I Rode FAST & FURIOUS: HOLLYWOOD DRIFT Four Times; Holy Crap, It's Unhinged Roller Coaster Madness!

I was recently invited to Universal Studios Hollywood to experience their new ride Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift, and riding it once wasn’t enough for me. Neither was twice. Or three times. I rode this freakin’ thing four times in a row, and it became more fun every single time!

I’ll admit the first experience on the ride kinda scared the hell out of me. By the fourth ride, my hands were in the air and I was laughing like an idiot while this mechanical lunatic threw me around the track at 72 mph.

That pretty much sums up my experience with Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift. This ride is completely insane, ridiculously fast, surprisingly scary, and easily one of the most exhilarating roller coasters I’ve ever been on, and I came out thinking I had just found a new reason to keep going back to Universal. It’s fast, it’s furious, and holy crap, does it drift!

I love roller coasters. I’m a huge roller coaster guy, so I was already excited about Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift long before I actually got into one of those cars. I’d been to Universal Studios Hollywood several times while the coaster was under construction, and later I got to see them testing it.

Every time I watched those cars screaming around the track, twisting through the layout and whipping around those turns, I kept thinking, “Man, that thing looks absolutely nuts.” Watching it from the ground, though, doesn’t prepare you for actually being strapped into the damn thing.

One of the first things that got my attention when I got on the ride was the restraint. Where the hell is the shoulder harness?! It’s not there! You’re sitting in this little four-person car getting ready to launch into what looks like a giant steel knot of bad decisions, and instead of having some massive restraint coming over your shoulders and locking your entire upper body into place, you’ve got a lap bar. That’s it. A lap bar.

I know these things are engineered and tested to keep riders secure, but my brain didn’t care about any of that at the moment. I looked at the track, looked at the restraint, prayed that it wouldn’t break loose, looked back at the track and thought, “Wait... we’re doing WHAT with THIS?”

Then the ride takes off, and from there, you’re committed. There isn’t much time to process what’s happening because Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift starts attacking that track like somebody just dropped the green flag on the most unhinged race of your life.

The coaster hits a top speed of 72 mph, runs across roughly 4,100 feet of track, features four separate magnetic LSM launches, and pulls up to 3.6 Gs. And let me tell you, you feel that shit! The G-forces on this thing are no joke. There are moments when the coaster absolutely crushes you into the seat, followed by moments when it feels like the ride is trying to fling you into another zip code.

Then you have the inversions. You’ve got a corkscrew, dive loop, zero-G stall, and barrel roll, all packed into a ride that lasts somewhere around a minute and a half to two minutes. That might not sound very long, but when you’re actually on this monster, your brain enters a completely different relationship with time. There’s so much happening that it feels like the coaster is constantly coming up with new ways to screw with you.

The coolest part of the ride, and the thing that really separates Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift from other roller coasters I’ve ridden, is the vehicle itself. These aren’t traditional coaster trains.

The ride uses individual four-person cars featuring 360-degree rotation technology, but they aren’t simply spinning around randomly. The rotation is controlled to simulate drifting, which is obviously perfect for a Fast & Furious attraction. So while the coaster itself is launching, dropping, twisting, diving and flipping you around, your freaking car is also rotating!

That changes everything because you’re not always facing where the track is taking you. That is such a wonderfully evil idea. There are moments where the car starts rotating and suddenly your brain has no freaking clue what direction you’re traveling anymore.

You can see the track doing something crazy, but your orientation to it keeps changing, so anticipating exactly what’s coming becomes much harder. It gives the whole ride this unpredictable quality where you know something insane is about to happen, but you’re not always sure exactly how you’re going to experience it.

The drifting also gives the coaster this fantastic combination of smoothness and chaos. It isn’t spinning just for the sake of spinning. The movement works with the track, so you actually get this sensation that your vehicle is sliding and drifting through these insane maneuvers. It’s freakin’ awesome, and it makes the coaster feel unlike anything else I’ve experienced.

There were moments when I genuinely didn’t know where the hell I was looking anymore. Track, sky, buildings, track again, and suddenly I’m upside down. Great! Let’s keep doing this!

Universal also went all-in on the Fast & Furious flavor with the coaster vehicles. The trains are modeled after cars from the franchise, including Dominic Toretto’s 1970 Dodge Charger, Han’s Mazda RX-7, Brian O’Conner’s Nissan Skyline GT-R, and his orange Toyota Supra.

