There wasn’t a Piston Cup being held in Brockville, Ont. on Sunday, but that didn’t stop one of the stars from the movie Cars from making a pit stop in the City of Thousand Islands.
A near perfect replica of Lighting McQueen came to Hardy Park for a meet and greet. Dozens of kids got as close as they could to get a better view of the vehicle.
A welcome sight for the vehicle’s owner, Gary Papaya.
“Obviously I’m obsessed with (the) movie Cars from Disney,” he said in an interview, wearing a Lightning McQueen-themed hoodie and crocs.
He said he was inspired after watching the first Cars movie, released by Pixar in 2006.
“I said, oh, this is interesting because I love cars, but I didn’t know that there’s a movie with the cars,” he said.
“I didn’t imagine one day I (would) have a car that reflects that movie.”
Papaya moved to Canada in 2018 from the Philippines. In 2021, he bought a Ford Mustang, a car he felt was the closest depiction of McQueen from the movies and he decked it out.
When he started driving the car around his home in Cambridge, Ont., he noticed people wanted to take pictures of it. That gave him the idea to start several social media pages under the handle “LightingMcqueenOntario.”
The licence plate for a Lightning McQueen replica with its signature quote “Kachoow” from the movie Cars. (Jack Richardson/CTV News Ottawa)
From there, Papaya’s car gained popularity and people started reaching out about making appearances.
He now travels with his car to charity events and car shows across Ontario, but he’s also been as far west as Alberta and as far east as Newfoundland.
“They want me to come for the kids,” Papaya said. “It’s really for the kids though.”
After wrapping up in Brockville, Papaya headed up Highway 416 where he held another meet and greet at the Merivale Mall.