Welcome to the quaint, outback town of Radiator Springs. A sleepy little settlement that's about to be woken up!

Experience your very own road trip along Route 66 as only Pixar could imagine it, before pulling in to a familiar series of loud and vibrant locales from the film - Luigi's, Ramone's, even Doc Hudson's!

Then, after you enjoy a gas-guzzling good time at Flo's V8 Café, prepare to rev up your engines and put pedal to the metal... You're about to be let loose on the canyon film-set of Cars, for a wild Race Rally spin-out that sees you put all of Doc Hudson's wise advice into practice, for real!

Can you beat the rally spinout, or will you lose it all in a swirling desert dust cloud?  Start your engines... Life is a journey, enjoy the ride.

Layout Plan

A little piece of Radiator Springs in Paris...

Attraction Experience

Enter Toon Studio, under the sparkling, golden wand of Sorcerer Mickey, and right away you spot the ochre rocks of Radiator Springs in the distance.  Rounding the corner towards the Quatre Roues Rallye, details and icons of Pixar's Route 66 world gradually come into view.  First the giant turquoise billboard 1 proclaiming "Welcome to Radiator Springs", followed by telegraph poles 2 which track the road of Route 66 3 itself.

Lining the famous highway are recognisable locales from the town of Radiator Springs, reconstructed through movie set facades amonst age-old planting, desert rocks and cacti.  You'll spot Flo's V8 Café 4, with its neon-lit V8 sign and gas station canopy, next to her partner's workshop - Ramone's House of Body Art 5 — windows filled with painted car hoods in all colours and styles. Next door, a dirty and worn brick facade 6, followed by Tow Mater's own storefront 7.  Your real welcome to the Ornament Valley canyon comes further along at Luigi's Casa Della Tires 8, where Luigi and Guido themselves wait proudly outside their tire store under the glowing neon colours of the Italian flag and a Leaning Tower of Tires decorated with fairy lights.

Friendly welcomes out of the way, hit reverse and speed back over the attraction entrance, past the authentic telephone booth 9 to the wait time indicator 10.  Ready to put pedal to the metal?  Step inside the Radiator Springs buildings and you'll discover a unique Visitor Center hidden behind the themed facades. If the sandstone art deco of the exterior isn’t ‘Route 66′ enough for you, a huge collection of highway memorabila and ‘Cars’ characters await. The queue area is a series of buildings with a more industrial ‘backstage’ area, all open at the sides and all joined together to form one continuous space — open and airy just as buildings in the real desert landscape of the USA. The road signage, industrial railings and details such as the star-shaped ceiling lights all give the feeling of motor-obsessed Route 66.

Each character, store or location in Radiator Springs has its own information board inside this ‘Visitor Center’ to advertise their lives and trade to visiting guests in colourful themed corners of the backlot set. Many are also joined by additional, real, 3D props, such as that gleaming trophy you’ve surely noticed already, sitting atop a platform at the centre of the circular, yellow-stoned entrance. For the uninitiated, that’s the Piston Cup 11 — the biggest prize for racing cars in the ‘Cars’ world, and the trophy Doc Hudson — Lightning McQueen’s mentor — has won no less than twice in his time.

You see maps and artwork of the town from across the years, a grand introduction board for the Radiator Springs Chamber of Commerce created by Sheriff and Red the fire truck, advertisements for stores such as Sarge's Surplus Hut and an endless array of licence plates and route signs. Some of the Cars have even brought along a few product samples, such as the impressive display of postcards, bumper stickers and souvenirs from Lizzie's Radiator Springs Curios 12, or the organic motor fuel from Fillmore 13, in a corner lit by purple fairy lights and decorated with 1960s flowers. Reaching the far end of the double-back queue, guests find Doc Hudson’s advertisements and acheivements filling his wall space and a billboard for Sally’s Cozy Cone motel separating two parts of the queue path 14, its supports themed to orange cozy cones.

Need to stop for a break after all this travelling? As you begin to head downhill into the canyon area, Flo's V8 Café proudly presents its wares in a checkerboard-floored corner 15, the jagged rocks of Cadillac Range and the Radiator Cap in the distance 16, calling you further towards the Radiator Springs raceway. Under the turquoise, neon-lit gas station canopy of Flo's 17, you'll be prepared for the race and given your own rookie vehicle, as you spot two familiar chassis in the distance...

Climb aboard your automobile volunteer in the Radiator Springs Raceway 18, get in gear and put pedal to the metal! Soon enough, you're spinning wildly out of control around the dusty desert tracks to a giddy soundtrack of twanging country-western guitars, throwing up dirt behind you and gliding through handbrake turns and countless near-misses with the other madcap motorists! Calling out support and shouting advice from the corner of the track are two real, seasoned pros, direct from Radiator Springs itself — Piston Cup runner-up Lightning McQueen and "best backwards driver" Tow Mater 19!

