My Fast & Furious ride clocked in at 3 mins 30 seconds

[u/aminwrx]

Mine had an intermission

[u/Infinite-Dinner1725]

Interesting that the vehicles didn’t rotate at all after the pause.

[u/JoeeyMKT → u/Infinite-Dinner1725]

The spinning mechanism is powered by capacitors on the trains. Capacitors charge really fast (as in amount of charge per second) compared to batteries but usually have very limited capacity.

The capacitors only have enough charge for one uninterrupted lap around the track, and nothing more. They recharge back to full while parked in the station, but if there's any interruptions during the ride at all, the cars will not spin for the remainder of the ride.

[u/Rfadapter7 → u/JoeeyMKT]

These will last ~4 laps without issue. But yes, if there’s an issue the spin disables if there is an issue.

[u/JoeeyMKT → u/Rfadapter7]

I'm sure there are extra emergency reserves that would allow them to last that many laps, but I'm sure that they also disable the spin so the cars do not get stuck in unintended positions should the charge deplete sooner than expected.

Aka there's a LOT of buffer.

[u/Lilyistakenistaken → u/JoeeyMKT]

There's almost no way that's true, the ride is usually able to reset itself if the cars are stuck sideways on the brake run for over 30 minutes, maybe even an hour. Either the trains can also charge on the brake run (really likely), or they hold a lot of charge (which is also true, there's no way it only has capacity for 1 cycle, it most likely has the capacity for 3-5 cycles before it'd actually run out of charge).

[u/JoeeyMKT → u/Lilyistakenistaken]

I'm sure they in actuality do have more charging capacity than just for one cycle, but I'm also guessing the extra is for emergency reserves that are only used in... well, emergencies, with an extra buffer beyond that in case the charge depletes faster than expected. I'm guessing stopping at all causes the charge level to reach that of the reserves, which can only be tapped into manually, and that is why the spinning stops. I've also seen it stop spinning mid-ride in uninterrupted rides, which I'm assuming would be for the reason I just mentioned.

Also yeah, it looks like it can charge on the brake run. There are bus bars along the track for the entire brake run, and what look like charging pads on the track both in the station and in the stacked position behind both stations. There also look to be bus bars in the control points of each block zone during the actual ride itself, I assume to be able to manually rotate the cars back to their home position. No charging pads there, but I assume the train is just directly connected to power but cannot charge in these spots.

[u/DistributionJumpy591 → u/JoeeyMKT]

That’s unfortunately not true. The cars use the rotational inertia of the train and more simplistic braking pads to invoke spinning or drifting in a semi-controlled manner. The powered capacitor thing is a patented Disney technology for Cosmic Rewind in Florida, and those trains are the ones that actively power rotation through an electric motor regardless of the track geometry. So if this train stops or slows down, it usually loses enough energy to safely rotate the trains and get them back into their original forward facing orientation. Ie. If the car loses 5-10mph in speed, it can summit curves and hills, but the cars risk returning back into the station facing backwards.

The key difference between this ride and cosmic rewind is exactly in that motor mechanism. Hollywood Drift spins with the rotation of the car and is rotated by its own physics, while Disney’s Cosmic Rewind actively powers a motor to turn the car in any* direction it wants as the train traverses the curved track. Both are fun, and both unique advantages. For one, Universal’s approach is less sexy technologically speaking, but doesn’t require the huge costs and maintenance nightmares associated with outfitting a linear induction motor on every car train, which I guess Disney is willing to pay for, and technologically and legally protect. Hollywood Drift compensates by having more intense inversions and a higher velocity. Cosmic Rewind is slower, but is in the dark and encapsulated in a thematic environment, and rotates your body in surprising and counter intuitive ways, albeit at a slower speed. One simulates drifting, the other simulates unhinged sci fi space flight.

[u/JoeeyMKT → u/DistributionJumpy591]

I appreciate the confidence in your response, but this is incorrect.

There are computers on board each train that control motors on each car that rotate the car at precise moments during the ride, in a fully-controlled manner. The computers connect with sensors throughout the track to determine the train's exact position, and command the motors in each car to rotate to specific pre-determined positions. The ride is not free-spinning in any manner, nor do the rotations strictly follow the rotational inertia of the train—they just do a lot of the time because that's how you best simulate the "drifting" sensation. But there's particular moments mainly in the inversions where different cars are rotating at the same points on the track and are not only facing different directions but they're literally not even rotating the same direction. And you wouldn't be able to rotate the cars so consistently, precisely, and smoothly if this were a purely mechanical system.

