Autopia

Autopia is an attraction of the parks to topics of Walt Disney Company.

It consists of a circuit made up of miniature cars which follow a guide rail. It exists under the name of Tomorrowland Indy Speedway with the Magic Kingdom and of Grand Prix Raceway with Tokyo Disneyland, and where basic concept is very slightly different. Its name is a contraction of " car utopia".

Definition

  • Autopia is a futuristic vision of the highways. The decoration represents the nature crossed by the highways.

  • Tomorrowland Indy Speedway and Grand Prix Raceway adopts a topic on the circuits of races. The vehicles are racing cars (F1 or Indy Because) and steps form the queue.

History

Imagined by Walt Disney in person, the basic concept of attraction was to show the young people and less young people, the future benefit of the highways in order to simplify the road exchanges. At the time of the opening of original attraction in 1955, the president Eisenhower was to sign a law on the inter-state. Gradually the principle changed to become an attraction where the young people could learn how to lead and where young people could be led by their children.

Before the opening of the park, the vehicles were tested without bumper and were more or less destroyed by the testers. Bumpers were placed at before and with the back of the cars but there remained a problem with the collisions. The shocks in diagonal were still frequent and dangerous. A guide rail was thus added in order to avoid any accident risk or of route exits.

Attractions

Disneyland

Autopia is one of attractions open with the park, even if it changed several times of form meanwhile. It opened initially under the name of Tomorrowland Autopia (on July 17th, 1955) in the north of the Land , where it is always. But of other variations opened within the park:
  • Junior Autopia in Fantasyland
  • Midget Autopia in Fantasyland
  • Fantasyland Autopia (also called temporarily Rescue Rangers Raceway )
It were very closed and their spaces sometimes re-used in order to increase the only remaining one, Autopia.

Tomorrowland Autopia

It is the attraction of origin. Its entry was located at the site of that of current the Autopia, between the station of the monorail and the station of the Skyway . It consisted of a triangular roof. The circuit was spread out enters to him the lagoon and the railroad of the Disneyland Railroad.

The vehicles were prototypes built with less than 40 specimens each one until the model IV . Then with the experiment the engineers of Walt Disney Imagineering managed to find of good technical compromises and of safety with the Mark V. But it is with Mark VII that the success as from 1967 arrived. It is still used in 2005 for HongKong Disneyland. This version permttait to have at the end of the circuit, a license/diploma of control

  • Vehicles:

    • Autopia Mark I (40 cars), II and III of 1955 to 1956 (break-in period of the vehicles)
    • Autopia Mark IV as from 1956
    • Autopia Mark V starting from 1959,80 vehicles
    • Autopia Mark VI as from 1963
    • Autopia Mark VII starting from 1967,80 vehicles inspired by the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray

Autopia junior

This attraction planned for the young people and teenagers. It was located other with dimensions of the lagoon of the submarines ( Submarine Voyage ) compared to Tomorrowland Autopia. The circuit was smaller but with similar vehicles. It was closed in 1958 to be increased and become Fantasyland Autopia.

Midget Autopia

Midget Autopia was the smallest version of the three Autopia having operated simultaneously of 1957 to 1966. It is located between the boats of Storybook Land Channel and the entry of Motor Boat Cruise. That is to say more in north that these colleagues. The site is currently that of the entry of Mickey' S Toontown and It' S.A. Small World. It is precisely for the latter that attraction in 1966 was destroyed, and spaces it released was pavé.
It consisted of one trotts in the countryside on board car two places with two wheels for the children up to 7 years. Attraction however was dismantled and offered to the town of Marceline in the Missouri, city where Walt Disney lived. She amused the children there a few years. One of the vehicles used for this attraction is exposed like rules in current attraction.

Fantasyland Autopia

Fantasyland Autopia opened in 1959 like a lengthened version of the Junior Autopia. It copied the concept and the form of the Tomorrowland Autopia and this until 1991. Thus the entry of the attraction located at the foot of the Matterhorn Bobsleds, other with dimensions of the lagoon of the Submarine Travels , had the same triangular form and a similar logo. The circuit had a length comparable and crossed that of its twin.

In 1991 during an advertizing promotion for baptized television Disney' S Afternoon Avenue , attraction accepted a new topic based on the series Tic and TAC, Ranger Risk ( Chip & Dale, Rescue Rangers ). It was famous Rescue Rangers Raceway . After the end of promotion in 1992, attraction was open only temporarily until its joint closing with Tomorrowland Autopia in 1999.

