Cars 2 Premiere: A closer look at Finn, Holley and Rod

Cars 2, which opens on Friday, stands to be one of the top box-office hits of the summer. Many of our favorite characters are back, such as Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater, but there are also a bunch of new rides rolling onto the big screen.

Some, like Grem the Gremlin and Acer the Pacer, take obvious inspiration from real cars. Others are a bit more ambiguous.

Let's take a quick look at three of those newcomers--Finn McMissile, Holley Shiftwell and Rod Redline--along with their descriptions courtesy of Disney/Pixar. We've also put them side-by-side with the vehicles we think they might be modeled after.

What say you? Add your thoughts in the Comments section.

Disney / Wikipedia
Finn McMissile bears a striking resemblance to the BMW 507...with some Aston Martin DB5 thrown in.

Finn McMissile

Disney: Finn McMissile is a master British spy. Though charming and eloquent, it's his stealth maneuvering, intelligence and years in the field that enable him to thwart unexpected attacks from bad guys, making quick daredevil escapes.

Finn's design is sleek and timeless, but he's also prepared for any tricky situation with an arsenal of ultracool gadgets and weaponry, including front and rear grappling hooks, a missile launcher, deployable magnetic explosives and a holographic disguise emitter.

AutoWeek: Call him British if you want, but Finn McMissile bears more than a slight resemblance to the BMW 507. The animators seem to have spliced in some Aston Martin DB5 from the A-pillars back, but that grille is all Bimmer.

Disney / Wikipedia
Holley Shiftwell could be a number of cars, but we're going with the Jaguar XJ220 as her main inspiration.

Holley Shiftwell

Disney: Holley Shiftwell is a beautiful young British desk-agent-turned-spy-in-training who's stationed in Tokyo. Well-educated and sharp, she knows every trick in the book--or rather, she relies on every trick in the spy manual.

AutoWeek: Holley is all curves. Given her British pedigree, we're leaning toward the Jaguar XJ220 supercar of the 1990s for her inspiration. The headlights aren't quite right, but there's enough resemblance for us.

Disney / Wikipedia
Rod "Torque" Redline is all about channeling the Dodge Challenger...and the AMC Matador?

Rod “Torque” Redline

Disney: Rod “Torque” Redline is considered by many as the greatest American spy in the world. Recruited after the Cold War for both his brains and brawn, Torque is a tough-as-nails Detroit muscle car with a mastery of disguises.

AutoWeek: They're using the grille to try to throw us off the scent here, but that Rod fellow is all Dodge Challenger behind the louvers. And about that grille: We know they were going for Mustang, but they ended up with AMC Matador.

By Andrew Stoy