Lets take a quick look back at the history of Test Track, how it became to be, and the differences between the original Test Track and the re-imagined Test Track (2012). Epcot's first major thrill ride since Body Wars opened in 1989. I remember waiting something like 200 minutes for this ride when I was a kid, which if you go on a busy day you can still see the upwards of 200 minutes.
I feel that I must mention World of Motion first before proceeding. I spent a bunch of time in Epcot Center as a kid, but never rode World of Motion.
World of
Motion was one of Epcot Center's opening day attractions. It operated from October 1st, 1982 through January 2nd, 1996 and took guests on
a journey through the past present and future of transportation. GM (which includes Chevrolet) has been one of the most consistent sponsors of an attraction in Walt Disney World. They have sponsored the ride in the World of Motion building for 39 years, from 1977- present (now as Chevrolet) which is currently the second longest running sponsor currently next to Dole.
Legend has it, on the very last ride through for Disney and GM execs, the ride faulted (broke down) and they were evacuated to the exit. Once World of Motion was closed, it was gutted of all of the show scenes and animatronics. Test Track would still use the building, in fact the ride track was very similar to World of Motion's.
It was announced that World of Motion would be closing, and that a high speed thrill ride, Test Track, would take it's place. The new ride would invite guests to GM's newest test facility right here in Epcot.
Legend has it, on the very last ride through for Disney and GM execs, the ride faulted (broke down) and they were evacuated to the exit. Once World of Motion was closed, it was gutted of all of the show scenes and animatronics. Test Track would still use the building, in fact the ride track was very similar to World of Motion's.
It was announced that World of Motion would be closing, and that a high speed thrill ride, Test Track, would take it's place. The new ride would invite guests to GM's newest test facility right here in Epcot.
When Test Track was announced in 1994, the approximate date to open was Spring 1997, which was optimistic to put it mildly. There were many delays with Test Track. At the time it was the most sophisticated ride vehicle ever devised, having 3 on-board computers which made programming everything from the speed of each turn, to when the brakes needed to be applied all that more difficult. The prototype vehicles were constructed in Glendale and sent to Orlando as soon as they were finished. Disney was only able to complete 4 or 5 cars before the track was finished, which meant WDI and Epcot operations would only be able to test the ride with 4 or 5 as opposed to 29 cars at a time which is what Epcot would be running on a daily basis.
(photo credit: Park Pics)
Because of all the delays to Test Track, Horizons (1983-1999) was actually reopened to guests (seasonally) in 1995 -1999. Once Test Track opened, that meant the end for the beloved Epcot Center attraction.
After multiple delays, Test Track soft-opened to the
public December 19, 1998 after a long delay the attraction officially opened on March
17, 1999 just under 2 years after it's original opening date.
Test Track (1998)
The experience was like none other. The story was that we were exploring what goes into testing a vehicle to make it ready for the road.
The queue line had so much going on, there were multiple crash dummy tests, along with wear and tear tests. As a teen I thought this line was so cool, however once I look back at it I know that I would be annoyed to death by the repetitive music, which was made to sound like you were in a garage and all the instruments were tools. It sounds cool at first, but wait until you've waited 160 minutes in the this line with the same one song playing.
Anyways once you get to the front of the line, you were herded into a pre-show theater. It was actually pretty entertaining. Basically two GM engineers banter back and forth on what test to put you through. They decide: rough road test, ABS test, weather conditioning, handling test, and finally the barrier/speed test.
Once the pre-show is done the doors opposite the one you entered through swing open. This was probably one of the more complicated lines. This is where the single rider/fastpass combined and formed two lines with the stand-by guests. The ride vehicle held 2 rows of 3 guests, which often creates vehicles of an odd number of guests, which is why the single rider line was introduced.
(FUN FACT: Test Track was the first ride that experimented with the single ride line.)
Once we were seated and buckled in, we proceeded up the spiral ramp to the seat belt check. From there we started the tests off with a 3 story hill climb followed by the rough road test, which was a series of different blocks and bricks that you ran over to test the suspension. Next was the ABS (Anti-lock Brakes) test. First the vehicle tries to make a sharp turn without ABS engaged, which makes the car veer off course. Then we tried the same test again but with the ABS activated, which meant instead of being flung around we would be slowed down to an appropriate speed to make the turn. Lame.
