Universal Unveils New Fast & Furious Coaster

So now we know. After several months of seeing the construction of a major new ride at Universal Orlando, the park’s PR machine has finally given us the word on what it is and when it will open. And it promises to be quite a construction, a fast and furious one, no less.

We knew something big was on the cards in August last year when the Universal Studios park suddenly put up the construction boards around the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit coaster and began quietly dismantling the iconic ride.

There was a collective “Huh?” from the region’s theme park fans as we all wondered what on earth could be going on with a ride that was still only 16 years old and a firm favourite with so many coaster aficionados. That was fully five months ago, but now we know, officially, what it is all about.

Enter, the Fast & The Furious

OK, so regular Universal visitors will know there is already a Fast & Furious ride at the Studios park. It has been there since 2018 and, while it isn’t the most popular simulated ride/attraction, it is serviceable enough and still quite a fun experience. So, initially, Universal’s announcement of the new coaster didn’t quite seem to add up.

Here’s what they said:

“Replacing the former Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster, Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift will put guests in the driver seat of the high-speed thrills of Universal Pictures’ Fast & Furious universe like never before. Riders will experience the exhilarating sensation of 360-degree drifting as they speed through jaw-dropping maneuvers – including a 170-foot vertical “spike” that will send riders nearly 17 stories in the air over the outskirts of Universal CityWalk.”

Wow. Sounds like our kind of fun! But wait a minute. There is also the Fast & Furious attraction in the San Francisco section of the park, and there’s no way the two could be connected to make any kind of geographical sense in the park’s layout. So Universal needed to add a separate line highlighting the full picture of what this means, and it’s bye, bye Fast & Furious Supercharged. At the same time as the new coaster is being readied to open, the existing ride will shut down, pending something completely new in its place.

So, when do we get to ride?

This is now the big question for rollercoaster fans. A new ride is always welcome news and the subject of intense speculation, hence the focus on the “When?” of the newcomer. And Universal are playing it a bit cagey here. Thanks to the many photos and updates by aerial photography specialist Bioreconstruct on X, Instagram and BlueSky, we have been able to follow the early construction progress of Hollywood Drift all over social media, and can see that the foundations look pretty much in place. It all suggested an opening for late this year might be possible.

Not so fast (and furious!). Reading more of the press release it quickly became clear that we were definitely thinking too soon, even though Universal have a good track record of getting things built quickly. The official word was: “Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift will join the Universal Studios Florida family in 2027.”

OK, not as soon as we’d like, but still something to get next year’s visitors really excited about! It’s obviously hard to be specific about big, one-off projects like this, but it might not be out of the question for the new ride to be ready for spring 2027, although seasoned Universal watchers point out that most of their recent additions have been timed to open in May/June, i.e. early summer.

What’s next?

We definitely still have questions about how Hollywood Drift will look and how it will fit in to the existing park geography, which, as a straight replacement for Rip Ride Rockit would place it in what is currently the New York section of the Studios (and immediately adjacent to Illumination’s Minions Land, which used to be Production Central, which originally contained Rip Ride Rockit. Confused? Yes, you soon will be!). Just to add to the potential confusion, the entrance to the new ride will be beyond the current New York with Jimmy Fallon attraction, putting it even more solidly in that city area.

There is, of course, already a Hollywood section, too, but that is some distance from where the new ride will be, so Universal’s creative folks will have some work to do to make a coherent story of the big redesign. But all that is for another day and minor detail compared to what we can expect from the ride itself. The press release is pretty insistent in its description of what should be a super-exciting ride experience. With the 360-degree “drifting” at significant speed, it promises quite a thrill, taking the spinning element of rides like Curse of the Werewolf (Epic Universe), Cobra’s Curse (Busch Gardens) and Guardians of the Galaxy (Epcot) and giving them an extra twist, while the added “spike” element at a whopping 170 feet (77 feet higher than the one on SeaWorld’s Ice Breaker) is likely to be another high-adrenalin moment, topping the highest point of Rip Ride Rockit, which was 167ft.

There is also the question of if, and how, the Universal Studios version of the ride will differ from the previously announced Universal Hollywood one, which is due to open later this year and is already in test mode. The good news, according to Universal’s creatives, is that it WILL be a completely different track layout and configuration, mainly because the two parks are totally different in their topography (Hollywood being set on a hill while the Orlando park is utterly flat). That immediately makes it two contrasting rides, albeit using the same type of track and ride vehicles. And, just seeing fan video of the Hollywood version being tested, it looks like quite a beast, with multiple inversions and an ultra-smooth track, but no vertical spike, so that will be a unique aspect of the Orlando version.

That’s all we know for now, but you can be sure Universal will drip-feed us more details in the course of this year, including that all-important opening date. Stay tuned, now…!

Now tell us about YOUR favourite ride at Universal Orlando!