This officially opened on 16th September, and I got to ride it shortly after, so I thought I'd leave a review in here...
Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift
Review
Introduction
Two weeks ago, I visited Universal Studios Hollywood and rode F&F 14 times across 2 days. This was predominantly achieved by rope dropping the ride and using the single rider line, which allowed me to get 5 rides in during a 75-minute period on both days. The remaining 4 rides were peppered in during afternoon and early evening times. The operations were largely very efficient, only hampered by some brief periods of downtime (as would be expected) and delays getting standby guests past the lockers / metal detection phase and up the stairs in time for dispatch, which seemed specific to morning operations.
The seats and restraints are very comfortable, as we’ve come to expect from modern Intamin coasters, and the lap bar does not tighten during the ride. Each car has its own sequence of rotation, and I got to ride in each car multiple times, which led me to feel that I got a full sense of the ride experience.
The layout
The ride begins with a gentle ‘boost’ into a curved drop. This element is only really notable in the back car where you get some nice floater airtime getting pulled over the drop. You then transition into a small s-hill where the cars all drift left and then right. You get some decent lateral whip combined with a brief pop of airtime as you navigate this element: it provides a good taster for what the drifting motion feels like. Next, you dive down the hill over the ride’s only ‘traditional’ airtime hill. You get sustained floater airtime in all seats, but the airtime feels most potent and long-lasting in the back car followed by the front car. This element is one that feels more substantial on-ride than in POV videos, and encompasses my general feeling that Hollywood Drift has a lot more airtime in reality than you might expect when not having ridden it. As you turn up into the following corkscrew, you drift sharply left, leaving you to navigate the turn practically sideways. What drifting feels like on this ride is hard to describe because it is unique, but it’s undoubtedly a very cool feeling. Cars 1 and 3 spin fully through the corkscrew, which feels particularly disorienting in car 3 as you simultaneously get pulled down the elongated end of the corkscrew. This element provides good hangtime across the train. All cars subsequently straighten up as you rise up into the MCBR. While it is certainly a break in the ride’s pacing, it at least does not slow you down and perhaps makes the following element more impactful than it would have otherwise been.
You exit the midcourse by diving down into one of the most unusual-feeling and best elements of the ride: a sort-of downwards ‘wave turn’. It’s great because you’re whipped around 180 degrees clockwise while navigating the element, during which time you briefly face the ground at an almost-vertical track angle. It’s a wild element in all cars because in the front two cars you start turning during the wave turn so you hang for a little longer in the aforementioned position, and in the back two cars you’re pulled through the element with some force. You’re now facing backwards as you step down into the ride’s second launch, which creates a sharpy thrilling pop of ejector airtime in all cars. You’re then launched into one of the coaster’s signature elements: a dive loop. You drift rightwards at the apex of this element and then straighten out as you plunge downwards. It’s a particularly good element in cars 1 and 4: in the front car, you get pushed up into the loop, leading to a potent and sustained moment of airtime; in the back car, you’re ferociously pulled down the element while still initially facing sideways, which is a thrilling sensation. Now facing forwards, the third launch takes you to the maximum speed of 72mph to begin your ascent back up the hillside. The sensation of speed is great as you’re thrown into a step-up element - a moment offering an abrupt pop of ejector for all - and then zig-zagged into the ride’s signature zero-g stall. All cars drift left before entering the stall, but while cars 1 and 3 straighten up while navigating the element, cars 2 and 4 continue rotating; entering the element backwards and then spinning continuously until the train starts to exit the stall. It’s a good stall in all cars but its particularly memorable in cars 2 and 4 because of how disorienting and dynamic it feels, combining the usual airtime/hangtime galore of stalls with guaranteed spinning. Undoubtedly Hollywood Drift’s best element when in one of those cars.
As you continue coasting uphill, you traverse another ‘boost’ where any speed increase feels negligible, before entering a sort-of non-inverting dive loop over the park’s escalators. You drift rightward as you enter here, but this element offers not much more than a scenic view in the majority of the train. If you’re sat in the front car, you’ll at least get some airtime at the apex, but overall, this element was a miss for me despite having the appearance of a signature moment in the ride. Thankfully, Hollywood Drift ends strong with an inversion that’s somewhere between a corkscrew and a barrel roll. You take the inversion at a good speed with the cars drifting left and holding there while upside-down, creating an even wilder sensation of airtime as you whip through the element, particularly in the front two cars. This always left a satisfying taste in my mouth as we rose up and hit the final brakes.
Final remarks
- The whole ride is very smooth.
- You spend a lot of time out of your seat, whether that be through hangtime, floater, or ejector airtime. It’s an exhilarating ride.
- It’s not a very intense ride (i.e., in terms of positive g-forces), but the unique sensations created by the drifting and spinning motions at various points helps to compensate for this in terms of the ride’s thrill factor. It feels like a thrill coaster; not ‘family-thrill’.
- The pacing isn’t relentless, like you tend to find on other modern Intamin LSM coasters. The ride mixes fast elements with more drawn-out ones, sometimes with brief benign sections of track in between. But the longer lasting elements typically draw out forces for the better in terms of providing satisfying moments.
- Hollywood Drift feels like a very ‘special’ ride in the current coaster landscape, which is its biggest strength. Both the unusual layout and the controlled drifting/spinning contribute to this. It feels quite distinct even from coasters some may think warrant comparison, like other Intamin LSM coasters, Mack Xtreme Spinners, or Cosmic Rewind.
- I’d rank the cars (from best to worst) as follows: 4, 1, 2, 3 (but all provide an excellent ride).
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