Disclosure: Inside Universal attended the Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift media event as a guest of Universal Studios Hollywood, with airfare and hotel accommodations provided. Opinions are our own.
For a franchise built around fast cars doing insane things, Fast & Furious had struggled to find its footing as a theme park attraction at Universal Parks.
In 2006, The Fast & The Furious: Extreme Close-Up debuted as part of the Studio Tour, featuring cars performing “demonstrations” with robotic arms. Then came Fast & Furious: Supercharged, which Universal put the franchise’s stars front and center, surrounding guests with the characters, screens, and a story about joining the “family.”
That attraction famously didn’t fare well with fans.
After two very different attempts to translate Fast & Furious into a theme park attraction, Universal appears to have settled on the simplest solution: People want to go fast.
Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift doesn’t try to put you into one of the films. It doesn’t send you to join Dominic Toretto and family to go on a mission. In fact, aside from Vin Diesel’s likeness appearing in the loading station’s murals, the franchise’s characters are notably absent.
Instead, Hollywood Drift puts the spotlight where it probably should have been all along: on the cars, and most importantly, the speed.
Something fast… and something furious.
And it’s friggin’ awesome!
That starts with the queue. While it’s pretty straightforward and won’t win any awards for its theming, it features several props from the films and puts a lot of focus on the stunt work that has defined the franchise.
According to Universal Creative Vice President Jon Corfino, that was the goal from the get-go.
“We wanted to do things that have never been done before; the drifting, the inversions, all these great things, but at the same time, we wanted to hit that heritage point,” Corfino told us.
“It didn’t make sense to try to say that ‘we’re gonna put you in a movie’ or try to create a narrative about putting you in this ‘reality.’ It felt better, and more natural, to take you behind the scenes to show how some of these great stunts were done.”
“The films feature some of the most dynamic stunts ever done,” Corfino said. “It was about blending both worlds; we wanted to immerse you in the physical sensation, but we also wanted to bring you behind the scenes.” And for a park built around a working movie studio, it echoes the behind-the-scenes philosophy that has been part of Universal’s theme park DNA since the beginning.
“This stuff was done here,” Corfino added. “This is the ‘OG’ Universal. It started here.”
The best part of the queue, though? The coaster views. Guests get several great looks at Hollywood Drift in action while waiting, including one particularly impressive spot where the coaster swoops in, bisects the queue, then races out over the nearby StarWay.
Before heading to the station, guests will also encounter a new locker setup for Universal Studios Hollywood, using the dual-sided system first introduced at Universal Orlando’s VelociCoaster. You store your belongings on one side and retrieve them from the other after riding. Each locker features a letter and a color scheme inspired by one of the franchise’s cars, which is a nice touch that also makes remembering your locker a little easier.
Hollywood Drift also offers a Single Rider line, but Universal Express is currently unavailable, which is the norm for a new marquee attraction, as Universal has historically held off on Express during an attraction’s opening period.
Once you get to the station, though, it’s all about the cars.
Hollywood Drift features four vehicles inspired by some of the franchise’s most iconic rides: Dominic Toretto’s 1970 Dodge Charger R/T, Han Lue’s 1997 Mazda RX-7, and Brian O’Conner’s 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 and 1994 Toyota Supra MK IV – and they look fantastic.
The vehicles feature carbon-fiber-inspired lap-bar seating and, perhaps more importantly, are remarkably comfortable. They also seem fairly “large mammal friendly,” though everyone’s body dimensions are different, so individual experiences will obviously vary.
Even the onboard audio keeps the focus on the cars. There’s no traditional soundtrack here. Instead, the speakers pump engine and NOS sounds throughout the ride.
The station also features a massive mural by artist Tristan Eaton, which pays tribute to the final scene of the original The Fast and the Furious, with Dom’s Dodge Charger and Brian’s Toyota Supra going head-to-head.
Hollywood Drift reaches a top speed of 72 mph, making it the fastest coaster in Universal’s current theme park arsenal. It doesn’t maintain that speed throughout the entire ride, but when it wants to pack a punch, it certainly does.
But the biggest surprise is just how smooth the ride is.
Watching Hollywood Drift from the ground, especially as the cars rotate through inversions and whip around the hillside, you’d probably expect it to beat you up a little.
It doesn’t.
Hollywood Drift is easily one of the smoothest roller coasters I’ve been on.
Corfino said that was exactly the type of reaction Universal wanted. “I want them to say, ‘We never experienced anything like this before. This is the most amazing thing,’ and ‘It didn’t beat us up,’” he said.
The defining feature, of course, is the 360-degree rotation of the ride vehicles. The cars rotate along with the track, creating that drifting sensation that gives the coaster its name.
It’s also what makes each car a different experience.
For the coaster fans, the Toyota Supra, or Car 4, is probably the way to go. Sitting toward the back gives you more of that traditional coaster feel, with some of the strongest forces of the four vehicles.
But Cars 2 and 3 (The Mazda RX-7 and Nissan Skyline) may provide the more unique Hollywood Drift experience.
The rotation lets you interact with the other cars around you, and when you’re riding with a large party, it’s incredibly fun to suddenly rotate and find your friends staring back at you from another vehicle.
“Truly, the magic is the rotation because you get to see the people around you, their expressions,” Corfino said. “Depending on which car you’re in, you’ll see all three cars, two cars, or one car, so it’s different no matter what.”
It gives Hollywood Drift a lot of re-rideability. Riding in a different vehicle changes what you see and, to a degree, how you experience the coaster.
It’s even more impressive when you consider where, and how, Universal built the thing.
Universal Studios Hollywood isn’t exactly blessed with size, yet Hollywood Drift stretches across the hillside between the Upper and Lower Lots. The coaster now dominates much of Universal’s skyline. From several areas around the property, you can catch different angles of the vehicles racing and drifting across the hillside.
Of course, putting a massive outdoor coaster on a hillside overlooking the surrounding community wasn’t without its challenges.
Noise became one of the biggest stories surrounding Hollywood Drift during its final months of testing and finishing construction. Universal had already taken significant measures to reduce sound from the coaster itself, but residents of neighboring Toluca Lake raised concerns that rider screams carried into the community.
Additional sound barriers are currently being installed, creating some last-minute hurdles as Hollywood Drift approached its planned Summer 2026 opening. Universal ultimately made good on that window, although with only a few days of summer left to spare.
Considering everything Universal had to work around, what they pulled off with Hollywood Drift is pretty damn impressive.
The hillside views are a big part of what makes Hollywood Drift unique.
That’ll become even more evident next year, when Universal Studios Florida opens its own Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift in 2027. While the Florida version will use the same 360-degree rotating vehicle technology, it’ll feature a completely different track layout. And, obviously, Orlando doesn’t have a Hollywood hillside to work with.
Hollywood Drift feels like exactly what Universal Studios Hollywood needed.
The park has spent years growing beyond the Studio Tour and becoming more of a full-fledged theme park. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Super Nintendo World were huge additions, but the park was still missing one major piece: a true outdoor roller coaster.
Well, it has one now.
Hollywood Drift isn’t Universal’s most elaborately themed attraction, but it doesn’t need to be. Universal built an incredible roller coaster, put guests inside some of the most recognizable cars from Fast & Furious, and let the ride do the rest.
There’s no elaborate mission. No need to convince us that we’re suddenly part of a family.
It’s just cars doing ridiculous things at high speeds. Something fast…Something furious.
Hollywood Drift delivers both.
Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift is now open at Universal Studios Hollywood.
