Real People Just Rode Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift — and a Summer Opening Is Closer Than You Think

For months, Universal Studios Hollywood’s Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift has been a steel silhouette on the horizon — a coaster you could see weaving over the park but couldn’t yet ride. That changed this past weekend, and it’s a meaningful milestone for anyone planning a summer trip to Hollywood.

According to CinemaBlend, a TikTok video captured on Friday, April 10 shows real passengers — not test dummies — seated in the ride vehicles and moving through the course. The footage was taken from the Starway, the escalator system that connects Universal’s Upper and Lower Lots, which also happens to run directly beneath sections of the coaster’s track.

It’s a small group — one rider in the front seat, a couple more in back — but it marks the first known instance of human riders on the attraction. That’s a significant step in the testing process, and it puts a summer opening firmly within reach.

What the Coaster Actually Does

Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift is Universal Studios Hollywood’s first outdoor roller coaster, and its headline feature is the one thing that separates it from almost every other coaster on the planet: the ride vehicles rotate.

Each car is designed to spin left and right as the coaster takes corners, mimicking the drifting mechanics from the film franchise. The effect is meant to make you feel less like a passenger on a thrill ride and more like you’re actually behind the wheel of one of the franchise’s iconic cars — carving through turns rather than just being pulled through them.

The track stretches 4,100 feet and reaches speeds of up to 72 mph, making it the fastest coaster in the Universal Destinations & Experiences portfolio. It winds over sections of the park, including the Starway, which means guests in the park will have a clear view of it running long before they’re able to board.

Worth noting: the CinemaBlend report observes that during this particular testing run, the rotating mechanism appeared to be locked in place. That’s not unusual for early human testing — ride teams typically run systems in stages, validating one component before layering in others. It does not indicate a problem with the attraction.

The Cars Fans Will Recognize

Part of what makes Hollywood Drift compelling for fans of the franchise isn’t just the mechanics — it’s the detail. Four iconic cars from the films will be featured in the ride experience:

• Dom’s 1970 Dodge Charger
• Han’s 1997 Mazda RX-7
• Brian’s 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R
• Brian’s 1994 Toyota Supra

These aren’t just cosmetic nods. The attraction was built around the visual language of the films, and having the specific cars tied to specific characters gives it a level of authenticity that pure thrill-ride concepts often skip.

When Can You Actually Ride It?

Universal has not announced an official opening date. The attraction is scheduled to open sometime in summer 2026, with Memorial Day weekend often being the target window for major new park openings — though the CinemaBlend report notes that timeline seems unlikely for this particular ride. Load testing, which gradually increases the number of riders per cycle, still needs to be completed, and full soft testing with cast members typically follows before any public debut.

The height requirement is set at 51 inches, which puts it in the same general range as other high-intensity coasters.

Why This Matters for Your Planning

If you’re considering a Universal Studios Hollywood trip this summer, Hollywood Drift changes the calculus meaningfully. Hollywood has historically been the smaller of the two major Universal parks in the US, with a more limited coaster lineup than Orlando. A 72 mph outdoor coaster with rotating vehicles is a genuine category upgrade for the park — not a minor addition.

The fact that human testing began April 10 is encouraging. It means the ride has cleared enough of the construction and mechanical validation phases to move into rider testing, which is typically the final major phase before an opening can be announced. We’d expect a date reveal in the coming weeks.

For anyone with summer travel already on the calendar, it’s worth keeping an eye on Universal’s official channels. When the date drops, standby lines for a brand-new coaster of this scale are going to be long — particularly in the first few weeks.

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Source: CinemaBlend — It Happened So Fast And Furiously: A TikTok User Caught Some Of The First Riders Getting On Universal’s Drift Coaster