Remember Doc Hudson's advice from the canyon of Willy's Butte 20?  "If you're going hard enough left, you'll find yourself turning right!" As you pull an impressive full spin, you switch tracks - into the path of the oncoming cars - and complete a full figure of eight! With the rocky desert landscape whizzing past and the canyon walls spiralling around, your super-charged spinout hits the finish line, with seconds to spare!

Will you win the Race Rally and survive the desert spin, or be relegated to watching from the viewing platform 21 above the canyon?  Whatever the outcome, enjoy the ride. You're about to experience an amazing journey into the unforgettable world of Radiator Springs. Only at Walt Disney Studios Park.

Facts & Footnotes

The Piston Cup on the display in the circular entrance building (based on Ramone's House of Body Art) is gold-plated and measures an impressive 25" tall by 20" wide.

Music played during the rally ride is taken from two pieces of the original film's score by Academy Award®-winning composer Randy Newman - "Best Backward Driver" and "Doc Racing". They were specially re-orchestrated for the attraction by Jonathan Sacks.

Clips from over 15 songs associated with cars, traveling or road adventures are played in the queue area for the attraction, including three that were featured in the film Cars – “Real Gone” sung by Sheryl Crow, “Life Is A Highway” performed by Rascal Flatts, and “Route 66” sung by Chuck Berry.

The attraction is a heavily customised, park version of Zamperla’s 'Destruction Derby' ride. Unlike normal versions of the ride, however, Cars Race Rally features two pairs of turntables, rather than just one. Walt Disney Imagineering designed the attraction around Zamperla's ride system, with Zamperla credited as merely manufacturer. Zamperla have previously manufactured a huge number of Disney’s flat rides, such as Dumbo the Flying Elephant and Flying Carpets Over Agrabah nearby.

The ride area, with its two pairs of turntables, lies 1 metre below ground level, with extra banked scenery behind it to give a full "canyon" effect. The Willy's Butte rock formation from the film features as key icon of the new area, whilst the queue is themed to the various well-known town buildings from the film. The jagged cadillac rocks (based on the silhouette of Cadillac Ranch) form the range of Cadillac Range seen on the giant backdrop behind the entire set.

Guests do not ride in vehicles based on key characters from the film but instead brand new vehicles from the Cars universe, with all the expected facial features. This goes back to the original project idea of 'Doc Hudson's Desert School of Driving', with guests having to teach the rookie vehicles to "turn right to go left". The Cars come in three varieties - red, blue and aqua.  Each features a very stylised, "Toon"-ish design when compared to the realistic cars of the film, since their design is an exaggerated conglomeration of design features from cars that would have been seen on Route 66 itself in its heyday.

Cars Quatre Roues Rallye is the final, official name of the attraction, seen on park maps and at the attraction entrance. The 'Cars Race Rally' title is used mainly for English-language advertising.

Cars won the 2007 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Film and was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film for the 2007 Academy Awards®. Randy Newman’s song “Our Town” was nominated for an Oscar® for Original Song and won the 2007 Grammy® Award for Best Song. The film also won the 2007 Annie Award for Best Animated Feature along with Best Music in an Animated Feature Production.

History

Previous project names included ‘Doc Hudson’s Desert School of Driving’, ‘Cars: Radiator Springs Spinout’ and ‘Cars: Road Rally Racers’. ‘Cars Race Rally’ was announced as the official name through a page on the official Walt Disney Studios Park website in June 2006.

Cars Race Rally is the third attraction of this type Disney have built in the world. Other examples are ‘Francis’ Lady Bug Boogie’ at Disney’s California Adventure and ‘The Whirlpool’ at Tokyo DisneySea. Both feature only one pair of turntables. Cars Race Rally, however, was built in Italy and uses a revised ride system design to these two previous models.

Original plans for Toon Studio revealed in January 2005 showed not a Cars ride but instead a new version of the ‘A Bug's Life’-themed ‘Tuck 'n' Roll's Drive em Buggies’. All concepts after this point introduced a Cars attraction, over one year before the actual release of the film. It used to be the case at Disneyland that Walt would ensure attractions and events based on films were presented right at the launch of the film, but in recent years a significant gap had emerged. In his new roll as Chief Creative Officer, the director of the film itself, John Lasseter, expressed his wish for Disney to debut movie-based rides closer to the release of the film, to ensure they had maximum impact on guests. Cars Race Rally, it would seem, is the first attraction to follow this plan.

The exact nature of the attraction was not confirmed for quite some time. Rumours persisted it could be a new version of Autopia or a land-based version of Tokyo DisneySea’s Aquatopia. Ultimately, the spinning turntable ride design broke through and was confirmed at a preview of the new attractions programme in September 2005.

Construction began 10th July 2006 with a huge pit dug for the turntable foundations. The large Willy's Butte rock formation became a new icon (or "weenie") of the Toon Studio are from December 2007, whilst the 12 Cars vehicles themselves were installed in mid-February 2007. The attraction officially opened on 9th June 2007, along with Crush’s Coaster, with a special media press event on 16th June 2007 includeding such features as an authentic Texan barbecue and a Radiator Springs road band.