That brought us to the environmental chambers which included the Heat Chamber, the Cold Chamber and the Corrosive Chamber.
The first two chambers are pretty self explanatory, however I had really no idea as a young teen what corrosive meant. "Did you remember to turn off those robots?" I kinda assumed as a kid that meant something bad. I didn't expect that the if we really were in a test facility, we would have been sprayed with acid and our face would start to melt.
After being sprayed with some what I presume to be fake acid, we were whisked up some rolling hills to test the vehicles handling. This test was intended to measure lateral G forces, which basically meant we were going to take this small turns at increasing speeds as we climbed this hill. Once we got to the top we entered a pitch black tunnel and our headlights turn off. I remember the first time I rode it, and thought "hmm, this is weird, why do we have our lights off". Well it turns out that there is a semi truck coming at us from the other side of the tunnel, and we narrowly escape.
As we turn the corner and shake off a little thrill, we see a smashed up SUV from 1997, which can only mean one thing: THE BARRIER TEST. I personally think this is the best part of the original Test Track by far. The lights come up and we start accelerating towards the barrier, a quick flash for the ride photo and very quickly the barrier doors open to the outer track.
We hit a banked turn and begin to curve around into a straight away which is where our car accelerated to 64.9 MPH and did the loop around the building.
Once we slowed down, they showed us our heat signatures, which to this day I think was pretty unnecessary, but looked pretty cool. The GM crew thanks us for riding, and invite us back anytime!
The ride was a hit, and the success opened the door for future thrill rides at Epcot. Some may think of this as the start of the decline of Epcot, however at this point Horizons was put into seasonal operation, and the Universe of Energy got a update, with the then and amazingly still relevant Ellen DeGeneres. For me the "dark age" of Epcot started in 1998 when my favorite childhood ride Journey Into Imagination was closed to undergo what I believe to be the worst and saddest renovation of any Disney ride. But that is a whole other blog post.
After 13 or so years, Test Track was in need of a refurbishment. Many of the elements in Test Track were becoming dated; ABS was standard in pretty much every car since 1998, the pre-show videos were being shown on standard definition televisions, and every car shown in the pre-show was from 1998 or earlier.
During this time General Motors had second contract with Disney was coming to an end. The GM company was failing and was eventually saved by a controversial federal loan. GM still thought that Test Track was an opportunity to showcase their cars to the public and introduce them to the latest products. Some thought that this was silly since the company had just been saved from bankruptcy, however they decided to renew with Disney, this time under the Chevrolet name instead of the entire GM brand. I never really thought about it until writing this post, but I think it was actually a pretty good idea. I have never visited a Chevy lot, but I visit Epcot a lot. In the year 2014, Epcot had an approximate 11.45 million visitors that year, which meant a good percentage of those people rode test track. I was never old enough to even think about buying a brand new car during the GM days, but now that I'm in my mid-20's I stopping in to take a look at all the new Chevy product, and I can imagine that a lot of people do as well.
Anyways, Test Track was scheduled to go through a rehab for the better part of 2012. In this Rehab, the track would remain the same, but the experience would change. First off, Chevrolet became the sponsor instead of the entire GM brand. The cars would stay the same except for the look of the cars. Basically the whole ride was given a re-skin. Now riders would make their own Chevrolet sim-car to test on the sim-track. This meant guest would now be given a certain amount of time to design, create and color their car.
Test Track (2012)
Test Track re-opened on December 6th, 2012. The design of the cars and the queue line was made to look futuristic, even more futuristic than today, that way we wouldn't have to worry about a renovation anytime soon. In addition to making your own car, the queue line got a upgrade as well. Gone was the garage feel, now it portrays a Chevrolet design studio which showcases all the new ideas and concepts for the future. Now there is a full soundtrack created for the queue line, and sound effects and musical cues for the ride written by Paul Leonard-Morgan. I think the musical cues and sound effects add so much to the overall experience of the ride.
Instead of being herded into a small room, we are put into groups of 1-6 people (depends on your group, and herded into a large room. This room contains kiosks to make, create and design your sim-car. Each group is assigned a kiosk, from there you start by choosing a smart car, a truck, or a sports car. When you choose you car, you are then able to draw the approximate line or shape the car will have. Based on the length, width, line (of the car), as well as accessories and wheel width, your car will be rated on capability, efficiency, responsiveness, and power.
