The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (153 page)

After your tranquil spin through
Ornament Valley
, your car plunges into a cavern, and the dark ride portion of your journey begins.  In a word:  Amazing.  It’s a beautifully moonlit night, and you race through the outskirts of
Radiator Springs
, get stopped by the
Sheriff
, meet up with
Mater
, do some tractor-tipping, and almost get chewed up by a threshing machine.  This attraction boasts 23
Audio-Animatronic
figures, and they are among the most fluid you’ve yet encountered.  You truly feel you are meeting the inhabitants of
Radiator Springs
.  It’s charming for adults, mesmerizing for children.

And, speaking of
Radiator Springs
, now you are driving into town!  Here are the iconic buildings, and more of the beloved characters, seeming fully alive, moving and talking, welcoming you to town and sending you to compete in the big race!  (Philosophers can debate the philosophical ramifications of this miniature “
Radiator Springs
within
Radiator Springs
”.)

From the center of town, your slot car is routed either to the left, into
Casa Della Tires
, or to the right, into
Ramone’s Body Art
.  This is the process by which cars are separated so they can be pitted against each other in the final race.  In
Casa Della Tires
,
Luigi
and team make sure you have the best possible tires for the race.  In
Ramone
’s shop, cars receive paint jobs–in reality, sprayed, scented water droplets–so they’ll look their best for the challenge.

Your car exits the shop, and you pull up next to another car and idle for a m
inute.  If you have friends or family in the other car against which you’ll be racing, it makes this moment extra sweet! 
Doc Hudson
gives racers a final pep talk, and then–
VROOM
!  The race is on!

At speeds of up to 40 mph, the cars race each other through
Ornament Valley
, dashing up and down slopes and hugging the curves.  Pure exhilaration.  It all happens so fast, but you might be distantly aware of the Guests outside
Flo’s
lined up to watch the race and snap photos.  Who wins?  The results are random–you never know which car will be victorious.  In the final stretch, you see a blinding flash of light as your photo is snapped (as on
Space
and
Splash Mountains
).  And then you roar into the
Tail Light
Caverns
, where the victor is revealed!

Win or lose it’s been a satisfying journey of nearly five minutes.  Don’t be surprised if your little ones want to hop back in line immediately.  As you exit, you pass
monitor screens showing Guest photos snapped in the final stretch.  Typically, eyes are wide, hair is blowing in front of Guests’ faces–
not
a red carpet moment, but a fun and comical memory.  You can purchase digital or printed copies of your photo near the cavern exit.

The exit path winds through
Ornament Valley
and deposits you at the
Radiator Springs Courthouse
, near the
Racers’
entrance.  Should you ride again?  Go for it!  But if lines are long–and they usually are, even as 2014 draw night–take the much-shorter
Single Riders
option.

Family members or friends
who don’t want to ride the
Racers
can chill in waiting areas near the courthouse, or the scenic overlook.  Or they can head on over to
Flo’s V8 Café
and watch the races from one of the outside terraces while digging into an apple cheddar pie!

Radiator Springs Racers
took 2.5 years and $200 million to build.  Time, and money, very well spent. In the early days, the
Racers
broke down frequently, and long lines of cranky, weary Guests could get ugly.  But those technical glitches were, as expected, ironed out.  The best
Disney
attractions draw Guests into another world;
Radiator Springs Racers
succeeds on every level. 
Did You Know?
Route 66 figures heavily in the
Cars
story.  As the popular song proclaimed, U.S. Route 66 used to wind “from Chicago to LA/Over two thousand miles all the way”.  It was almost 2,500 miles long, crossing eight states (Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California) and passing through a plethora of small towns with homey little stores and restaurants and unique landmarks and features of interest.  From its launch in 1926, Route 66 guided legions of Midwesterners westward, whether they were only visiting California or migrating there permanently.  To entice travelers to stop, local businesses along Route 66 took to building their businesses in whimsical shapes, or using clever or colorful billboards or neon signs.  As time passed, massive interstate highways siphoned traffic from the more meandering and laid-back Route 66; the Mother Road fragmented and faded away. 
Walt
didn’t migrate to Los Angeles via Route 66.  A life-long, self-proclaimed railroad nut, he arrived by train in 1923, and his trips back to the Midwest and to the east coast were generally by rail or air thereafter.  However, although
Walt
didn’t take Route 66, he was still part of that great migration of Midwesterners with talent and grit and a strong work ethic who moved from the country’s heartland to the teeming, ever-expanding metropolis of L.A.  Los Angeles was a city on the move, with its blossoming motion picture, agricultural, mercantile, real estate, and industrial opportunities.  For doers and dreamers of the 1920’s, the desperate victims of the 1930’s Great Depression, the war workers of the 1940’s and the veterans and entrepreneurs of the 1950’s, L.A. exerted an almost hypnotic pull.  It still does today.  In the new millennium, many rue the passing of old Route 66.  Books and websites about it are plentiful, and there are efforts under way to put up markers indicating where certain portions of the route once existed, preserving the history of the route for future generations.  In this spirit,
Cars
celebrates the slower pace, solid values, and endearing eccentricities of small towns and the Mother Road that once linked the little communities, like gleaming pearls on a string. 
Night Vision:
  Like many
Disney
attractions, the
Racers
have a totally different look and feel at night.  The jaunt through
Ornament Valley
is stunning by starlight.  I think it can be said that you haven’t
really
experienced an attraction until you’ve ridden it during daylight
and
at night. 
Single Rider: 
Yes.  And Guests are well-advised to take advantage of this option.  On opening day, standard lines for the
Racers
exceeded four hours, and even the
FastPass
line stretched all the way through town.  Enter the
Single Rider
queue to the left of the standard and
FastPass
entrances.  Although you
might
end up seated in the same vehicle as your companions, there are no guarantees, but being separated during the ride can be a small price to pay for saving hours in line.  One of the unexpected bonuses of riding separately is that you might end up racing against your sibling, your spouse, or your granny.  Good times!  Of course, if you have small children with you, they can’t ride alone, so the
Single Rider
line is not an option for you. 
FastPass:
Yes.  If you can’t queue in the
Single Rider
line, but you don’t want to wait hours on end, get a FastPass early in the day before they run out–and they run out fast.  Because the
Racers
are so popular, and still so new, expect that even the
FastPass
line will be long.  The
Racers
’
FastPass
distribution point is near the
It’s Tough to be a Bug!
attraction.  If you’re staying at one of the resort hotels, enter the park an hour early for
Magic Morning
and head
immediately
to the
Racers
for short wait times and repeated rides.  Other strategies:  Ride the
Racers
during the off-season, and on week days.

