Autopia
| Autopia | |
|---|---|
| Park | Disneyland Park |
| Land / area | Tomorrowland |
| Type | Guided driving attraction |
| Opened | July 17, 1955 |
| Designer | WED Enterprises |
| Height req. | 32 in (81 cm) |
| Status | Operating |
Autopia is a driving attraction in Tomorrowland at Disneyland Park in the Disneyland Resort, California, on which guests steer small cars along a miniature motorway. It opened with the park on July 17, 1955, and is the only Tomorrowland attraction from opening day that still operates. When Disneyland opened, the United States' interstate highway system was still largely a plan on paper, and the attraction presented freeway driving itself as an experience of the near future.
History
The original Autopia cars were styled after contemporary European sports cars and ran without the centre guide rail that later versions would add; early operation was marked by frequent collisions, and protective bumpers were fitted after test runs damaged much of the first fleet. The concept proved popular enough to multiply. A Junior Autopia for children opened in 1956, a smaller Midget Autopia followed in 1957, and a second full-size course, the Fantasyland Autopia, opened in 1959. For several years two or three Autopia tracks operated at once. The Midget Autopia closed in 1966 and was donated to a town park in Marceline, Missouri, Walt Disney's boyhood home. The Fantasyland course later became the Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers Raceway in 1991 and closed in 1999.
The modern attraction
In 2000 the Tomorrowland and Fantasyland courses were combined into a single, longer route as part of a Chevron sponsorship, with new cars, a redesigned queue and trackside scenes built around animated Chevron car characters. Honda became the sponsor in 2016, introducing restyled vehicles and a robot character, ASIMO, in the queue. The current route winds through landscaped grounds shared with the Disneyland Monorail and the submarine lagoon, passing under bridges and alongside a park for miniature figures before returning to the loading area.
Cars seat two guests and are powered by small petrol engines governed to a top speed of about 7 mph (11 km/h). The steering wheel and accelerator genuinely control the car, though a rail beneath the vehicle keeps it on course. Guests must be at least 32 inches (81 cm) tall to ride, and at least 54 inches (137 cm) tall to drive without an accompanying guest who meets that height. Disney has announced plans to convert the fleet to electric power, which would end the attraction's use of petrol engines while retaining its driving format.
In other parks
Versions of Autopia opened at the Magic Kingdom as the Grand Prix Raceway, now the Tomorrowland Speedway, and under the Autopia name at Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland and, in adapted form, Tokyo Disneyland. The Disneyland original is the oldest of the surviving versions and the last to retain the 1955 name and concept essentially intact.