This post is part of a series that tours the Magic Kingdom from A to Z. For other posts in this series, click here.
Previously on our A-Z tour of the Magic Kingdom, we spent some time practicing are shooting skills in the American West at the Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade. For this week’s installment, we jump forward a few centuries and visit Tomorrowland to ride the Grand Prix Raceway.
The Grand Prix Raceway was an opening day Magic Kingdom attraction themed after an international car race, unlike Disneyland’s Autopia which is based on the futuristic roadways of Autopia (a portmanteau of the words automobile and utopia) sponsored by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Guests travel in authentic Mark VII race cars around a track with guide rails, allowing drivers some flexibility in steering while limiting collisions with other cars.
The ride was expanded in 1973 and later shortened to allow for the construction and opening of Mickey’s Birthdayland (currently Mickey’s Toontown Fair) in 1988. The attraction was later renamed the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway and subsequently the Tomorrowland Speedway.
The attraction currently features 146 vehicles that travel in four lanes at a top speed of 7.5 miles per hour around the 4/10 mile track (resulting in a trip length of approximately five minutes). Guests who wish to drive one of the vehicles must be 54″ (137 cm) tall, while passengers must be at least one year of age.
I haven’t been on this attraction in over a decade, but I recall loving it as a child because I felt like I was actually driving a car. Unfortunately, the attraction loads very slowly and if you get stuck behind a slow driver (which seems to be the rule rather than the exception), the attraction takes considerably longer and the roads turn in to the longest bumper car ride you’ve ever seen.
If you’ve never been on this attraction or have a child who is finally tall enough to drive, I definitely recommend it. Otherwise, I’d rather see Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress or wait in line for another ride through Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.
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