Cars Road Trip · Walt Disney Studios Park · Disneyland Paris · build 2020 · opening 17 June 2021

So Big It's Nuts!

For Cars Road Trip, the attraction that reopened the Studio Tram Tour at Walt Disney Studios Park turning it into a ride through the universe of Lightning McQueen, we sculpted the oversize scenography for the first and third stops — giant wrench, nuts, tyres and the sinking cabin with Lightning inside at Radiator Springs.

Story

Act one · The World's Largest Lugnut stop

The world's largest
lug nut.

In September 2020 our workshops are full of giant tools. Hexagonal nuts one and a half metres tall, a wrench around four metres long with «SO BIG IT'S NUTS!» sculpted in bas-relief on the handle, three monumental tyres with three different tread patterns.

These are the pieces for the first stop of Cars Road Trip: «World's Largest Lugnut», the monument to the world's largest lug nut. A tourist stop along the Route 66 imagined by Pixar for Cars — those American oddities out in the desert, like Cadillac Ranch or Carhenge, but in Pixar cartoon key. There, Lightning McQueen, Luigi and Guido in plastic pose for the visitors' souvenir photo.

The pun is perfect: lug nut is the name of the wheel nut — the one you unscrew to change a tyre. But nuts also means "crazy, mad". «So big it's nuts!» means, literally, "so big it's made of nuts", but also "so big it's crazy". The lettering is sculpted in bas-relief directly on the handle of the wrench.

The raw pieces leave our workshops in high-density expanded polystyrene, stiffened in fibreglass. They then go to Marne-la-Vallée for final assembly and the polychrome painting curated by the Walt Disney Imagineering Paris teams.

Giant wrench sculpted in white polystyrene at the Creation Art workshop, around four metres long, laid horizontally with «SO BIG IT'S NUTS!» in bas-relief on the handle, next to two giant hexagonal nuts, one resting on the floor and one on a wooden pallet; in the background classical statues and friezes from our archive — **«SO BIG IT'S NUTS!»** The signature piece of the World's Largest Lugnut stop

The two giant hexagonal nuts sculpted in white polystyrene, close-up view: hexagonal shape with central hole for the wrench, fully sculpted, set on wooden pallets in the workshop yard, alongside the beginning of the wrench with the bas-relief lettering — **The hexagonal nuts.** The giant «lug nuts» that give the stop its name

Three giant tyres sculpted in raw white polystyrene, each with a different tread pattern (one with square blocks, one with hexagonal blocks, one with horizontal stripes), laid on their sides in the workshop on wooden pallets with classical statues from our scenography archive in the background — **The three giant tyres.** Three different treads — like scraps from a workshop on Route 66

Scenographic workshop hut in polystyrene, still at the workshop: stylised grey corrugated metal roof, double wooden door with metal mesh closed, side walls in corrugated boards, around one and a half human heights tall, set on the warehouse floor with a ladder behind — **The workshop hut.** Corrugated metal and mesh doors in Radiator Springs style

Behind the scenes · the three stops of Cars Road Trip

Three stops,
seven minutes of ride.

Cars Road Trip brings the old Studio Tram Tour: Behind the Magic (1989-2019) back to life, turning it into a seven-minute ride through the Cars universe. The visitor boards a Route 66-themed tram and crosses three scenic stops. We made pieces for the first and the third.

1 · World's Largest Lugnut

The first stop is the largest cartoon monument in the world: the giant «SO BIG IT'S NUTS!» wrench planted in the middle of the Cars Land desert. Beneath it, two hexagonal nuts one and a half metres tall act as a base, and three tyres complete the picture as if they were scraps from a workshop. The statues of Lightning McQueen, Luigi and Guido in plastic stay locked in pose for the souvenir photo. Our raw pieces are all here.

2 · Cars-tastrophe Canyon

The second stop recovers the old Catastrophe Canyon from the Studio Tram Tour (1989) and rebrands it in Cars key: the tram enters the canyon, an avalanche of rocks tumbles down, an explosion of fire fills the air, a river of water sweeps everything away. Mechanical and hydraulic effects reused from the original system, staged by the Disney Imagineering teams. We did not work on this stop.