Depending on the type of car and all the other variables, you could make a car that has great power, but lacks in the rest of the categories. Not until recently did I realize that you were supposed to get a pretty level car and get all your ratings near the 50-60 mark. Once your 4 minutes is up, you can scan your magic band or RFID card and continue to the loading area.
You actually don't have to wait to make a car. If you would rather single rider it, they have pre-selected cars for you that you can test.
The loading process is pretty much the same, the only thing that has actually changed is there is a place where you can scan your RFID or magic band to link your design. From here on out the layout of the ride should seem pretty familiar.
Once again, we are seated and buckled in and proceeded up the spiral ramp to the seat belt check.
Welcome to the sim-track. we head up the 3 story hill climb right into the first test, capability. Here instead of the rough road and ABS test, the vehicle measures the capability of our designs under challenging weather and surface conditions. Oh there is also shameless plug for OnStar there!
We set up for the first straight away, during this specific run we are testing under wet and rainy conditions. As you can expect the same thing happens as before, while we try to make the turn we hydroplane off the track. Next we set up the off-road and extreme weather sequence. We head forward toward a wall until a bolt of lightning hits and we slow down to make the turn. Lame. After each test, a screen which displays your rating and rank (based of the other designs in the car).
Now on to the efficiency tests. The test rates the car on how eco-friendly it is, the aerodynamics, and the drive systems with hyperspectral imaging (which is actually a thing, used in a medical lab to find out the composition of certain materials.)
Next up, responsiveness. This test is the exact same test as the vehicles handling, even down to the truck we barley miss, except this time it looks all digital and cool!
The next part is I actually think cooler than the original. The musical cue starts to build as we approach the straight away. Energizing for power test!
The doors swing open and its on to the loop outside the building. The one difference here is that your photo is taken outside of the building almost right away. It's a really weird spot and although the photo location during the original Test Track was awkward, it was better.
This concludes our performance testing.
Once we got off we can check and see what how our designs stack up against everyone.
Overall Experiences
Now, I have talked to many people and the most common thing I hear is that people liked the original version, even in it's outdated-ness. Being someone who prefers originals rather than re-themes, I was sure that I would review it negatively, but after I rode it, I loved it.
You can tell at times that the redressing or re-theming of elements looked rushed, or half complete, most notably for me, the efficiency tests. Even during the first incarnation of the ride, this kinda felt shoe horned, but fit better hyperspectral imaging, and scanning for enviro-friendliness or what ever.
At the core it really is the same ride, we are testing our cars for different things, but everything is familiar to us. The original ride was more kinetic. Everywhere you looked something else was going on, whether that be other tests or other riders. This experience is more individual. While you are testing you can't really see the other vehicles doing their tests.The queue line is much more calm and coherent. The original queue was awesome and unique and got me excited for the thrill of the ride, while in the redone version you see concept cars, and hear GM/Chevy team members talk about what drives them to make cars, and what is being done to further automobiles in general. I should tell you now, the original Epcot Center made me a futurist and idealist, and this queue is right up my alley.
I love the music that was added to the queue line and ride. Sound is a sense that most theme parks overlook the importance of, and as far as I'm concerned, Walt Disney Imagineering/WED has been a pioneer in this area. I get so excited when our vehicle "powers up" for the power test.
Overall, I think the original had a better story, but I get pretty much the same experience with both rides. I do think the 2.0 fits better with the theming of Future World, and I love the Tron look!
I am so sorry this post was so delayed, (It was a Test Track post to be fair). I just got back from Orlando so I promise I'll have more stuff for you guys.
Follow me on Facebook: JustinAtEpcot and Youtube: JustinAtEpcot
Thanks!
Test Track (1998)
The experience was like none other. The story was that we were exploring what goes into testing a vehicle to make it ready for the road.
The queue line had so much going on, there were multiple crash dummy tests, along with wear and tear tests. As a teen I thought this line was so cool, however once I look back at it I know that I would be annoyed to death by the repetitive music, which was made to sound like you were in a garage and all the instruments were tools. It sounds cool at first, but wait until you've waited 160 minutes in the this line with the same one song playing.
