* McQueen was named after Pixar animator Glenn McQueen, who died in 2002 of cancer.

* Kelley Blue Book priced McQueen's value at $1.5 million in a promotional press release issued before Cars was released.

* The make of the tires McQueen buys in Radiator Springs from Guido and Luigi is Fettuccini Alfredo.

* The new red-and-white paint job McQueen gets from Ramone is the same paint job on the Corvette from the Route 66 TV show.

* One of the most collectible McQueen diecast cars is the Blu-Ray McQueen. Only 15,000 copies of this diecast car were made.

* Unlike some characters in the movie, McQueen is not based on a single make of car. He was designed as a "hybrid between a stock car and a more curvaceous Le Mans endurance racer, with some Lola and some [Ford] GT40," according to an LA Times article.

* When McQueen thinks Sheriff is shooting at him, he says "Serpentine, serpentine." This is a reference to a scene from The In-Laws in which Peter Falk instructs Alan Arkin's character to run "serpentine style" to avoid bullets.

* When McQueen is being interviewed after finishing the Piston Cup in a three-way tie, he's shown with four tires, and his crew is replacing ALL of them. But the two rear tires were blown during the race, so he shouldn't have any rear tires at all in this shot.