When director John Lasseter envisioned the movie Cars, he imagined a throwback to the halcyon days of his youth. It was a time when people across the country would all take the same road, U.S. Route 66, to get where they were going. In this simpler time, the destination was less important than the journey, and cars were integral to traveling experience.
The popularity of the Cars franchise is almost unimaginable. With global box office of $461 million, Pixar’s final film prior to their acquisition by Disney is a blockbuster by any standard. Where the brand differentiates itself, however, is through toy sales. In the period from its release in 2006 until the first quarter of 2013, Cars merchandise earned over $10 billion in revenue. If you’re a parent of a child during that timeframe, this is not new information to you, either.
Given the popularity of not just the films but especially the toys, bringing the realm of Radiator Springs to The Walt Disney Company’s theme parks was inevitable. The arrival of Cars Land at Disney’s California Adventure in 2012 represented one of the largest expansions of any Disney theme park to date. The company spent over a billion dollars renovating and adding to their already established facilities.
The signature attraction in the implementation of the themed area of Cars Land is Radiator Springs Racers, which carries a sticker shock-inducing price tag of more than $200 million. It’s far and away the most expensive ride ever built at Disneyland, and it’s in the conversation for costliest ride of all-time. Since the Cars Land expansion, traffic at the park has increased from 6,341,000 in 2011 to 8,769,000 in 2014. Obviously, Cars Land is striking a chord with a lot of potential guests, and Radiator Springs Racers is a key reason why. Let’s go Behind the Ride to discover all the reasons why Radiator Springs Racers is so popular.
1.The Experience: Recreating the Backdrop of Radiator Springs
The Trick: Pave a Parking Lot, Put Up a Paradise
Mother Nature is especially good at building mountains. She gets millions of years to provide finished products, though. In the case of Disney’s California Adventures, Disney rock-work art director Zsolt Hormay and his team had only a couple of years to build the 125-foot tall mountain range named Ornament Valley. This sandstone mesa encompasses the background landscape for the film version of Cars and is therefore crucial to the design of Cars Land.
Disney hired a team of specialists from across the globe who met the twin criteria requisite for the project. They had to possess the construction experience needed to operate on such a large-scale design. They also needed the artisanship to remember that style matters just as much at Disney theme parks as substances. So, a slew of master builders with a track record of artistic achievement were brought onboard.
These professionals welded, sculpted, and painted the entire structure, literally bringing a fictional mountain into reality. In the process, they demolished the prior “Timon” parking lot to put up their mountain, thereby inverting the lyrics of that Joni Mitchell song, Big Yellow Taxi. There are 4,000 tons of steel in the structure of Ornament Valley. Meanwhile, Disney employees spent 28,000 man-hours making it life-like and visually breathtaking. Anyone who has ever visited Cars Land knows that they performed the job masterfully. The man-made mountain highlights the stunning visage of Radiator Springs.
If you want to watch Hormay describe the process himself and see some footage of the making-of process itself, watch this YouTube video.
2. The Experience: Recreating the World of Cars
The Trick: Bringing the Characters of Cars to Life
The folksy charm of Cars the movie is predicated upon the genteel nature of its characters. Doc Hudson, Sally Carrera, Ramone, Luigi, Guido, Flo, Sarge, Sheriff, and Fillmore all inhabit the city of Radiator Springs. Each one enriches it with their unique personality, whether you enjoy Fillmore’s hippy hijinks, Sheriff’s disapproval of said hijinks, Luigi and Guido’s love of tires, or Doc’s constant wisdom. Creating a Cars ride that fails to highlight their communal nature is a pointless exercise. And that goes double for Lightning McQueen and Mater, the stars of Cars.
Fortunately, Disney Imagineers employ a clever design element to make the rider feel like they’re a guest of Radiator Springs. The styling of the attraction is similar to other Disney theme park staples like Pirates of the Caribbean, It’s a Small World, and Splash Mountain wherein the rider actually encounters the denizens of the realm. With Radiator Springs Racers, that means a brief tour of the “downtown” area of the city, which means the only place where anybody hangs out in this sleepy burg.
The cart takes the rider along a linear path, starting outdoors to highlight the mountains but eventually heading indoors. At this point, a visually stimulating world of shiny cars is waiting to greet the visitor. This is subtle but important, as the premise of Cars the movie is that Radiator Springs functions as a brief pit stop for travelers on their journey across the country.
While the tone of the town is understated in the film, the theme park attraction version of the city is filled with eye-grabbing neon lights and stunningly detailed set pieces. Guests drive down the main throughway of Radiator Springs before taking a brief detour to receive car service at Luigi’s Casa Della Tires. Since there are no people in this world, only anthropomorphic cars, there is no need for Disney’s usual brand of human animatronics. Instead, all the characters from the film are recreated in life-like (well, car-like) fashion during the attraction. Everything you see during Radiator Springs Racers is authentic in this regard.
3. The Experience: Creating an Atmospheric Thrill Ride
The Trick: Repurposing Ideas from Test Track
Walt Disney World’s Epcot doesn’t have a lot of signature rides, but Test Track has remained a favorite since its debut in 1999. It’s also the subject of a previous Behind the Ride article. Disney Imagineers are huge fans of recycling work, understanding that a premise that works in one park is likely to prove just as popular elsewhere.
Rather than design an entirely new ride experience for Radiator Springs Racers, Imagineers sagely chose to stick with something they knew worked already. Enter Test Track. The design of this ride involves an indoor and outdoor component. Park guests build their own car design and then test its quality during a series of challenges such as efficiency, responsiveness, and power. Spoiler: Nobody ever does well on efficiency, but everyone aces the power test. After a few near misses indoors, the attraction cart explodes into the outdoor setting and accelerates to 64.9 miles per hour. Those few thrilling moments in the sunlight are a visceral thrill.
Radiator Springs Racers extends the concept a bit. Since the premise of the town is that guests stop by on the way to other places, you actually begin your journey outside. It’s a slow sojourn through the beautiful country just beyond the town, including the memorable waterfall from the film. Then, the setting changes to an indoor section. Here’s where the unmistakable comparisons to Test Track begin.
Whereas you avoid a random semi-tractor at Epcot, Cars Land thrusts you into the oncoming traffic that is Mack the tractor-trailer. Seconds later, the weather test is replaced by a narrow escape at railroad tracks, a lecture from Sheriff, and an encounter with Mater and some easily spooked tractors. The style and setting are unmistakably similar. The difference is that Test Track employs random situations whereas Radiator Springs Racers maximizes its rider enjoyment via character licensing. It feels like a much more authentic Disney ride in this regard.
After you’ve enjoyed a tune-up at Luigi’s Casa Della Tires or a paint job at Ramone’s House of Body Art, Radiator Springs Racers follows the same trajectory as Test Track once again. It thrusts the rider outside, but there is one slight variance. You see a different ride cart to your side, which is the Racers part of the ride title.
The two cars simultaneously explode into the open terrain just outside Radiator Springs, engaging in a competitor race to the finish line. While the start of the attraction is a slow ride through beautiful country, the departure from town is all about pure speed and adrenaline. Of course, Cars Land is a child-friendly attraction, the maximum velocity is much lower at 40 MPH than the top speed at Test Track.
There is an additional difference, as the fast portion of Radiator Springs Racers is not quite the end of the ride. Instead, the vehicles enter a final dark area where Lightning McQueen and Mater congratulate you on a quality race, naming everyone winners today. He’s technically wrong, though. One cart does win each race. Of course, you have no control over whether you emerge victorious or not. One of the two vehicles is randomly selected to add a level of intrigue to each ride.
