, absorbing information on the efforts to rebuild the historic byway to its
neon-lit heyday.
Much of the story is based on the recollections of barber
Angel Delgadillo
Angel Delgadillo (born April 19, 1927) is an American barber and businessowner in Seligman, Arizona who has been dubbed the "guardian angel" of U.S. Route 66. He is the main founder of the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona, established i ...
in the Route 66 town of
Seligman,
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
, where business withered soon after the opening of I-40.
Flo's V8 café is designed to look like a
V8 engine
A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.
The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and us ...
head on, with a circular air filter, tappet covers, spark plugs, pistons and connecting rods as the supports for the roof. The blinking neon lights on the spark plugs blink in the firing order of a
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
flathead V8.
Route 66
Many characters and places in the film are directly inspired by real
Route 66
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...
places and people.
To quote the Pixar crew:
: "As we traveled on Route 66, we were privileged to visit many places and to meet a number of people who live and work alongside 'The Mother Road'. The following is a list of the places and people we wanted to honor by including their names in our 'Special Thanks' credits at the end of the film."
Among the many references to Route 66 landmarks and personalities:
* The Cozy Cone Motel's design is based on the two
Wigwam Motel
The Wigwam Motels, also known as the "Wigwam Villages," is a motel chain in the United States built during the 1930s and 1940s. The rooms are built in the form of tipis, mistakenly referred to as wigwams. It originally had seven different locatio ...
s along Route 66, in
Holbrook Holbrook may refer to:
Places
England
*Holbrook, Derbyshire, a village
* Holbrook, Somerset, a hamlet in Charlton Musgrove
* Holbrook, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, a former mining village in Mosborough ward, now known as Halfway
*Holbrook, Suffolk, ...
, Arizona and
Rialto
The Rialto is a central area of Venice, Italy, in the ''sestiere'' of San Polo. It is, and has been for many centuries, the financial and commercial heart of the city. Rialto is known for its prominent markets as well as for the monumental Rialto ...
, California. These were once two out of seven built motels, with individual cabins shaped like teepees. Three Wigwam Motels remain; the third (and oldest) is in
Cave City, Kentucky
Cave City is a home rule-class city in Barren County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 2,240 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Glasgow Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Geography
Cave City is located in the northwestern port ...
, far from Route 66. The recently restored Tee Pee Motel in
Wharton, Texas
Wharton is a city in and the county seat of Wharton County, Texas, Wharton County, Texas, United States. This city is southwest of Houston. The population was 8,832 at the 2010 census and 8,627 at the 2020 census. Wharton is located on the Colora ...
, south of Houston, is of similar design but unrelated. The name "Cozy Cone" was inspired by the
Cozy Dog Drive-In of
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...
, which lays claim to being the birthplace of the
corn dog
A corn dog (also spelled corndog) is a sausage (usually a hot dog) on a stick that has been coated in a thick layer of cornmeal batter and deep fried. It originated in the United States and is commonly found in American cuisine.
History
Newly ...
.
* The character "Fillmore", referring to the famous San Francisco music venue
The Fillmore
The Fillmore is a historic music venue in San Francisco, California.
Built in 1912 and originally named the Majestic Hall, it became the Fillmore Auditorium in 1954. It is in Western Addition, on the edge of the Fillmore District and Upper Fil ...
, was at one time to be named "Waldmire" after
Bob Waldmire
Robert Waldmire (April 19, 1945 – December 16, 2009) was an American artist and cartographer who is well known for his artwork of U.S. Route 66, including whimsical maps of the ''Mother Road'' and its human and natural ecology. Being the son ...
, a self-proclaimed
hippie
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
artist known to Route 66 fans for his detailed pen-and-ink maps and postcards of the route. Though Waldmire's family owns the
Cozy Dog Drive-In, Bob, having since become a
vegan
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. Di ...
, preferred not to see his name put on a character that would become a McDonald's Happy Meal toy.
* Lizzie's Curio Shop in Radiator Springs resembles the Route 66 jumble of memorabilia and
knick-knacks at Hackberry General Store in
Hackberry, Arizona and the Sand Hills Curiosity Shop, aka the City Meat Market building in
Erick, Oklahoma. The yellow billboard for Lizzie's Curio Shop reading "HERE IT IS" with an image of a Model T is based on the
Jack Rabbit Trading Post
The Jack Rabbit Trading Post is a convenience store and curio shop located on former U.S. Route 66, five miles west of Joseph City, Arizona city limits off of Exit 269 on Interstate 40.
Description
It was founded in 1949, on the site of either ...
signage in
Joseph City, Arizona
Joseph City (elevation 5,000 ft) is a Census Designated Place located in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. It is located on Interstate 40, approximately eighty miles east of Flagstaff and about thirty-five miles west of Petrified Fore ...
.
* Sheriff is voiced by
Michael Wallis
Michael Wallis (born October 7, 1945) is an American journalist, popular historian, author and speaker. He has written seventeen books,Danna Sue Walker"Award-winning author speaks to library backers" ''Tulsa World'', March 7, 2010. including ''R ...
, an American historian and author of ''Route 66: The Mother Road''.
* The characters
"Flo" and "Sally" are based on Fran Houser of the
Midpoint Café
The Midpoint Café, a restaurant, souvenir and antique shop on US Route 66 in Adrian, Texas, bills itself as geographically the midway point between Los Angeles and Chicago on historic Route 66. Signage in Adrian proudly declares a 1139-mile ...
and Dawn Welch of the
Rock Café
The Rock Café in Stroud, Oklahoma, a historic restaurant on U.S. Route 66, takes its name from the local sandstone used in its construction.
Originally built in 1936 and opened in 1939, the Rock Café reopened on May 29, 2009 after extensive r ...
respectively.
