The Fast & Furious franchise has entertained car enthusiasts for decades, and it ignited automotive passions for countless more people since the first movie debuted in 2001. Its high octane depictions of badass men and women in the world of underground car culture have thrilled audiences across the globe, but most folks don’t get a chance to experience the thrill of drifting in real life. This ride is supposed to mimic that thrill, and it is the first high-speed outdoor thrill ride at Universal Studios Hollywood, so it’s bound to be a popular attraction. This new attraction will be called “Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift,” and it will replicate the drifting depicted in the franchise’s famous race scenes, so anyone will be able to get a taste of the excitement of drifting without fear of crashing or facing legal repercussions.
The ride’s queue will direct thrill seekers through a large garage-style structure made of red brick that should elicit the vibe of a metropolitan garage, and it will feature cars modeled after the movie cars. Universal Studios Hollywood exists in a relatively small area that’s surrounded by homes, so the ride must be both exciting for riders, but also minimize noise pollution. The park claims that the new roller coaster will feature technological achievements never previously employed in a roller coaster, but we’ll have to wait to see if that’s true. KTLA 5 News reports,
The ride will launch from the park’s upper lot and descend into the lower lot for a series of banked turns and inversions, including a loop around the Starway escalator. Park officials said its cars will be able to rotate 360 degrees to replicate the drifting seen in the movie franchise’s famous race scenes.
Universal Studios Hollywood already offers a Fast & Furious Supercharged studio tour, but it isn’t a traditional roller coaster, it’s an immersive experience that’s witnessed from a studio tour tram. Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift will be a real roller coaster that I hope does the exhilarating franchise proud, and I’m interested to see how accurately a roller coaster can mimic the sensation of drifting. The ride is said to open in 2026 with “groundbreaking 360-degree rotation in drifting cars that will send you catapulting along an elaborate ride track at furiously fast speeds.” Few other details about the new ride have been released as of now, so it’ll be a waiting game to see how successfully this coaster can embody the thrills seen in the movies. One thing is for certain, if it isn’t fast, I’ll be furious.