One of Disneyland’s original attractions, Autopia, re-opened Friday after a four month refurbishment that changed the color scheme, polished up the cars and welcomed Honda as the new sponsor.

Disneyland Autopia

Although an original offering, Autopia has seen many changes throughout the years. In the beginning, the cars had no bumpers or rails which caused a lot of damage to the vehicles. The last major renovation was in 2000, when Chevron took over as sponsor and the Fantasyland and Tomorrowland tracks were combined into one supersized track. At that time, the eighth generation of car bodies was introduced with three different models: Dusty, an off-road style car; Sparky, a sports car; and Suzy, a Volkswagen Beetle-style car. While those bodies remain, the paint jobs have changed to Honda colors.

The queue building has also seen a big change, leaving the bronze, red and green colors from Tomorrowland ’98 in the past. The sparkling new blue color scheme looks great and finally matches the rest of Tomorrowland.
Aut Sign 2    Aut Sign 3

Aut Sign 4     Aut Sign 5

And most of the cars even got a nice detail job (except for Suzy).
Aut Car 1     Aut Car 2

Aut Car 3     Aut Car 4

Here’s an interesting video about the updating process for the cars.

The Disney Parks Blog says, “The updates will continue throughout the year.” Does that mean Suzy still has some changes coming?

The queue was packed on re-opening day despite a brief morning closure.
Aut Que 1   Aut Que 2

Aut Que 3    Aut Drive 1

Aut Drive 2     Aut Drive 3

The ride features a large video screen over the loading area and a few smaller ones in the queue (which once featured pepper’s ghost car scenes).
Aut Vid 1     Aut Vid 2

The screens now show a retro animated video which is based on the 1958 short, “Disney’s Magic Highway.”

It’s great to see one of Walt’s classics looking so good. If only they could switch from gas to electric motors. Perhaps we’ll see more updates in the coming months.

What enhancements would you like to see at Autopia?