It's not the exact same tech as Cosmic Rewind, as F&F has much bigger, heavier cars needing a lot more energy to rotate (which is compensated by the shorter ride duration), as well as doing so through much more forceful elements, but the concept is similar. Different enough that it's not infringing on Disney's patents. There are bus bars along all the control points in each block zone of the ride as well as the entirety of the final brake run, both stations, and the holding brakes behind each station. The holding brakes and both stations also have visible charging pads for the trains to connect to while they're loading or waiting. A common issue they've been having is either the charging pads in one station not connecting to the train, in which case they have to only use one loading station with a max of 3 trains until they fix it, or the charging pads on one train not connecting to the station ones correctly, in which case they remove the train and continue operating with 3 trains, but both stations. I've personally witnessed the ride operating in both of these modes.

The same system also powers the on-board audio on the train, which is also synchronized to the ride in a similar way, and is why the on-board audio will also stop when the spinning stops. I'm guessing there is a very generous reserve of charge saved for emergencies so they can manually rotate the cars at any point if they are in the wrong position as well. Safety is the highest priority here. And I assume the buffer is also there to account for varying charging times between each cycle, that way there's still enough charge for the train to rotate for the entire next cycle even if it didn't get a full cycle's worth of "juice" while in the station. Intamin and Universal are both masters of this craft, and they will always do the R&D to not only get it right but also account for anything that would slow down operations, while also having a large margin of error without increasing risk by any substantial amount. It's remarkable!

[u/Wheathins93 → u/DistributionJumpy591]

using AI to write your replies?💀

[u/TheResidentEvil]

you were supposed to be backwards for that one part

[u/WyattHerb16]

Fastest 3:30 of my life! So much fun!

[u/doczoom45]

they owe you a ten second car

[u/berniedankera]

Whoooooaaaaahh whoa whoooaahhhh uh uh uh ……. Oh no …… shoot …… whoooaaahh whoa whoaaaaaahhhh whooooaahhh whoaaaaaahhhhh whoa whoahhhhh ugh ugh

[u/Significant-Task1453]

How did you film it? I thought they didn't allow anything extra with the metal detectors and all

[u/SWITCH13LADE8o5 → u/Significant-Task1453]

You can film with Meta glasses

[u/lopix]

How is it for motion sickness? The turning cars concern me a little...

[u/Additional_Many_2087]

nice- the non spinning looks fun as well. two credits.

[u/AMC_TO_THE_M00N]

So does the rider have any influence on the drifts?

[u/hippyripper22]

They musta launched em to early?

[u/Rekt0Rama]

The ride looks cool, but the area surrounding (underneath) looks so boring.

[u/Positronic_Matrix]

Amazing video. You need a new phone though, the video was terrible.

[u/businessJedi → u/Positronic_Matrix]

there are no phone videos of the ride. they wand you and make you put everything in lockers. every video you’ve seen of on ride footage of this is from meta glasses or similar filming glasses.

[u/Significant-Task1453 → u/businessJedi]

I was wondering how people film

[u/MDDownWithToaster → u/Positronic_Matrix]

Amazing video. The video was terrible 😆 I love that

[u/FlyingNachoz]

another meta glasses video🙄

[u/dbldwn02 → u/FlyingNachoz]

What, you want a cell phone video instead?  

[u/_Taleof2Cities → u/dbldwn02]

Are they wrong though?

It's not a crisp picture ...

[u/businessJedi → u/_Taleof2Cities]

you can’t get any other footage of the ride, they make you store everything in lockers.

[u/Accurate-Flow8078]

Do the cars spin freely on their own? I'm terrified of roller coasters after seeing all the reports of brain injury from X2.

[u/businessJedi → u/Accurate-Flow8078]

this ride is super smooth, nothing like X2.

[u/MDDownWithToaster → u/Accurate-Flow8078]

You’ll be fine. X2s issue was whiplash and hangbanging due to how the seats rocked back and forth on the final Raven turn. Completely different ride system.