While Fast and Furious fans wait for the final movie in the long-running franchise to release, Universal Studios Hollywood has cooked up something special. Fast and Furious: Hollywood Drift is the Los Angeles-based theme park’s first outdoor coaster, and it is unlike anything I’ve experienced before. Just like the Fast and Furious films feel like an out-of-control thrill ride that has you on the edge of your seat, Hollywood Drift is a white-knuckle experience that rivals Southern California’s best.
Universal Studios Hollywood invited GameRant out for an early media preview of Fast and Furious: Hollywood Drift where we were finally able to jump behind the wheel. I say finally because this coaster has been a long time coming, first announced in 2024 but rumored as far back as 2022. Construction has been a slow process, but with this being an outdoor coaster, Universal guests could watch everything come together, first seeing the layout, then the various pieces of soundproofing, and eventually the test cars zooming through the track
It was only earlier this year that Universal finally slated the coaster’s opening for Summer 2026, and even that came in just under the wire. None of that matters, though, as Hollywood Drift is now open, and I’ve ridden it a whopping 18 times. And let me tell you, this is an incredible coaster.
Right off the bat, Fast and Furious: Hollywood Drift is a technical marvel, a feat of engineering that you can only appreciate from a distance. A coaster built into a hillside creates all sorts of challenges and headaches, and in talking to USH’s Vice President of Universal Creative, Jon Corfino, he didn’t mince words when discussing how tough it was to get this coaster done. Corfino's proudest design element is the coaster's sight lines, where every element feels perfect for a picture. When two trains are running through the track, it's possible to snap some fantastic shots, all with the Backlot and Hollywood as a backdrop. There are still ongoing elements to the coaster's construction, specifically considerations for the noise impact on neighbors that Universal Studios is having to contend with, but the hardest part is over.
Fast and Furious: Hollywood Drift is the furthest thing from a traditional roller coaster. Its track layout leaves little opportunity for straightaways and is as twisty-turny as one might expect. It features 4 inversions over the course of 4,100 feet of track, which amounts to roughly a 90-second ride. I’ll admit that Hollywood Drift is on the shorter side for a coaster, but given the land USH was working with and the intensity of the ride, they give you a good bang for your buck.
Where things get the Universal/Fast and Furious twist is that each of the coaster’s four ride vehicles, which are themed after one of the iconic cars from the film franchise, can rotate. So while you are moving through specific sections of the coaster, you could be facing forward, facing backward, or rotating 360 degrees. It’s a synchronized rotation, so you aren’t freely spinning like on Curse of the Werewolf at Epic Universe, but there are two inverted sections where two of the cars are doing one thing while the other two are doing another.
Fast and Furious: Hollywood Drift gets a lot of mileage out of that “drifting” gimmick, and it helps encourage repeat rides. Just at a basic level, there is the randomness of what car you might get, with four to choose from. There is Dom's Black Dodge Charger at the front, Han's Mazda RX-7 from Tokyo Drift, Brian's Nissan Skyline from 2 Fast 2 Furious, and the orange Toyota Supra that Dom and Brian built for Race Wars at the end of the first movie.
Every car has a different look and also a set of speakers that mimic the sounds of their engine, which is a nice touch, but it’s the different movements that will ensure that you need to ride this coaster at least twice. I’d say that you should experience each car, because there are subtle differences in sensation (coaster enthusiasts know that the front car and the back car are markedly distinct), but that’s if you’re brave enough. I sat in all 16 seats on the coaster, and while the two seats in a row are basically the same, those individual rows can give you a different feeling. Car 2 and Car 4, for example, rotate during the second inversion, which is preceded by a boost up to roughly 72 MPH.
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