Luigi's Flying Tires was an amusement ride in Cars Land at Disney California Adventure. Guests rode on tire-shaped bumper car vehicles which floated on a cushion of air, similar to an air hockey game. The ride's concept was based on Disneyland's Flying Saucers attraction of the 1960s. The attraction closed on February 17, 2015. It is scheduled to reopen in early 2016 with a new ride system and new ride vehicles.
History
The attraction, originally titled Luigi's Roamin' Tires, was announced in late 2007 along with the rest of the Cars Land multi-year expansion plans for Disney California Adventure. When Luigi's Flying Tires reopens on January 1, 2016, The tires will be replaced with 1950's fiat cars as Luigi's Cousins along with a new trackless ride system and a rename, Luigi's Festival of the Dance. The ride was based on the Flying Saucers attraction that was located in Disneyland's Tomorrowland from 1961 to 1966. Instead of floating bumper cars in the shapes of flying saucers, the Luigi attraction features bumper cars whose riders steer big levitating truck tires.
Executive Vice President of Walt Disney Imagineering Kathy Mangum said in 2011 that designing the ride, now named Luigi's Flying Tires, was not easy even with advanced technology. "I think our ride engineers, when we went to them and said, 'Hey we want people to fly,' they would tell you that designing a way for aerodynamics to make that happen was actually pretty difficult," she said. Mary Niven, vice president of Disney California Adventure Park, likened the ride to an air hockey table. "It's like sitting on the table and you're the hockey puck," she said.
When the attraction initially opened on June 15, 2012, it also featured giant beach balls in an effort to give the ride a more festive, colorful look (the attraction was originally intended to open without beach balls.) After two months, however, they were removed due to increased wait times and some "minor incidents" that occurred when visitors were hit by the beach balls, according to Niven.
On February 17, 2015, the attraction closed. It is scheduled to reopen in early 2016 with a new ride system and new ride vehicles.
Ride
The queue took visitors through Luigi's Casa Della Tires shop and out back through an Italian garden to Luigi's tire yard where the ride took place. Once seated in their tire, Luigi gave a countdown and then a compressor pumped air up through the floor's 6,714 air vents. The tires lifted about two inches off the floor, at which point riders could make their tire move by leaning in the direction that they wanted to go. The ride lasted for approximately two minutes.
See also
- Flying Saucers (attraction)
- 2012 in amusement parks
References
Interesting Informations
Looking products related to this topic, find out at Amazon.com
Source of the article : here
EmoticonEmoticon