3 · Mater-piece

The third and final stop is the homage to Mater — the rusty tow truck, Lightning's friend. The visitor arrives at the heart of Radiator Springs: workshop with a corrugated metal roof, the cylindrical cabin designed to sink into the water of the wet set with Lightning McQueen inside, the Tour Eiffuel made of petrol drums. Our hut and the cabin belong to this stop.

~4 m

the length of the «So Big It's Nuts!» wrench for the Lugnut stop

7 min

the length of a full Cars Road Trip ride on the themed tram

17 Jun 2021

the official opening date of the attraction to the public of the French park

Workshop pieces · build 4 September 2020

The Radiator Springs hut
and the sinking cabin.

The workshop hut and the cylindrical cabin go into the third stop, Mater-piece: a homage to Radiator Springs and to the tow truck Mater. The cabin is designed to be positioned so as to sink when the set is flooded, with Lightning McQueen inside peeking out of the porthole. Photos from our archive dated 4 September 2020.

Front view of three giant tyres sculpted in raw white polystyrene at the workshop, each with a different tread pattern, lined up vertically, with classical statues and polychrome portraits from our scenography archive in the background — Giant tyres for Lugnut — three different treads

Side view of the workshop hut in polystyrene: square shape with a sloping corrugated grey metal roof, one door visible on the front, walls in layered panels, distant views of the build yard — The Mater-piece hut, side view

The workshop hut with open doors revealing the dark empty interior: visible internal metal structure, wooden pallet on the floor, step ladder on the left, view from outside the front facade — Hut — doors open onto the interior

Front view of the hut with the double metal-mesh door open to an empty back, with the letters CAS partially visible above the arch, in the foreground polystyrene fragments on the floor, a green statue on the left of the background — Double mesh door — Radiator Springs detail

View from inside the hut: dark grey walls with internal metal lattice structure, wooden pallet at the back, dusty concrete workshop floor, open structure like a display case — Interior view of the workshop hut

Close-up view of the double wooden leaf with metal mesh of the scenographic hut: brass-coloured metal hinges, X-shaped door crossbars, corrugated metal roof above, detail of our carpentry craft — Double leaf with metal mesh — detail

Large cylindrical silo, layered in stacked tiers and sculpted in raw white polystyrene, around three metres tall, cylindrical structure with horizontal ribbed bands and vertical wooden reinforcement planks, set in the workshop with windows in the distance — Cylindrical cabin — designed to sink with Lightning inside

Side view of the cylindrical silo during finishing: surface with horizontal white stripes, vertical wooden reinforcement rings, wide base, rising vertically in a slight cone shape — The cabin — side profile view

Detail of the assembly of the metal reinforcement rings of the silo: two workers in work overalls assembling the two circular steel bands that wrap the silo shell, view from above, polystyrene fragments scattered on the floor — The cabin — metal reinforcement rings during assembly

The installed attraction · after 17 June 2021

Our pieces
inside the park.

With the paintwork finished and the Pixar statues in position, the signature pieces sculpted in our workshops can be seen today along the Cars Road Trip route: the wrench in the foreground of the Lugnut stop, the cylindrical cabin with Lightning peeking out, the tyres integrated into the set. Official, public photos of the attraction.

The giant «SO BIG IT'S NUTS!» wrench installed and painted at the World's Largest Lugnut stop of Cars Road Trip at Walt Disney Studios Park in Disneyland Paris: silver metal-coloured wrench under the park sunlight, red bas-relief lettering, Pixar desert setting — The wrench at Lugnut — paint finished, in position

The cylindrical cabin sculpted by Creation Art installed on the Cars Road Trip set, painted in the attraction's colours, with Lightning McQueen peeking out from the central hole/porthole as if the cabin were sinking into the water of the wet set — The cabin with Lightning inside — what we called the silo

The giant tyres sculpted by Creation Art installed in the scenography of Cars Road Trip at Walt Disney Studios Park: three monumental tyres with different treads painted in black rubber colour, integrated into the cartoonish set of the Radiator Springs/Lugnut workshop — The tyres integrated into the park's scenography

Second life · the attraction

From Marino
to Radiator Springs.

