Disney shared a new glimpse into the Cars attraction coming to Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
Initially revealed at last year’s D23 event, this new addition themed around Pixar’s Cars will include two attractions. One attraction will take guests on a thrilling rally race through the mountains, while the other is designed for younger audiences. Unlike the Cars-themed area at Disney California Adventure, which is themed to Radiator Springs, this addition to Magic Kingdom will be incorporated into a reimagined section of Frontierland, replacing the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island.
During the Future of World-Building at Disney panel at SXSW, Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter and Imagineer Michael Hundgen said that they’re developing a new type of ride vehicle specifically for this experience.
“For this Cars attraction, we need to invent a new type of ride vehicle,” Hundgen said. “No one builds these in a factory because it has to do so much more than just carrying you from one place to another. We have to create a car that conveys a feeling when you ride in it.”
When developing this experience, Disney Imagineers took a trip to the Arizona desert to test drive an off-road vehicle, allowing them to understand the sensation of driving through rocky terrain. This provided insights into adventures that Lightning McQueen and Mater have yet to encounter, such as racing over rocky landscapes, scaling mountain heights, and weaving around geysers. Imagineers also worked with a motocross company to create an authentic dirt track for testing purposes. This hands-on experience allowed them to collect data for how the ride vehicles will eventually move and race.
“We’re using a customized production vehicle,” Hundgen said. “It has sensors all over it, and we’re taking it for test drives on our dirt track to gather data on how the vehicle responds to different terrain. This is where we turn that feeling we want into real-world engineering.”
As the Disney Imagineering team focused on the ride’s development, the Pixar team worked on creating concept sketches for the ride vehicles (pictured above). Docter mentioned that they’re designing “new race car personalities for this attraction” and that “each vehicle . . . will have its own name and number, just like a real race.”
Disney has not yet announced when the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island will close to make way for this new addition.
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