Anyways once you get to the front of the line, you were herded into a pre-show theater. It was actually pretty entertaining. Basically two GM engineers banter back and forth on what test to put you through. They decide: rough road test, ABS test, weather conditioning, handling test, and finally the barrier/speed test.
Once the pre-show is done the doors opposite the one you entered through swing open. This was probably one of the more complicated lines. This is where the single rider/fastpass combined and formed two lines with the stand-by guests. The ride vehicle held 2 rows of 3 guests, which often creates vehicles of an odd number of guests, which is why the single rider line was introduced.
(FUN FACT: Test Track was the first ride that experimented with the single ride line.)
Once we were seated and buckled in, we proceeded up the spiral ramp to the seat belt check. From there we started the tests off with a 3 story hill climb followed by the rough road test, which was a series of different blocks and bricks that you ran over to test the suspension. Next was the ABS (Anti-lock Brakes) test. First the vehicle tries to make a sharp turn without ABS engaged, which makes the car veer off course. Then we tried the same test again but with the ABS activated, which meant instead of being flung around we would be slowed down to an appropriate speed to make the turn. Lame.
That brought us to the environmental chambers which included the Heat Chamber, the Cold Chamber and the Corrosive Chamber.
The first two chambers are pretty self explanatory, however I had really no idea as a young teen what corrosive meant. "Did you remember to turn off those robots?" I kinda assumed as a kid that meant something bad. I didn't expect that the if we really were in a test facility, we would have been sprayed with acid and our face would start to melt.
After being sprayed with some what I presume to be fake acid, we were whisked up some rolling hills to test the vehicles handling. This test was intended to measure lateral G forces, which basically meant we were going to take this small turns at increasing speeds as we climbed this hill. Once we got to the top we entered a pitch black tunnel and our headlights turn off. I remember the first time I rode it, and thought "hmm, this is weird, why do we have our lights off". Well it turns out that there is a semi truck coming at us from the other side of the tunnel, and we narrowly escape.
As we turn the corner and shake off a little thrill, we see a smashed up SUV from 1997, which can only mean one thing: THE BARRIER TEST. I personally think this is the best part of the original Test Track by far. The lights come up and we start accelerating towards the barrier, a quick flash for the ride photo and very quickly the barrier doors open to the outer track.
We hit a banked turn and begin to curve around into a straight away which is where our car accelerated to 64.9 MPH and did the loop around the building.
Once we slowed down, they showed us our heat signatures, which to this day I think was pretty unnecessary, but looked pretty cool. The GM crew thanks us for riding, and invite us back anytime!
The ride was a hit, and the success opened the door for future thrill rides at Epcot. Some may think of this as the start of the decline of Epcot, however at this point Horizons was put into seasonal operation, and the Universe of Energy got a update, with the then and amazingly still relevant Ellen DeGeneres. For me the "dark age" of Epcot started in 1998 when my favorite childhood ride Journey Into Imagination was closed to undergo what I believe to be the worst and saddest renovation of any Disney ride. But that is a whole other blog post.
After 13 or so years, Test Track was in need of a refurbishment. Many of the elements in Test Track were becoming dated; ABS was standard in pretty much every car since 1998, the pre-show videos were being shown on standard definition televisions, and every car shown in the pre-show was from 1998 or earlier.
During this time General Motors had second contract with Disney was coming to an end. The GM company was failing and was eventually saved by a controversial federal loan. GM still thought that Test Track was an opportunity to showcase their cars to the public and introduce them to the latest products. Some thought that this was silly since the company had just been saved from bankruptcy, however they decided to renew with Disney, this time under the Chevrolet name instead of the entire GM brand. I never really thought about it until writing this post, but I think it was actually a pretty good idea. I have never visited a Chevy lot, but I visit Epcot a lot. In the year 2014, Epcot had an approximate 11.45 million visitors that year, which meant a good percentage of those people rode test track. I was never old enough to even think about buying a brand new car during the GM days, but now that I'm in my mid-20's I stopping in to take a look at all the new Chevy product, and I can imagine that a lot of people do as well.
