Julie Hinds

Detroit Free Press Pop Culture Critic

Lightning McQueen may be older now, but he still looks like a billion dollars.

A life-size model of the lead four-wheeled character from the "Cars" franchise made its debut Sunday afternoon at the North American International Auto Show during a Pixar event for journalists.

Animation icon John Lasseter was there to introduce the event and McQueen, who'll be back on the big screen June 16 in "Cars 3."

"Truly, this entire franchise, it all started here," said Lasseter, who oversees all the animated films from Disney and Pixar as chief creative officer.

The previous two "Cars" movies earned more than $1 billion globally at theaters, according to Box Office Mojo.

The Oscar-winning Lasseter took attendees of the Detroit auto show event on a trip down memory lane with a visual presentation on the 2006 original "Cars." It included included images from his initial 2001 auto show trip to the Motor City to research the idea.

The Lightning McQueen vehicle will be on display at a "Cars 3" exhibit on the show floor. Public days start Saturday and run through Jan. 22.

During Sunday's press conference, "Cars 3" production designer Jay Shuster, a metro Detroit native whose father is a retired GM designer, and "Cars" franchise creative director Jay Ward talked about the development of two new characters: Jackson Storm, a young, hot-shot race car who's a rival of McQueen, and Cruz Ramirez, a female racing instructor who'll be a strong new character.