Autopia (by Rafter)

The joint closing of Fantasyland Autopia and Tomorrowland Autopia in 1999 was due to the agreement found with the company Chevron to be partner of this type of attraction in Disneyland. New attraction is called simply Autopia sometimes " Autopia, presents by Chevron" and both circuits.
gathers A new fleet of vehicles was drawn for the occasion, to replace the Chevrolet Corvette. Three types of different vehicles were created:

A rumor would like that the contract with Pixar leads Disney to renovate attraction in order to be in adequacy with the film Cars: Four wheels (2006). No closing is planned for the moment and official information indicates the creation of a section thematized on Cars in the park close to Disney' S California Adventure.

  • Reopening: June 29th 2000
  • Design: Walt Disney Imagineering
  • Partner: Rafter (2000-Present)
  • Vehicles: 70
    • Model: Autopia Mark VII
    • Maximum speed: 12 km/h.
  • Length: 856 Mr.
  • Requirements:
    • Momentary: 1 year or more
    • Conducting: 7 years or 1 m.56
  • Lasted: 6 min.
  • Standard of attraction: Convey miniature with guide rail


Magic Kingdom

Attraction was called in the beginning Grand Prix Raceway and had as a subject a race of cars on a road racing set. Their roads thus did not have any more their futuristic aspect wanted by Walt Disney. The partner of attraction was Goodyear, and this last provides all the tires of the vehicles Mark VII to the more aerodynamic body.

Attraction was lengthened in 1973 to include a turn in north. It remained then virtually identical until 1994 when with the favor of the new topic of Tomorrowland, the decoration was changed to correspond to the vision of the future in the years 1950. The name changed in 1994 in Tomorrowland Speedway then again in 1999 for Tomorrowland Indy Speedway but the circuit and the vehicles remain the same ones.

  • Opening: October 1st 1971

    • Enlarging: 1973
    • Name of origin: Grand Prix Raceway
    • Renaming: 1994 and 1999
  • Partner: Goodyear Draws & Rubber Company
  • Conception: Walt Disney Imagineering
  • Vehicles: 146
    • Model: Autopia Mark VII
    • Maximum speed: 13 km/h.
  • Length: 680 Mr.
  • Requirements:
    • Momentary: 1 year or more
    • Conducting: 7 years or 1m.56
  • Lasted: 5 min.
  • Standard of attraction: Convey miniature with guide rail

Tokyo Disneyland

Attraction called here Large Circuit Raceway , is based on the version of the Magic Kingdom and remained unchanged since its opening in 1983. It has a circuit in form of 8 and one important steps as a side circuit from where the visteurs can look at the " pilotes".


Disneyland Paris

Attraction takes again the name of attraction of Disneyland but with a slightly different topic, in a certain one way. The circuit takes again to him the principle of the roads of the future, from where its name Highway off Tomorrow . According to the exact definition of attraction, " Autopia is a place where the city, nature and the highways live into perfect harmonie". The visitors cross the town of simulating Solaria represented by a metal structure of the Gratte-ciel S.

It takes as a starting point the film of Walt Disney Magic Highway of the years 1950 which presented the highways with the science fiction of the years 1930. This topic was not in perfect adequacy with that of Discoveryland. The vehicles are closer to the toys because of the first partner Mattel. The imagineers associated the length of the circuit of Magic Kingdom with the complexity of that of Disneyland.

Attraction is open only during the summer period since the end of the year 1990. The reasons of this closing are simply financial:

  • with the maintenance of the vehicles
  • to the need for at least 8 to 10 Cast members either more than for Space Mountain.
  • with the consumption of the vehicles

  • Opening: April 12th 1992

  • Design: Walt Disney Imagineering
  • Partner:
    • Mattel (1992-2000)
    • Esso (2002 - 2007)
    • Ford (2007-aujourd' today)
  • Vehicles
    • Number: 120 with the style going per pair.
    • Model: Autopia Mark VIII
    • Maximum speed: 12,5 km/h
  • Tracks: 4
  • Bridges of loading: 2
  • Requirements:
    • Momentary: 0,81 Conducting Mr.
    • : 1,32 Mr.
  • Lasted: 5 min.
  • Flow: 750 visitors/Standard hour
  • of attraction: Convey miniature with guide rail

HongKong Disneyland

Attraction is almost entirely apart from the limit marked by the way of the HongKong Disneyland Railroad. Its construction was decided little before the opening of the park. Attraction has effects of lighting, its topic being based on the extraterrestrial ones. This Autopia with the characteristic to be the first to be had vehicles functioning with the electricity. The noises of Driving S being non-existent, an audio system is installed on each vehicle to simulate it.

External bonds

  • Yesterland a site on the attractions disappeared from Disneyland.

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