Hello, After years of building a go kart with my brother and running around the neighborhood with a modified motor with a custom exhaust pipe, we finally got to ride in a “pro” built go kart of sorts. The whole little car was the main attraction at the Autopia on the opening day and months thereafter at Disneyland in 1955. The whole amusement park was crowded from the beginning. Our dad decided to not go on opening day and for some reason, my wife’s family also chose not to go on opening day. (Actually, opening weeks.) We finally were able to go on a Tuesday in the morning, several weeks later, and it was not crowded. Wow, cruising on our own roads, with full throttle driving and time behind the wheel by myself. Yowza! Jnaki The amusement park was centrally located in Orange County next to the busy I-5 freeway. Back then the freeway was called the Santa Ana Freeway. Although it ran into the “San Diego Freeway in Irvine to the South and went all the way into Los Angeles in the North. So, why was it called the Santa Ana Freeway? The freeway original street was an early state highway that started in Santa Ana (and Irvine. Not a city back then) And, the "San Diego Freeway" name? Well, it did end in San Diego near the huge harbor and bay shoreline. Note: We found out later that the original Autopia cars were fancy constructed go karts with the similar design and build as a simple frame, gas lawnmower type motor and steering + brakes. Of course, similar but more professionally designed and factory constructed body made it look like it rolled right out of Detroit or in Europe. One of our high school teenage friends got a job as a mechanic/maintenance crew for the midnight to 7 am shift. He and the whole mechanic crew took the cars out on the track and raced around to get everything running correctly as far as tuning and looking for problems. The rear shell was off so they could hear and see if anything was amiss. Sometimes the other guy sat backwards to look, while the first guy steered around. We wanted to visit him at work and run around on the empty track. But he told us that it was crowded with the mechanics and their cars out on the track nightly until 6 am. Then they all got washed and dried ready for the park opening the next day. So, what did our friend do after work? Well, he came with us to the beach several times, but was too tired to do anything but sleep. When we did not go to the beach early, we all met at a 24 hour diner for an early breakfast. The midnight to 6 am shift was weird. YRMV Note 2: The latest out of So Cal amusement parks was that those old gas powered motors will be converted to all electric to wear down the power grid in all of So Cal, with daily 12-14 hours of use/charging each day/night. At least the park's neighbors will not hear gas motors zipping around late at night or early mornings getting tuned. YRMV
The Jalopy Journal
