TOMORROWLAND INDY SPEEDWAY

Autopia is an attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and at Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France. It is also at Magic Kingdom as the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway and at Tokyo Disneyland as the Grand Circuit Raceway. It will open under the Autopia name at Hong Kong Disneyland in 2006 as part of the first expansion phase of the new resort. Disneyland's Autopia opened on July 17, 1955. Disneyland Paris' Autopia opened on April 12, 1992. Both attractions opened on the opening days of the two parks as did the Speedways at Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland. Its name is a portmanteau of the words "automobile utopia," and was popularized in academic circles by British architecture critic Reyner Banham to describe Los Angeles in his 1971 book "Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies."

The second Disneyland-type park to open was the Magic Kingdom. An opening day attraction, the Grand Prix Raceway was based on an international car race rather than the futuristic roadways of Autopia. The original sponsor was Goodyear as it supplied all of the tires on the Mark VII vehicles. The ride was expanded in 1973 and remained unchanged until the 1994 layover of Tomorrowland. The Grand Prix theme and name was dropped in favor of 'Tomorrowland Indy Speedway', but the track and vehicles remained the same, as new theming to coincide with the "New Tomorrowland" overlay was installed.