The ride queue for the new Fast & Furious roller coaster coming to Universal Studios Hollywood will pass through a recreation of the movie studio workshop where the stunt vehicles were conceived for the street racing film franchise that has earned $7 billion at the worldwide box office.
The new Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift coaster will open this summer with a hillside-hugging track stretching between the Upper and Lower Lots of the movie theme park.
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Universal Creative Vice President Jon Corfino offered a behind-the-scenes tour of the Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift ride queue that features props and ride vehicles featured in the film franchise.
“This isn’t about putting you in a movie,” Corfino said. “This is a love letter to the stunt people and stunt coordinators. That’s the overall ethos of everything.”
The coaster queue showcases replicas of stunt vehicles and props used in the film franchise — with many of them created by Fast & Furious Picture Car Coordinator Dennis McCarthy in his Sun Valley-based Vehicle Effects shop.
“This franchise is known for being very real,” Corfino said. “The back story here is that we’ve walked into the workshop or the garage of the stunt crew.”
Burning rubber tire tracks marking the cement in the queue lead riders into the Fast & Furious stunt crew’s workshop filled with tool benches, dry erase white boards and video screens.
“You’ll see storyboards that are straight from the actual film,” Corfino said. “We have a lot of footage that we’ve gotten our hands on that show these guys out in the streets playing with their Hot Wheels cars, talking about how they’re going to do this stuff and who’s doing what.”
Many of the Fast & Furious stunt vehicles and props in the queue have QR codes that take riders to video segments showing how the movie stunts were created.
Let’s take a closer look at all the stunt vehicles and props in the Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift queue.
Car Cannon
Featuring the 1970 Ford Escort Mk1 driven by Brian O’Conner (played by the late Paul Walker) in “Fast & Furious 6.”
The car cannon prop demonstrates how a stunt vehicle is shot up to 300 feet over a cliff or across a valley.
Eagle-eyed riders will spot the car cannon storyboard in the stunt crew’s workshop in the queue.
Vault Truck
Featuring the bank vault stunt vehicle used in “Fast Five.”
Dominic Toretto (played by Vin Diesel) and Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) pull the 9,000-pound bank vault through the streets of Rio de Janeiro using a pair of modified Dodge Chargers.
“They drag this thing all through the streets, banging into stuff and taking it through buildings and everything else,” Corfino said. “But clearly, that’s not how it was really done.”
A pickup truck hidden inside the vault and driven by a stunt driver shows how the crew pulled off the stunt.
Yamaha WR250
Featuring the dirt bike used by Letty Ortiz (played by Michelle Rodriguez) for stunt and off-road sequences for “F9: The Fast Saga.”
“That was actually used in the film,” Corfino said.
Ramp Car
Featuring the low-profile car driven by bad guys Owen Shaw (played by Luke Evans) and Vegh (Clara Paget) in “Fast & Furious 6.”
The wedge-shaped, tube-framed vehicle with a sloped front end and an impressive 430-horsepower V8 engine is often used by stunt drivers to facilitate car flips in action movies, according to Corfino.
The ramp car with independent four-wheel steering has seats for three drivers that allows for unparalleled maneuverability during chase scenes.
NOS System Engine
Featuring a Dodge Charger engine with a recreation of the internal NOS (Nitrous Oxide Systems) performance enhancer used to modify vehicles in the Fast & Furious films.
The prop display explains how injecting nitrous oxide into the engine provides a temporary horsepower boost.
Rolling Bomb
Featuring the giant spherical bomb deployed by villain Dante Reyes (played by Jason Momoa) in “Fast X.”
The neutron bomb measuring 7 feet in diameter rolls down the Spanish Steps and through the crowded streets of Rome in the movie.
Rollover Stunt Rig
Featuring the Nissan GT-R driven by Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) in the Fast & Furious films.
The car’s two right wheels are raised off the ground in the queue to demonstrate the rollover stunt rigging system used for car flip stunt sequences.
Dodge Charger
Featuring one of the Dodge Charger SRT8 cars used during the bank vault heist in “Fast Five.”
The prop car in the queue demonstrates the heavy-duty interior roll cage and massive centrally mounted winch engineered to withstand the extreme pulling torque required for the movie’s climactic scene.
This Charger is different from the signature car driven by Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel).
“That’s not Dom’s car with the big blower on it,” Corfino said.