Continuity
There are a few sights of the front page of a newspaper named ''The Daily Exhaust'', which serves primarily as a vehicle to explain the
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...
history behind the
Fabulous Hudson Hornet of the early 1950s.
During the 2006 film's closing credits, the characters are at a
drive-in
A drive-in is a facility (such as a restaurant or movie theater) where one can drive in with an automobile for service. At a drive-in restaurant, for example, customers park their vehicles and are usually served by staff who walk or rollerskat ...
watching clips of the Pixar films "Toy Car Story" (''
Toy Story
''Toy Story'' is a 1995 American computer-animated comedy film directed by John Lasseter (in his feature directorial debut), produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The first installment in the '' Toy Story ...
''), "Monster Trucks, Inc." (''
Monsters, Inc.
''Monsters, Inc.'' (also known as ''Monsters, Incorporated'') is a 2001 American computer-animated Monster movie, monster comedy film produced by Pixar, Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. Featuring the voices of John Goodman, B ...
'') and "Bug" as in
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Beetle—officially the Volkswagen Type 1, informally in German (meaning "beetle"), in parts of the English-speaking world the Bug, and known by many other nicknames in other languages—is a two-door, rear-engine economy car, ...
(''
A Bug's Life
''A Bug's Life'' is a 1998 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It was the second feature-length film produced by Pixar. Directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Andrew Stant ...
''), whose characters have been rendered as vehicles in the style of ''Cars''. Mack the red
Mack Super-Liner The Mack Super-Liner is a model line of Class 8 trucks produced by Mack Trucks. Produced in North America from 1977 to 1993, the model line was a conventional-cab tractor configured primarily for highway and vocational applications, serving as the ...
comments that "they're just using the same actor over and over", an
in-joke
An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or a private joke, is a joke whose humour is understandable only to members of an ingroup; that is, people who are ''in'' a particular social group, occupation, or other community of shared interest. It i ...
referring to
John Ratzenberger
John Dezso Ratzenberger (born April 6, 1947)[About John](_blank)
from Ratzenberger's official website is an Americ ...
, who voiced Mack and some of the characters featured in the clips. The cinema itself is similar in design to an
NRHP
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
-listed
66 Drive-In in
Carthage, Missouri
Carthage is a city in Jasper County, Missouri, United States. The population was 15,522 as of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Jasper County and is nicknamed "America's Maple Leaf City."
History
Jasper County was formed in 1841. ...
, but without the later addition of widescreen and FM radio.
The group of small birds from the 2000 Pixar short film ''
For the Birds'' made a
cameo appearance
A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...
in Cars. As Mack is en route to California at 17:44 in the film, the group of small birds can briefly be seen (and heard) sitting on their familiar telephone wire. In addition, the Pizza Planet truck from ''Toy Story'' also makes a cameo outside of the race track, at the final race in the movie.
Other settings
The rail
grade crossing
A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term also ...
at which Lightning McQueen outruns a freight train on his way to Radiator Springs is protected by a pair of antique "upper-quadrant"
wigwag crossing signals which accurately depict those once made by the
Magnetic Signal Company
The Magnetic Signal Company was an American company based in Los Angeles, California focused on railway signalling. The company was the manufacturer of the ubiquitous "Magnetic Flagman" wigwag railroad crossing (or level crossing) signal seen all ...
in both appearance and start-up. Few are left in actual operation in the United States, and many have been replaced with modern crossing gates, red lights and bells. For decades Wig Wag signals were used in
Point Richmond
Point Richmond, also sometimes referred to locally as The Point, is a neighborhood in Richmond, California, United States, near the eastern end of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, between Interstate 580 and the San Francisco Bay.
History
O ...
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
where Pixar’s original headquarters was located.
"Ornament Valley" is a
reference
Reference is a relationship between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to ''refer to'' the second object. It is called a ''name'' ...
to
Monument Valley
Monument Valley ( nv, Tsé Biiʼ Ndzisgaii, , meaning ''valley of the rocks'') is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of sandstone buttes, the largest reaching above the valley floor. It is located on the Utah-Arizona s ...
. This is not on Route 66, but is a side trip in northern
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
Spring Hills city.
Willy's Butte resembles the landmark of
Mexican Hat, Utah, but also resembles a classic
Pontiac Pontiac may refer to:
*Pontiac (automobile), a car brand
*Pontiac (Ottawa leader) ( – 1769), a Native American war chief
Places and jurisdictions Canada
*Pontiac, Quebec, a municipality
** Apostolic Vicariate of Pontiac, now the Roman Catholic D ...
hood ornament.
The track on which the opening race (Motor Speedway of the South) takes place is based on an enlarged version of
Bristol Motor Speedway
Bristol Motor Speedway, formerly known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway, is a NASCAR short track venue located in Bristol, Tennessee. Constructed in 1960, it held its first NASCAR race on July 30, 1961. Bristol is among the m ...
.
The venue for the Piston Cup tiebreaker race (the Los Angeles International Speedway) is a conglomeration of the
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (also known as the L.A. Coliseum) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Conceived as a hallmark of civic pride, the Coliseum was commissioned in 1921 as a mem ...
, the
Arroyo Seco in Pasadena where the
Rose Bowl is located, as well as the
Auto Club Speedway
Auto Club Speedway, originally opened as California Speedway, is a , low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, near Fontana. It has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1997. It was also previ ...
in Fontana.
The sign "City of Emeryville – Closed for the race" is a nod to
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californi ...
's headquarters in
Emeryville Emeryville may refer to:
* Emeryville, California
Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, with a border on the shore of San ...
, California in the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
.
See also
*
Radium Springs, New Mexico
References
External links
{{authority control
U.S. Route 66
Fictional populated places in Arizona
Cars (franchise)