Cars Land Gear and Grub

Gear:

Lube-O-Rama

[
FastView:
 
Snacks, beverages, and reasonably priced
Cars
souvenirs.
]

This small-town garage right next to the
Radiator Springs Racers
entrance, with its brick exterior, neon lights, shelves of oil cans, gas cans, license plates, and vintage gasoline signs (remember when Esso signs dotted the American landscape?) was designed to be the
Racers
’
FastPass
distribution center.

However, most likely due to the heavy crowds and the bottleneck in that area, the
Racers
’ “temporary”
FastPass
distribution point near
“a bug’s land”
remains in place, and by autumn of 2012 the
Lube-O-Rama
became a shop, an extension of
Ramone’s House of Body Art
next door.

The
Lube-O-Rama
sells more modestly priced merchandise than
Ramone’s
–
Cars
-themed shirts, jackets, toy cars, caps, pin lanyards, backpacks, patches,
Piston Cup
trophies, and so forth, as well as snacks.  You and the fellow speed demons in your party can pop in here before or after your ride on the
Racers
, whether for racing gear, or for a crunchy snack to nosh while waiting in the (probably long)
Racers
’ line.

Even though it’s small, its textured theming makes the
Lube-O-Rama
a visual gem.  When you’re near the
Racers
, pop into this little jewel of a Route 66 service garage. 
Did You Know?
  The
Cars
movies feature a number of fictional fuels, from
Dinoco
to
Allinol
to
Fillmore
’s organic fuel, which saves
Lightning McQueen
in
Cars 2
. 
Night Vision:
  The
Lube-O-Rama
’s neon sign is among the prettiest on
Cars Land
’s
Route 66
.

Radiator Springs Curios

[
FastView:
 
Like stepping back in time—and space—to old Route 66.  Postcards, pins, purses, and T shirts.  Fun photo opps by the gas pumps on the weathered front porch.
]

At the corner of
Cross Street
and
Route 66
, across from
Casa Della Tires
and
Flo’s V8 Café
, stands a peach of a shop, a replica of those iconic little mom-and-pop curio stores travelers found along the original “Mother Road”.

Radiator Springs Curios
is
Lizzie
’s shop.  Who is
Lizzie
?  In the
Cars
mythology, she’s the widow of
Stanley
, the car that established
Stanley’s Oasis
and founded
Radiator Springs
in 1909.  (You can see
Stanley
’s statue in front of the
Radiator Springs Courthouse
.) 
Lizzie
–a classic Model T automobile, of the sort once nicknamed “Tin Lizzies”–drove into town in 1927; she and
Stanley
subsequently married, and she opened the curio shop.

The exterior of
Radiator Springs
is unpretentiously inviting.  The boards are weathered, the paint faded–this store has been sitting in the desert sun for decades, after all–but a patchwork of vivid signs, license plates, and curiosities add splashes of color.  There are Route 66 signs, service station signs, and vintage gas pumps in red, blue, and yellow.

One sign announces that this is a
Disney Pin Trading
location.  The largest sign shows
Stanley
in silhouette and reads in large red letters, “Here It Is”.  This is a reference to Willam Mulholland, whose controversial aqueduct brought water to Los Angeles in 1913, making it possible for the city to flourish.  “Here it is, take it,” Mulholland told Angelenos when he turned on the tap.  Similarly,
Stanley
’s discovery of the springs in the desert made it possible for him to found
Radiator Springs
.