(Review) Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift review—A wild ride that won’t be for everyone

Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift at Universal Studios Hollywood is a crazy, “which way is up?” kind of roller coaster, and thrill-seekers are going to love it. But it doesn’t really feel like drifting in a car.

I’m the kind of roller coaster rider who likes to mostly see where I’m going and enjoy the airtime and speed. On Hollywood Drift, I spent more time wondering which direction I was facing and which way was up. You go upside down multiple times and may find yourself facing backward and upside down at points. Some of the spinning feels controlled, while other moments seem more random.

Being able to experience a new coaster during technical rehearsals is a thrill in and of itself. And in this case, Fast & Furious” Hollywood Drift is a different kind of thrill, perhaps too much for me. And I wasn’t the only one who found the experience a little too disorienting. Jackie, my wife, was glad she rode it once, but said she wouldn’t ride it again. She particularly didn’t enjoy going upside down so much or traveling backwards.

The station and load area are very well done, and there are some awesome views of the coaster cars racing by while you’re waiting. One downside is the heat. Parts of the queue are in direct sunlight, and there isn’t much breeze or air conditioning until near the end of the queue. There are water fountains and fans along the way, but they aren’t everywhere.

Is Hollywood Drift the Fast & Furious ride we wanted?

Attractions Magazine has been following Hollywood Drift since long before anyone could climb aboard. I checked on construction in August 2024, when the coaster was beginning to stretch across Universal Studios Hollywood’s hillside. Unlike the relatively flat terrain of Florida’s theme parks, Universal Studios Hollywood is built across dramatically different elevations, and the coaster’s sprawling footprint takes advantage of that unusual setting, which is a cool feature. But with the spinning, backwards riding, and turning upside-down, it’s not too often that you can tell you’re “driving” down a mountain.

Now that I’ve finally ridden what we watched take shape, there’s no question Hollywood Drift is a much more ambitious Fast & Furious attraction than what came before it (see below). The 4,100-foot outdoor coaster reaches 72 mph, includes multiple inversions and uses four-person ride vehicles which rotate 360 degrees.

Does it actually feel like drifting?

That 360-degree rotation is supposed to help create the sensation of drifting, and this is where my experience differed from what I expected.

There are moments when the rotation of the car and movement of the coaster seem to work together, but I never really felt like I was drifting in a car through a turn. (Not that I actually ever have I guess.) The sensation is more disorienting than fun for me. Sometimes you’re looking toward where you’re going; other times you’re facing sideways or backward as the coaster continues along the track, and it can vary coaster car to coaster car.

That doesn’t necessarily make it a bad thing. In fact, riders who love spinning, inversions, and not knowing what is coming next may consider that one of Hollywood Drift’s best features. But if you’re expecting the rotating vehicles to make this feel like riding shotgun in one of the franchise’s street races, you will most likely be disappointed.

Better than Supercharged — but for fewer riders

Hollywood Drift is also an interesting course correction for Fast & Furious in Universal theme parks.

Fast & Furious – Supercharged opened as part of the Studio Tour in 2015 and permanently closed in March 2025. That experience put an entire tram into a screen-based highway chase alongside characters from the movies.

Hollywood Drift goes almost completely in the opposite direction. Instead of watching an exaggerated high-speed chase unfold on screens, you’re actually accelerating, spinning, inverting and racing around a real coaster track.

It is unquestionably a better ride than Supercharged, and much closer to the kind of attraction most guests always thought Fast & Furious should be.

There is a tradeoff, though. Supercharged could be experienced by a much broader range of Universal Studios Hollywood guests. Hollywood Drift is squarely aimed at thrill seekers, and I suspect plenty of visitors will look at the inversions and rotating cars and decide this one isn’t for them.

For my tastes, I still think the ideal Fast & Furious attraction would have been a terrain coaster taking advantage of this hillside, with lots of acceleration, airtime and high-speed turns, plus just enough controlled rotation to create a convincing drifting sensation, without uncontrolled spinning.

Hollywood Drift isn’t quite the ride for me. But after years of Fast & Furious attractions that never really delivered the speed promised by the franchise, Universal has finally built one that is undeniably fast and very furious.