The pieces left our workshops by road towards Marne-la-Vallée in autumn 2020. They were assembled, painted and integrated into the mechanical attraction by the Walt Disney Imagineering Paris teams, under the creative direction of Tom Fitzgerald and the art direction of Beth Clapperton.

On 17 June 2021 Cars Road Trip opened to the public of Walt Disney Studios Park (with a soft preview on 15 June) replacing the old Studio Tram Tour: Behind the Magic, shut down in 2019 after thirty years of service (1989-2019). The new attraction is part of the decade-long transformation of the park into Disney Adventure World, announced in 2018 and still ongoing today. Our «SO BIG IT'S NUTS!» wrench remains one of the signature pieces photographed by visitors at the first stop.

The techniques of the out-of-scale object — the optical short-circuit between an adult tool and the child-spectator — have entered our standard repertoire for theme park projects. We find them applied to the Bollywood food truck at Walibi, to the bestiary of Braccio e la Mente, to the pawn-piece columns of Luneur Park.

Tech sheet

All production data

Attraction: Cars Road Trip — reimagining of Studio Tram Tour: Behind the Magic (1989-2019). Themed tram crossing three scenic stops from the Pixar Cars universe, runtime 7 minutes.
The three stops: 1. World's Largest Lugnut — out-of-scale monument with statues of Lightning McQueen, Luigi and Guido · 2. Cars-tastrophe Canyon — reuses the hydraulic and fire effects of the old Catastrophe Canyon · 3. Mater-piece — Radiator Springs with the Tour Eiffuel by Mater
Client: Walt Disney Studios Park · part of Disneyland Paris · Marne-la-Vallée (Île-de-France, France) · for the decade-long transformation into Disney Adventure World
Walt Disney Imagineering Paris: Creative direction Tom Fitzgerald · art direction Beth Clapperton
Public opening: 17 June 2021 · soft preview 15 June 2021
Period of our build: Build September 2020 · photos from our archive dated 4 September 2020 · road transport to Marne-la-Vallée in autumn 2020
Pieces for stop 1 · World's Largest Lugnut: Giant wrench «SO BIG IT'S NUTS!» ~4 m, bas-relief lettering on the handle · Two giant hexagonal nuts ~1.5 m, fully sculpted · Three giant tyres with three different treads (square blocks, hexagonal blocks, horizontal stripes)
Pieces for stop 3 · Mater-piece: Workshop hut with corrugated metal roof and double metal-mesh door · Radiator Springs style · Cylindrical cabin layered in stacked tiers ~3 m · designed to be positioned so as to sink into the water of the wet set, with Lightning McQueen inside
Techniques: High-density expanded polystyrene hand-sculpted · layered fibreglass stiffening · metal carpentry for the load-bearing structures of the silo · real carpentry for the metal-mesh doors of the hut · polychrome finishing curated on site by Walt Disney Imagineering Paris
Logistics: Road transport from our workshops to Marne-la-Vallée for final assembly and definitive painting under Disney Imagineering direction
Our role: Contribution to the realisation of the scenographic pieces for stop 1 (World's Largest Lugnut) and stop 3 (Mater-piece) — sculpting, stiffening, precision carpentry, delivery ready for final painting in the park
Sources: Walt Disney Studios Park (Disneyland Paris official site) · DLP Welcome · Wikipedia Cars Road Trip · Wikipedia Walt Disney Studios Park

So Big It's Nuts!

1 · World's Largest Lugnut

2 · Cars-tastrophe Canyon

3 · Mater-piece

From Marinoto Radiator Springs.

From Marino
to Radiator Springs.