Credit: DisneyDisneyland Resort’s Autopia attraction experienced an unusual disruption on Monday when one of the gasoline-powdered cars broke down partway through the ride. Disney cast members stopped the car behind it and tied the vehicles together, allowing the working car to “bump” the broken one to the unloading area.
Autopia is one of the few remaining opening-day attractions at Disneyland Park, making it nearly 70 years old. The ride has undergone countless aesthetic changes and corporate sponsors over the years, so it’s hardly the same attraction it once was. Nevertheless, it inspired several Disney Park rides around the globe: Tomorrowland Speedway in Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World Resort, Grand Circuit Raceway at Tokyo Disney Resort, Autopia at Disneyland Paris Resort, and Autopia at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. Hong Kong Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland have since removed their versions of the ride.
Despite its international notoriety, Autopia is mostly famous among Disney Park guests for its unmistakable gasoline smell that wafts through Tomorrowland. Many Disney Parks fans have spent years calling for the smelly attraction’s removal; instead, Disneyland Resort has promised to solve the problem by shifting to electric-powered cars by the fall of 2026.
And it seems like Autopia might be ready for a facelift. The Tomorrowland attraction has experienced multiple issues this week, including a derailment that shut the entire ride down for a few hours on Wednesday. But days before the derailment, Redditor u/jmtb02 shared their unusual experience on the classic Disneyland Park ride.
“Autopia car ahead of mine broke down, so they tied it to my car bumper-to-bumper,” the Disney Park guest wrote alongside a photo of a Disney cast member servicing the broken car ahead of theirs. “Lived the lifelong dream of bumping a car all the way back to the station.”
Autopia car ahead of mine broke down, so they tied it to my car bumper-to-bumper. Lived the lifelong dream of bumping a car all the way back to the station
byu/jmtb02 inDisneyland
Disney cast members had to manually restart the working car at one point because the speed of two vehicles going downhill was so fast that it triggered an emergency stop.
“Took about 15 minutes to fetch a rope and have a cast member supervise the push,” the guest continued. “Two Autopia cars going downhill is so fast that the driver car will automatically stall out (safety shutoff?) and need manual restart flipping the switch in the back. 10/10 Autopia.”
After unloading the guests, Disney cast members presumably moved the broken Autopia car from the ride track into a maintenance area. Despite having multiple technical issues this week, the Disneyland Resort ride had reopened and was operating normally at the time of this article’s publication.
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