Even better, each vehicle has its own onboard audio system with custom engine sounds based on the specific car you’re riding. That detail rules. You hear the engine roaring and revving around you while you’re being fired across the track, and it adds another layer to the experience.

Instead of feeling like you’re sitting in a generic roller coaster train with some Fast & Furious decorations slapped onto it, the vehicle actually really make it pop. And really, if you’re making a Fast & Furious roller coaster, the cars better be cool.

During that first run, I was genuinely scared. That wonderful roller coaster terror where your body is screaming at you that whatever is currently happening makes absolutely no freaking sense. You’re flying, rotating, upside down, and getting hammered with G-forces.

At some point during all of that madness, I just started laughing. I couldn’t help it. That’s one of my favorite feelings on a great roller coaster. You reach this point where the experience becomes so ridiculous that your brain apparently gives up trying to understand it and decides laughter is the only appropriate response.

I was laughing because I couldn’t believe how much damn fun I was having. It was scary as hell, but it was also so freaking awesome that the fear became part of the fun.

When that first ride ended, there was only one thing I wanted to do. Go again. So I did. Then I did it again. And then, because apparently I had completely surrendered myself to this thing, I rode it a fourth time.

What’s funny is that the experience changed every time I rode it. That first run was mostly about survival. I had no idea exactly how the drifting would feel, I didn’t know how intense the launches were going to be, and I didn’t know how my body was going to react to the combination of rotation, inversions and G-forces.

The second time, I knew what I was getting into, so I could enjoy it more. By the third ride, I was fully onboard with the insanity. By ride number four, the hands were up. Screw it. Let’s go!

That fourth ride might have been my favorite because the fear had mostly transformed into pure adrenaline-fueled joy. I could stop bracing for everything and just let the coaster throw me around. I knew the madness was coming, and instead of preparing for impact, I could enjoy every second of it. Oh, and I got the coaster all to myself!

Man, what a blast! It’s one of those rare attractions where immediately after getting off, I wanted to get right back in line. I honestly could have kept riding it until somebody from Universal politely informed me that the park was closed and I needed to go home.

Here’s probably the biggest compliment I can give Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift. This coaster alone makes me want to visit Universal Studios Hollywood more often. I’ve always enjoyed Universal. I go to Halloween Horror Nights every year, and if friends or family are visiting Los Angeles and want to hit the park, I’m happy to go with them. But outside of that, I haven’t necessarily felt the need to randomly wake up and think, “You know what I need today? Universal Studios.”

This ride changes that for me. Now I absolutely want to head over there specifically because I want to ride this thing again. More importantly, I want to take other people on it. That’s when I know an attraction has really worked on me.

I don’t just want to experience it again myself. I want to drag my friends and family onto it so I can watch them experience the same insanity. Someone comes into town now? Cool. We’re going to Universal because there’s something you need to ride. I already know I’m going to become annoying about this.

For me, Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift is easily worth the price of admission to Universal Studios Hollywood. I know that’s a big statement to make about a single attraction, but I had that much fun riding it. This isn’t a ride where I got off thinking, “Yeah, that was pretty cool.” I rode it four freaking times in a row. My actions have already betrayed any attempt I could make at pretending to be reasonable about this.

This coaster wrecked me in the best possible way. The 72 mph speed is exhilarating. The four launches keep the momentum ripping along. The inversions are bonkers. The 3.6 Gs hit hard enough to remind you that physics has decided to participate in the violence.

The rotating vehicles completely change how you experience the track, and the drifting mechanic gives the coaster its own crazy personality. There’s a lot of cool technology making this thing work, but none of that matters if the end result isn’t fun. Thankfully, Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift is ridiculously, stupidly, gloriously fun.

That’s ultimately what I want from a roller coaster. I want to get off laughing. I want my adrenaline going. I want that slightly shaky-legged feeling where I’m trying to process the insanity I just experienced. I want to look at the person next to me with that ridiculous grin that says, “Did we seriously just do that?” Most importantly, I want my immediate response to be, “Again.”

Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift gave me all of that. Four times. I’ve ridden a lot of roller coasters. I love roller coasters. This might be my favorite one yet.

If you’re in Southern California, you love thrill rides, hit up Universal Studios Hollywood, you’ve got to experience Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift! Just be prepared for that moment when you sit down, look at the lap bar, look at the insanity waiting in front of you and start questioning some of your recent life decisions. Then enjoy the ride!