Pixar has built its company on telling incredible stories about the passion of life. Whether it’s people (The Incredibles, Up), animals (Ratatouille, A Bugs Life) or even inanimate objects (Toy Story, Cars) the Pixar family finds a way to reach into your heart and tap into your emotions to provide a truly unique theatre experience. Developing this kind of quality isn’t by accident. An environment, in which Pixar encourages employees to embrace their own individual passions as well, fosters the creativity, imagination and talent required to produce each movie. There's an event that takes place annually at their headquarters, called the “Pixar Motarama”, featuring employee cars and a host of unique vehicles that would excite any car enthusiast. The day is strictly for employees and family, and is an opportunity to spend time enjoying good food and great cars with each other. For 15 years (prior to the development of the actual Cars movie) Pixar has put this event on for its car enthusiast employees, which turns out to be…a good amount of them. The event gradually grew and soon, manufacturers were providing sneak peeks of cars (in 2013 they had the only 991 GT3 in North America as well as the Tesla Model X SUV) and notable car enthusiasts such as Jay Leno were offering cars up to showcase. Here's the new Mercedes AMG GTS sitting in front of the main building on campus, the Steve Jobs Building. This isn't a concept car you see everyday: the Chevrolet 2015 Chaparral 2XVGT, straight from Gran Turismo 6. It's laser powered...yes, freaking lasers. If you've seen the movie Tron, think of this as a four wheeled light cycle. The driver lays on his stomach and that rear shows off where the laser powered engine "exits" the vehicle. On the other side of the entranceway was the final edition of Audi's flagship supercar, the 2015 Audi R8 Competition. This vehicle was supplied directly from Audi North America. Facing the building, under Luxo (the character that helped launch Pixar's success) was the Holy Trinity, that's the McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder and the Ferrari La Ferrari...and it's the only location I've ever seen all three in one place. (See a UK sighting of this Trinity in an earlier Driving Line article, HERE.) The three hypercars were quite popular to say the least, below the 918 Spyder is showing off its deep GT Silver paint.
Not nearly as menacing as the P1's rear wing, the 918 Spyder's wing still provided some aerodynamic drama amongst the three. Welcome to the age of "hybrid" logos on hypercars. Not to be left out, the priciest and most reclusive of the three - the LaFerrari was showcased directly under the Luxo lamp. Draped in triple F1 red metallic, this is not your normal "Ferrari" red. Perhaps we'll see some variation of the Holy Trinity in Cars 3? We'll have to wait until 2016 to find out.< Not restricted to modern cars obviously, the Motorama hosts an incredible amount of classics as well. It's easy to see how inspirational these old school lines can be. High arching segregated fenders along with those wire mesh wheels, completely period correct and perfect character for this 1937 Delahaye. The kids approve. With a 225HP V12 (That was a lot in 1937) the Delahaye was the first French made car to beat the German and Italian speed record around the Autodrome De Montlhery. For the JDM fans (I told you there's something for everyone!), check out this VIP Style Lexus GS with a Job Design kit that's been dropped with an Accuair suspension on Rotiforms. Definitely not static. Love the tuck on that rear fender. Displayed immaculately in the trunk is are the Accuair air suspension components. Gorgeous hardaware. Also lowered, but not on air, was this '69 Lamborghini Miura P400S. We recently shared a rare sighting of a Miura Roadster here on Driving Line, see it HERE. Those Bertone styled lines still show up in automotive language to this day. For you young kids, these are called "louvers". Another foreshadowing of Cars inspiration perhaps? Eyelashes on the headlights? Opposite the Miura, was a car that 20 years later would set records all on its own, the legendary Porsche 959. Next to its later competitor, the Ferrari F40 - the pearl white 959 looks as if it's playing the role of an angel versus the Ferrari red devil. The wings of this time period were fixed, but still supplied suitable downforce compared to the theatrics of the holy trinity. This particular F40 was sporting aftermarket Kinesis wheels with factory centerlock. Even the pearl white of the 959 couldn't hide the massive front and rear flares required for traction on the twin turbo beast. Remember how I mentioned sneak peeks? Here's the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro in the flesh. GM just released the official order guide about a day ago. Looking for something to cover up that spare tire on your Jeep? Checkout these cool custom Pixar movie themed covers created by the husband of an employee; can you name all the films? My personal favorite, if you haven't seen Up! you're missing out... Employee bikes were on hand as well, since any mode of employee transportation is welcome at the Motorama. A very clean 2006 Ducati Sport Classic 1000. A 2014 Yamaha YZF-R1 - this bike brought back a bunch of memories, as I'm a YZF fan back from when I first started driving. Each year, the Pixar Motorama strives to unite employee automotive passion with its families and co-workers in a casual, creative environment. As you can see 2015 was no slouch as well, its main highlights being: the Holy Trinity of hypercars: the McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder and Ferrari LaFerrari; two of the '90's most venerable supercars: the Porsche 959 and Ferrari F40; as well as a full 1:1 scale of Hot Wheels' latest creation, the Darth Vader Car.
