Disney's cute Porsche - Sally Carrera

While many animated cars have their eyes in their headlamps, Pixar Animation Studios’ John Lasseter, director of the upcoming “CARS,” along with his team of Pixar artists, decided that to turn cars into movie actors with expressive faces, they needed to have their eyes in the windshield, with mouths in their bumpers.

Because virtual Sally Carrera is a 2002 model Porsche, Paul and his crew updated sheetmetal Sally with new front fenders, bumpers, headlights, tail lights and other 2002 model year parts. Keeping the car’s proportions meant keeping the door intact, but moving the rear jam back 3 inches. The rocker panels were extended an inch closer to the ground and all windows were custom made from Plexiglas. Eyelids were built into the windshield and Paul fabricated curved eyeballs and a system that uses magnets so the eyeballs turn. Side windows were covered with what Paul describes as the first application of “candy apple black” tinting. The windshield also is wrapped with a one-way, see-thru plastic like that used in wrapping buses in advertising. Sally’s front bumper includes a mouth with teeth.

As a child, Eddie Paul laid the groundwork for his future career by cutting up bicycles. He built his own “chopper” motorcycle when he was 16, became interested in hang-gliding, and survived a 360-foot fall from a glider. That led him into doing stunts for Hollywood productions and to putting his fabricating skills to use for the movie and television industries.

He built the hot rod that John Travolta drove in “Grease,” a movie for which he built nearly 50 cars. He also built the vehicles for “The Fast and the Furious” and many other movies and television shows. Perhaps his most famous work was creating a mechanical Great White Shark so Fabien Cousteau, grandson of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, could swim with real sharks in their natural environment.

“As unusual as that project may have been, I never thought I’d get to cut a Porsche in half,” said Paul. “It seemed like there were a thousand wires, lines, hoses, linkages and cables we had to cut through. But when we put it back together everything worked! And with seven inches out of the wheelbase,” he added, “sheetmetal Sally turns on a dime and will park anywhere.”

Paul is also in the process of building full-scale and running versions of Lightning McQueen and Mater. About Disney•Pixar’s “CARS”

“CARS” tells the story of Lightning McQueen, a hotshot rookie racecar driven to succeed, who discovers that life is about the journey, not the finish line, when he finds himself unexpectedly detoured in the sleepy Route 66 town of Radiator Springs. On route across the country to the big Piston Cup Championship in California to compete against two seasoned pros, McQueen gets to know the town’s offbeat characters who help him realize that there are more important things than trophies, fame and sponsorship. The all-star vocal cast includes free-wheeling performances by Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Larry the Cable Guy, and Bonnie Hunt, along with Cheech Marin, George Carlin, racing legend Richard Petty, Michael Keaton, Tony Shalhoub and John Ratzenberger. Fueled with plenty of humor, action, heartfelt drama, and amazing new technical feats, CARS races into theaters on June 9th.