Disney World's Cars Ride: Is a Trackless All-Terrain Ride System in the Works?

Aug 12, 2024 in "Cars Land Magic Kingdom"

Gallery / 6 Photos
Cars Concept Art

Posted: Monday August 12, 2024 8:35am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney surprised fans this weekend with the announcement of a new Cars-themed attraction set to be built as part of an expansion in Magic Kingdom's Frontierland. While Disney has a history of successful car-based rides like Test Track at EPCOT and Radiator Springs Racers at Disneyland in California, both of these attractions rely on a slot-car ride system running on a smooth, purpose-built track.

Cars Concept Art

What stands out about the concept art for Walt Disney World's new Cars attraction is the absence of any visible tracks or guide slots. Although it's always challenging to draw definitive conclusions from concept art due to potential artistic license, the artwork can sometimes offer valuable insights.

The three released pieces of concept art show cars racing on rugged outdoor terrain with no flat tracks, similar to those seen in Disneyland's Radiator Springs Racers. According to Disney, the ride experience will allow guests to "take on wild terrain as you race across the landscape, climbing mountain trails, dodging geysers, and—Mater's favorite—splashing through mudholes."

Cars Concept Art

This description aligns closely with a ride system developed by Dynamic Attractions called the "Automatic Guided All-Terrain Vehicle." This system features capabilities such as steep inclines and declines, banking, rapid acceleration and deceleration, and near-miss elements. It also supports multiple vehicles operating simultaneously, with the ability to cross paths with each other. Additionally, the system can function both indoors and outdoors and is designed for easy theming. Each vehicle is capable of seating six riders. You can see the All-Terrain ride system in action in the video below.

Adding to the intrigue, Dynamic Attractions has a long history of collaboration with Walt Disney Imagineering, contributing to major attractions like Test Track, Radiator Springs Racers, Soarin', Avatar Flight of Passage, and Space Mountain.

Since Disney World's Test Track already utilizes a slot-car system, it would make sense for Disney to avoid duplicating this technology in another attraction. This increases the likelihood that Imagineers might opt for a different, perhaps more innovative, ride system for the new Cars attraction at Magic Kingdom.

While any discussion of the ride system is purely speculative at this point, it will be fascinating to watch as this new attraction takes shape, with construction expected to begin in 2025.

Cars Concept Art

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BrianLo17 days ago

Yes on all announced projects other than Pandora at DCA and Coco (though seemingly imminent). Cars kicked off more earnestly with the new fiscal year.

DonniePeverley17 days ago

Do we have spades in the ground ?

aladdin200717 days ago

agree and he sure put it to Vahle too, good for him!

jah495517 days ago

mickeyview just did made a great video, great tribute...and....although "too late"....great arguments nonetheless

TrainsOfDisney24 days ago

Agreed. I was commenting on just the cars part. That will likely be a positive as well but there’s a bit more to argue about that one.

AidenRodriguez73124 days ago

I'm pretty sure there is no way that the overall addition of Cars and Villains will not lead to atleast some growth in LL, Merch, Food, etc even if they were not that well executed. Now, do I want them to be amazing? Absolutely, but financially, there is no way that these could realistically fail other than maintenance issues which could certainly be a problem.

donaldtoo24 days ago

I too will always dearly miss RoA and TSI. Not losin’ sleep over it, but very disappointing, nonetheless. I’ll reserve final judgment ‘til the new stuff is all fully completed, of course, but I just have visions of this being MKs Dinoland, if it’s not done well. :cyclops:

TrainsOfDisney24 days ago

Sure it was. It was a part of the worlds most visited theme park for 50 years. The entire park as a whole works together to create shareholder value. Will this change create more shareholder value? Possibly. If executed well, it certainly could. I have hopes that it will be done well but will always be disappointed in the loss of the riverboat.

Raineman26 days ago

I am well aware of the "shareholder value" and "underutilized space" mindset, as it has been repeated ad nauseam in this thread, but nothing at WDW "has to go". And it's always interesting to me when people sound like they work in Disney's financial department when they talk about why an attraction/area had to go, or even why they are happy that a replacement is happening. For them, it's never about "I didn't really care for the old attraction, but the new one looks great", which is an argument/opinion that I can at least respect. The focus and agenda with Disney theme parks has always included financial considerations-it's always been a business-but there was a time when alot of other creative factors were just as important. Now, money is the overwhelmingly most important factor, and creativity/theming/originality take a backseat to it.

Gusey26 days ago

Yeah, they announced all of this when they shared the fun map, but everyone focused on the size of the water in the art rather than everything else.

Disstevefan126 days ago

Everything is destroyed. All we have now is hope.

DrStarlander26 days ago

I personally think the whole project is dumb. But, now that the island and river are gone, I've shifted to wondering if they will do a great job (DCA's Cars Land) or a terrible job (Avenger's Campus) and hoping they'll do a great job.

Smoky26 days ago

TSI wasn't creating shareholder value and had to go, sorry.

LittleBuford26 days ago

To be fair, nothing at Magic Kingdom is accurate; it’s all highly fictionalised. I say that as someone who really wishes this weren’t happening in the first place.