Cars Land to open on June 15 at Disney's California Adventure

Pixar's animated movie Cars will come to life on June 15 when Disney's California Adventure opens a real-life version of the Western desert road town of Radiator Springs.

The 12-acre attraction will feature everything from a Flo's Drive-In and a Cozy Cone to a high-speed "Radiator Springs Racers" ride with six-seat, open-topped race cars fashioned after your favorite Cars characters. The race cars operate on a track similar to the one used for the General Motors proving-ground attraction at Disney's Epcot Center in Florida.

There will be other fun things, too. Most innovative might be the Luigi's Flying Tires ride, which features bumper-type cars in the shape of tires you sit in that float over a giant air-hockey field, suspended on a cushion of jet-blasted air. Mater's Junkyard Jamboree will offer low-speed thrills as park guests ride in two- or three-seat trailers towed behind small tractors of the kind tipped over by Mater and McQueen in the original movie. Mater calls out a square-dance routine, and the tractors swing their trailers 'round and 'round in a series of textbook oversteers.

We have seen the Ornament Valley mountains of Cars Land and can attest that they do look like the real thing, down to the nose-buried 1949 to 1963 Cadillac tail fins of Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo.

Should be fun!

By Mark Vaughn