The newest roaring attraction at Universal Hollywood is set to feature heavy references to dead Fast and the Furious star Paul Walker.
The park’s new coaster, “Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift,” has two ride vehicles designed after Brian O’Conner’s sports cars in the franchise. Brian O’Conner is the character Walker portrayed.
Fans will have a chance to ride in two of Walker’s cars from the franchise, including a blue 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R and his orange 1994 Toyota Supra, considered “one of the most memorable cars in the film franchise.”
The other two ride vehicles are driven by Dominic Toretto, played by Vin Diesel, and Han Seoul-oh, portrayed by Sung Kang.
Walker died in a tragic 2013 car crash and was widely memorialized in the Fast and the Furious community. His likeness was recreated using CGI for the Furious 7 movie he was filming at the time of his death. The popular “See You Again,” song by Charlie Puth and Wiz Khalifa was heard during a famous scene with the artificial Walker and Diesel.
Parkgoers at the San Fernando Valley theme park should expect a thrilling experience when riding the coaster, due to open this summer, a Universal executive told The LA Times.
“It’s a high level of intensity, absolutely, for sure,” park executive Jon Corfino said.
He added that the ride, while intense, is still a smooth experience. Guests should expect speeds up to 72 mph and multiple inversions on 4,100 feet of track over the cliffside separating the upper and lower lots of the park.
“I’ve ridden coasters that I would say are high intensity, but they’re very aggressive,” he said. “They’re very rough. But if you look at what we tried to achieve here, it’s that you’re in a [car] vehicle. It’s very smooth. It’s not something that would be not natural for a car, if that makes sense.”
Corfino said the company labored to make the cars as realistic as possible, even including fake odometers.
“The truth is I was really laboring,” Corfino said. “They all have realistic sound effects, and when you hit the bottom, the big launch, I wanted to hear the NOS kick in. But you’re going so fast, at 72 mph, and with the wind, you’re not hearing anything. Quite frankly, your vision is even kind of shaky because you’re going so fast.”
It’s unclear when the ride’s opening day will be this summer. An entry on their website said the ride was opening June 26, but it has since been corrected.
“‘Fast and Furious: Hollywood Drift’ will open this summer and we look forward to sharing its official opening date soon. An opening date was incorrectly posted on the Universal Studios Hollywood website and we apologize for the confusion. Stay tuned for more to come!”
Recent videos showed people testing out the ride, but it remained closed to the public as of Saturday.