Anyways, Test Track was scheduled to go through a rehab for the better part of 2012. In this Rehab, the track would remain the same, but the experience would change. First off, Chevrolet became the sponsor instead of the entire GM brand. The cars would stay the same except for the look of the cars. Basically the whole ride was given a re-skin. Now riders would make their own Chevrolet sim-car to test on the sim-track. This meant guest would now be given a certain amount of time to design, create and color their car.
Test Track (2012)
Instead of being herded into a small room, we are put into groups of 1-6 people (depends on your group, and herded into a large room. This room contains kiosks to make, create and design your sim-car. Each group is assigned a kiosk, from there you start by choosing a smart car, a truck, or a sports car. When you choose you car, you are then able to draw the approximate line or shape the car will have. Based on the length, width, line (of the car), as well as accessories and wheel width, your car will be rated on capability, efficiency, responsiveness, and power.
Depending on the type of car and all the other variables, you could make a car that has great power, but lacks in the rest of the categories. Not until recently did I realize that you were supposed to get a pretty level car and get all your ratings near the 50-60 mark. Once your 4 minutes is up, you can scan your magic band or RFID card and continue to the loading area.
You actually don't have to wait to make a car. If you would rather single rider it, they have pre-selected cars for you that you can test.
The loading process is pretty much the same, the only thing that has actually changed is there is a place where you can scan your RFID or magic band to link your design. From here on out the layout of the ride should seem pretty familiar.
Once again, we are seated and buckled in and proceeded up the spiral ramp to the seat belt check.
Welcome to the sim-track. we head up the 3 story hill climb right into the first test, capability. Here instead of the rough road and ABS test, the vehicle measures the capability of our designs under challenging weather and surface conditions. Oh there is also shameless plug for OnStar there!
We set up for the first straight away, during this specific run we are testing under wet and rainy conditions. As you can expect the same thing happens as before, while we try to make the turn we hydroplane off the track. Next we set up the off-road and extreme weather sequence. We head forward toward a wall until a bolt of lightning hits and we slow down to make the turn. Lame. After each test, a screen which displays your rating and rank (based of the other designs in the car).
Now on to the efficiency tests. The test rates the car on how eco-friendly it is, the aerodynamics, and the drive systems with hyperspectral imaging (which is actually a thing, used in a medical lab to find out the composition of certain materials.)
Next up, responsiveness. This test is the exact same test as the vehicles handling, even down to the truck we barley miss, except this time it looks all digital and cool!
The next part is I actually think cooler than the original. The musical cue starts to build as we approach the straight away. Energizing for power test!
This concludes our performance testing.
Once we got off we can check and see what how our designs stack up against everyone.
Overall Experiences
Now, I have talked to many people and the most common thing I hear is that people liked the original version, even in it's outdated-ness. Being someone who prefers originals rather than re-themes, I was sure that I would review it negatively, but after I rode it, I loved it.
You can tell at times that the redressing or re-theming of elements looked rushed, or half complete, most notably for me, the efficiency tests. Even during the first incarnation of the ride, this kinda felt shoe horned, but fit better hyperspectral imaging, and scanning for enviro-friendliness or what ever.
At the core it really is the same ride, we are testing our cars for different things, but everything is familiar to us. The original ride was more kinetic. Everywhere you looked something else was going on, whether that be other tests or other riders. This experience is more individual. While you are testing you can't really see the other vehicles doing their tests.The queue line is much more calm and coherent. The original queue was awesome and unique and got me excited for the thrill of the ride, while in the redone version you see concept cars, and hear GM/Chevy team members talk about what drives them to make cars, and what is being done to further automobiles in general. I should tell you now, the original Epcot Center made me a futurist and idealist, and this queue is right up my alley.
I love the music that was added to the queue line and ride. Sound is a sense that most theme parks overlook the importance of, and as far as I'm concerned, Walt Disney Imagineering/WED has been a pioneer in this area. I get so excited when our vehicle "powers up" for the power test.
Overall, I think the original had a better story, but I get pretty much the same experience with both rides. I do think the 2.0 fits better with the theming of Future World, and I love the Tron look!
I am so sorry this post was so delayed, (It was a Test Track post to be fair). I just got back from Orlando so I promise I'll have more stuff for you guys.
Follow me on Facebook: JustinAtEpcot and Youtube: JustinAtEpcot
Thanks!
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