UNIVERSAL CITY, CA – It's been 25 years since "The Fast and the Furious" hit theaters, and for the first time, fans can experience what it’s like to sit in the driver’s seat.
Universal Studios Hollywood's highly anticipated Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift roller coaster is currently in soft opening, and it's as thrilling as anything seen on screen.
"The drift, the sway, and full rotation, there's almost this ... suspension of disbelief, that you're actually in a car and you're mimicking those moves," Jon Corfino, vice president of Creative at Universal Studios Hollywood, told USA TODAY.
But here’s why some fans may want to wait a little longer before they try it.
Is the Fast & Furious coaster open?
Yes and no. The Southern California coaster has soft-opened, meaning it may be available,
but could close without notice as Universal fine-tunes operations.
Additionally, the park is working to address noise complaints from neighbors, over the screams of enthusiastic riders. It's implementing extra sound-reduction measures, even though testing confirms the attraction is operating within sound ordinance requirements.
Fans coming from far away may want to wait until an official opening date is announced.
In the meantime, Los Angeles-based annual passholder Doug Perry advised: "Don't expect it to be open and just hope that it is."
Perry has followed the ride closely as both a coaster fan and social media manager and Pacific Southwest representative for American Coaster Enthusiasts, which describes itself as the world’s largest club for ride enthusiasts. He and his twin brother, Derek, have each ridden more than 1,400 different coasters worldwide and have already ridden Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift multiple times.
"Every time, it's like, 'Oh, I want to go right back on that if I can,'" Perry said. "It's just such a unique experience, and it's so fun."
Coaster specs
Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift is an Intamin coaster featuring 4,100 feet of track, 360-degree spins, multiple inversions, and speeds of up to 72 miles per hour. The track itself hugs the hillside between the park’s upper and lower lots and offers stunning views of the surrounding valley.
Perry noted that unlike other spinning coasters, whose rotation may depend on weight distribution within the vehicle, these coaster cars are programmed to spin at specific times along the track, in sync with the on-board audio.
"It can be disorienting in a good way with going backwards and shifting to the side and everything," he said.
"There is no doubt that you are thrilled out of your mind, but you're not going to feel like you've gone 15 rounds with Mike Tyson," Corfino echoed. "You will have gone really fast and you will spin out and you will be drifting, but you're going to get out and you're going to be OK."
What cars are in the Fast and the Furious ride?
Corfino said they evaluated numerous vehicles from the films before deciding on four "natural" icons for the coaster’s trains:
- The lead car is modeled after Dominic Toretto’s black 1970 Dodge Charger R/T.
- Two cars are modeled after vehicles driven by Brian O'Conner: a blue 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 and an orange 1994 Toyota Supra MK IV, which fans may recognize as his "10-second car."
- A fourth car is modeled after the orange 1997 Mazda RX-7 driven by Han Seoul-oh.
"We're not trying to put you in the movie, but we paid an amazing amount of attention to the design of the vehicles," Corfino said, not wanting to disappoint fans who he knew would notice the details. "You see the engine on the front of the Charger that's there, the width of the tires ... all the seams, gas caps, tail lights, everything that's there is very authentic."
Guests will see other vehicles, including props from the films, along the ride's queue. They’ll also find QR codes, which direct them to clips from the making of the films.
"It kind of harkens us back to one of the things that Universal Studios Hollywood has that's very unique. We're an authentic motion picture studio," Corfino said. "It's kind of taking you behind the scenes into the movies again."
Universal Orlando Resort is also building a Fast & Furious coaster, but it’s still under construction. Its track will be very different from Hollywood's version.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why the new ride at Universal Studios Hollywood is making fans scream
