Autopia, 1958
There's nothing more fun than driving a car! Well, at Disneyland, anyhow. For children, the Autopia let them pretend to be grownups for a few minutes of putt-putting excitement. The most fun was, of course, rear-ending the car in front of you! Whiplash at the age of seven.
The ride seems to be equally popular with adults who just love the li'l not-so-speedy cars for reasons I'm not sure I understand, but I love 'em too. Maybe it's just the chance to feel like a kid again.
What's really amazing is how one Autopia was not enough...over the years there was the Fantasyland Autopia, the Junior Autopia, and the Miniature Autopia, as well as the Tomorrowland Autopia pictured here. It is clear that some major construction is going on, in this case it is the addition of the Submarine Lagoon, the Monorail, and the Matterhorn. Tomorrowland was about to be transformed completely! Another amazing thing is how all of those major attractions got built in the space of a year (or less), while today it takes several years to convert the already-existing ride into the "Nemo" attraction.
My grandma always called this ride the "Autotopia"!
4 comments:
What is still so funny is today most people call it Autotopia. Check out the beamway construction on the left hand side of the image. Very cool image. Now if I can find one of those Disneyland license plates!
Well, if anybody finds one of those license plates, it will be you, Matterhorn! Wonder why only some of the cars had them?
The plates were probably bent and broken from the crashes!!
Yes, I am one of those kids that used crash the car in front of me—isn't that what you’re supposed to do to your bratty older brothers?
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