March 24--At the peak of the summer tourism season, Universal Studios Hollywood will open its latest major attraction, a hydraulic motion-based ride that takes off on the hugely popular "Fast and Furious" movie franchise.
The Fast Furious -- Supercharged ride, which opens June 25, puts guests on the Studio Tour tram ride into a newly constructed 65,000-square-foot structure that houses a 360-degree screen. From the seats of the tram, parkgoers watch 3-D images, projected on a 400-foot-long screen from a total of 34 projectors, making them feel like they are traveling at 120 mph.
Hydraulic lifts under the tram, plus mist, smoke and wind effects are also used to bring to life action scenes inspired by the "Fast and Furious" movies. It's the same type of technology used in the park's King Kong 360 3-D attraction.
The attraction will debut after the latest film of the franchise, "Furious 7," opens in movie theaters April 3.
The park promoted the new ride over the weekend by launching a 90-second video on NBC during a telecast of the fifth movie in the series, "Fast Five." NBC and Universal Studios Hollywood are both owned by mass media company Comcast Corp. The video shows the making of the ride as well as interviews with actors from the franchise.
The ride is part of a larger $1.6-billion, 25-year upgrade plan for the Universal Studios property that includes the opening last year of Despicable Me Minion Mayhem and the opening next year of the highly anticipated Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction.
To read more about travel, tourism and the airline industry, follow me on Twitter at @hugomartin.
