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Hollywood Drift's Test Car Is Being Winched Up the Coaster's Vertical Spike, and the CityWalk Path Beneath It Has Closed
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Hollywood Drift's Test Car Is Being Winched Up the Coaster's Vertical Spike, and the CityWalk Path Beneath It Has Closed

Michael Travels
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Published

There is a car on the spike. Pull testing on Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift has reached the coaster's signature vertical spike at Universal Studios Florida, and new photos show crews hauling a black test vehicle up the nearly vertical track one stage at a time.

The spike photos come from @bioreconstruct on X and were published Sunday, October 11, by WDW News Today. Attractions Magazine's same-day update adds ground photos from @magiccitymayhem and says testing on the spike was reported on October 10.

A black coaster test vehicle hanging on near-vertical gray track beside a blue support column, with metal clearance frames around it and a wire rope above

The test vehicle on Hollywood Drift's vertical spike, with clearance-testing frames attached. Photo: @bioreconstruct, via WDW News Today

How you get a car up a spike without launching it

Slowly. This is the same pull-through testing we wrote about in September, when a Dodge Charger ride vehicle was sitting in the first launch with a rope on its nose. Rather than launching, the car is hauled along the track by pulling equipment so crews can check clearances as it goes. The metal frames around it, WDW News Today explains, "represent the space riders could reach beyond the seats."

The spike needs its own routine. According to WDW News Today's account of the photos:

  • The car goes up in stages. Each time it reaches a stop, crews tie it off with wide fabric ropes, and red ones can be seen in the close-ups.
  • Crews then let slack into the wire rope, and a boom lift carries the pulley up to its next spot, farther along the track.
  • The rope pulls the car up to that spot, "and the sequence repeats."
  • The photographer, bioreconstruct, says one wire rope handled the entire climb.

Wide view of the blue Hollywood Drift coaster structure under a cloudy sky, with a small dark vehicle high on the vertical spike, a boom lift beside it, and the Hard Rock Cafe dome at left

The test car high on the spike, with a boom lift alongside. Photo: @bioreconstruct, via WDW News Today

While the car was paused on the spike, WDW News Today reports, a member of the testing team "carefully inspected each carriage wheel's grip on the track."

Close-up of a worker's hands on a wheel assembly of the black test vehicle, with wheels, brackets and wiring visible beside a gray track rail

A wheel check while the car sits on the spike. Photo: @bioreconstruct, via WDW News Today

Then the rain came

Orlando weather got a vote. WDW News Today reports that "incoming heavy rains in the Orlando area brought an extended pause to the pull-through testing right as the car reached a midpoint on the vertical spike."

The test vehicle on the vertical spike seen through a gray haze of rain, with a wire rope running up the track

The car on the spike as the rain moved in. Photo: @bioreconstruct, via WDW News Today

The two reports may be describing different moments. WDW News Today's photos show the car at several points, from the curved approach to "near the top of the coaster spike," and it says the rain pause hit at a midpoint. Attractions Magazine says its photos, taken October 11, show testing equipment "positioned on the track near the base of the spike." Either way, testing has moved onto the spike. Earlier this month, WDW News Today's October 6 update showed the car at the mid-course brake run.

The walk past the spike has changed

The more practical news is on the ground. Attractions Magazine reports that "a new pedestrian walkway has opened along the Universal CityWalk waterfront," and that "guests can no longer walk directly beneath the coaster's spike, as that temporary pathway has closed."

The magazine says the new route is "most likely" the permanent one for this stretch of CityWalk. Universal has not said so. WDW News Today wrote on October 5 that the coaster's footprint "extends farther toward CityWalk than the former Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit," which is why the walkway along the waterfront has had to be rerouted.

A wide CityWalk walkway beside the waterfront railing, with a CityWalk trash bin, two terracotta bins and a white pillar, and Hollywood Drift's tall vertical spike on blue supports rising behind construction walls under a cloudy sky

The new CityWalk walkway, with the spike rising behind construction walls. Photo: @magiccitymayhem (Mikey), via Attractions Magazine

Where the project stands

Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift, the replacement for Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, is due at Universal Studios Florida in 2027. Universal has not announced a more specific date. Pull-through testing is still the slow, winch-driven stage. Attractions Magazine calls it "a step toward eventually running the coaster under its own power," and neither outlet says when that will start.

Will you be timing your next CityWalk visit to catch a car flying up that spike for real?

Sources

Image credits: @bioreconstruct on X, published by WDW News Today (test car, wide spike, wheel inspection and rain photos); @magiccitymayhem (Mikey), published by Attractions Magazine (CityWalk walkway photo).

Mentioned in this story

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Universal Studios Florida CityWalk Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift

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