| Climb aboard your automobile volunteer from the
Cars world, get in gear and put pedal to the metal! Soon enough, you’re
spinning wildly out of control around the dusty desert tracks, throwing up
dirt behind you and gliding through handbrake turns and countless
near-misses with the other madcap motorists! As you pull an impressive full
spin, you switch tracks – into the path of the oncoming cars – and complete
a full figure of eight! At each corner of the track, famous faces from
the film are waiting to cheer you on or taunt your driving skills. As the
rocky desert landscape whizzes past and the canyon walls spiral around, your
super-charged spinout hits the finish line, with seconds to spare! Will you win the Race Rally? Whatever the
outcome, enjoy the ride! You’re about to experience an amazing journey into
the world of Radiator Springs. Facts & Footnotes The attraction will be a heavily customised, park version of Zamperla�s ‘Destruction Derby’ ride. Unlike normal versions of the ride, however, Cars
Race Rally will feature two pairs of turntables, rather than just one. Walt
Disney Imagineering have designed the attraction, with Zamperla credited as
merely manufacturer. Zamperla have previously manufactured a huge number
of Disney�s flat rides, such as
Dumbo the Flying Elephant and
Flying Carpets Over Agrabah
nearby. The ride area, with its two pairs of
turntables, will lie 1 metre below ground level, with extra banked scenery
behind it to give a full “canyon” effect. The Willy’s Butte
rock formation from the film will feature as key icon of the new area,
whilst the queue is to be themed to the various well-known town buildings
from the film. Guests will not ride in vehicles based on
key characters from the film but instead generic vehicles from the Cars
universe, with all the expected facial features. This goes back to the
original project idea of ‘Doc Hudson’s Desert School of Driving’, with
guests having to teach the rookie vehicles to “turn right to go left”.
The Cars come in three varieties – red, blue and turquoise/teal. Each
features a very stylised, “Toon”-ish design when compared to the realistic
cars of the film, since their design is an exaggerated conglomeration of
design features from cars that would have been seen on Route 66 itself in
its heyday. History Previous project names have included �Doc
Hudson�s Desert School of Driving�, �Cars: Radiator Springs Spinout� and
�Cars: Road Rally Racers�.
�Cars Race Rally� was announced as the official name through a page on the
official Walt Disney Studios Park website in June 2006. This is the third attraction of this type
Disney have built in the world. Other examples are �Francis� Lady Bug
Boogie� at Disney�s California Adventure and �The Whirlpool� at Tokyo
DisneySea. Both feature only one pair of turntables. Cars Race Rally,
however, has been built in Italy and will use a revised ride system design
to these two previous models. Original plans for Toon Studio revealed in
January 2005 revealed not a Cars ride but instead a new version of the �A
Bug’s Life�-themed �Tuck ‘n’ Roll’s Drive em Buggies�. All concepts
after this point introduced a Cars attraction, over one year before the
actual release of the film. It used to be the case at Disneyland that
Walt would ensure attractions and events based on films were presented right
at the launch of the film, but in recent years a significant gap had
emerged. In his new roll as Chief Creative Officer, the director of
the film itself, John Lasseter, expressed his wish for Disney to debut
movie-based rides closer to the release of the film, to ensure they had
maximum impact on guests. Cars Race Rally, it would seen, is the first
attraction to follow this plan. The exact nature of the attraction was not
confirmed for quite some time. Rumours persisted it could be a new version
of Autopia or a land-based version of Tokyo DisneySea�s Aquatopia. Ultimately, the spinning turntable ride
design broke through and was
confirmed at a preview of the new attractions programme in September 2005. Construction
began 10th July 2006 with a huge pit dug for the turntable foundations.
The large Willy’s Butte rock formation became a new icon (or “weenie”) of
the Toon Studio are from December 2007, whilst the 12 Cars vehicles
themselves were installed in mid-February 2007. The
attraction is due to officially open on 9th June 2007, along with
Crush�s Coaster. | 
Walt Disney
