From the idling speed of prehistoric times to the white-knuckle thrills of tomorrow, Epcot’s transportation pavilion has always celebrated humanity’s desire to move farther, faster. And today, we accelerate from 0 – 65 as we explore the second life of the transportation pavilion as it became home to fastest ride Walt Disney World has ever hosted.
Technologically groundbreaking, cutting-edge, and game-changing, in 1999 Epcot welcomed a new ride that would change the park forever. Kicking off a new philosophy of industrious thrills, TEST TRACK signaled a change in the wind; a falling domino that – for better or worse – redefined Epcot for a new generation.
Image: Disney
But the story behind this adored ride isn’t a drive in the park. Plagued by frazzled technologies that lead to years of disastrous delays, the true story of Test Track’s opening is a testament to Disney’s perseverance. And the story of its closure is one of forward-thinking sponsorship and adaptability. The ride you see today is so different from the 1999 original, we consider it a new installation altogether. Today, we’ll dissect the development of Test Track (which traces its roots to the 1970s) and see what riders experienced on this lost 1999 thrill ride. Then, we’ll explore what replaced it and why.
We hope you’ve visited our Lost Legends series before, where we’ve dissected the in-depth, full stories behind closed classics and forgotten fan favorites. Together, we’ve gone 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to explore the sunken story of the Magic Kingdom classic, set course for the stars on the original Star Tours, braved the frozen tempest of Maelstrom, escaped the menace of JAWS, and so many more. Keep an eye out for links to Lost Legends entries across the site. But today, we turn our sights back to Epcot to pick up with the second half of a Legendary two-part entry.
Proving Grounds
As you know, EPCOT Center represented a brave model shift for Disney’s designers. Doing away entirely with castles, princesses, and characters – synonymous with “Disney” at the time – the park was meant to be a living, breathing World’s Fair modeled after the international expositions so influential to Disney in the decades prior. Massive themed pavilions would each focus on a single topic of industry and innovation, with deep-pocketed sponsors signing on to pay for each, keeping the pavilions constantly stocked with forward-thinking technology and continuously-refreshed rides.
General Motors – one of the “three big automakers” – was eager to partner with Disney and this brave new EPCOT Center, and as a result GM was the first company to sign on to finance a pavilion.
Image: General Motors
Even in 1976 – six years before the park opened – Disney’s Imagineers were on-site at the GM Proving Grounds in Milford, Michigan to get an up-close look at prototype vehicles and the company’s leading test facility. Built in 1924, the Milford Proving Grounds was a cutting-edge campus where vehicles were put up to rigorous controlled experiments in speed, maneuverability, durability, and power.
With over 130 miles of roads built to test a vehicle’s response to extremes, a popular adage says that every mile tackled on the Milford Proving Ground is equivalent to five miles in the real world. Among its fabled exercises are the “Seven Sisters” course – a set of extreme lateral acceleration switchbacks – off-roading surface testing, and a 120-mile per hour banked loop speed track five lanes wide.
Image: General Motors
Extreme weather tests? Yep. Off-roading courses? Yep. Steep inclines, twisting roads, and flooded streets? Absolutely.
Of course, these extreme conditions are mere inconveniences compared to the most fabled safety test of all: the barrier crash test, wherein a vehicle packed with anthropomorphic testing devices (that’s crash test dummies to the rest of us) barrels headlong into an immovable wall.
Image: General Motors
Taking a cue from what they’d seen, Imagineers way back in 1976 toyed with developing a ride where guests would “test out” prototype vehicles. As the plans grew and changed with GM’s input, the idea of a more humorous and “Disney” style experience was developed: a dark ride through the history of transportation. The “vehicle test” concept was demoted to a second, minor attraction in the pavilion, then was removed entirely.
Instead, the full power of GM’s influence and finance would go to support one major attraction for the pavilion: World of Motion.
Part One: World of Motion
The story of Test Track begins with a few cavemen tired of foot travel, fanning their aching and enflamed feet. No, we won’t trace the development of transportation from the dawn of time to today… But Test Track’s predecessor did. That’s why the fascinating story of EPCOT Center’s transportation pavilion really begins with a separate in-depth entry that serves as a “part one” to today’s tale – Lost Legends: World of Motion traces the development of EPCOT Center (from city to theme park), examines Disney’s partnership with the pavilion’s sponsor General Motors, and recreates the unforgettable experience of riding through the awe-inspiring dark ride that resulted.
Image: Disney
We encourage you to catch-up in that separate in-depth entry if you haven’t already, but here’s what you need to know: World of Motion was an EPCOT Center original. When you think of the grand, vast, epic, educational dark rides the park offered in its earliest days – rides like Spaceship Earth or fellow Lost Legends: Journey into Imagination, Universe of Energy and Horizons – you should picture World of Motion, too. As globally-minded as EPCOT’s best, World of Motion was one of the most unique rides Disney Imagineering ever designed.
Inside the circular, steel pavilion, riders would board a chain of continuously-moving Omnimover vehicles and be whisked through the history of transportation. From the dawn of man to the age of exploration, hot air balloons, and Da Vinci’s flying machine.
Image: Disney
Then to the era of steam trains, the automobile, and flight. None of EPCOT’s early rides would be complete with a peek into tomorrow, and World of Motion ended with a stunning finale and a one-of-a-kind look at a city of the future and the efficient Walt-approved mass-transit systems that served as its circulatory system.
But nothing great can last… Especially, evidence suggests, at Epcot. And by time the park celebrated its first decade, World of Motion was already gearing up for change.
Times Change
Let’s pick up exactly where we left off. By 1992, General Motors’ 10-year sponsorship of EPCOT’s transportation pavilion was up. GM had the option to renew. But their choice wasn’t as simple as it may seem. General Motors reported a loss of $23.5 billion (that’s billion with a b) in 1992 – at the time, the largest loss by any U.S. company ever – slashing the price of shares and putting quite a few employees out of work. Put simply, General Motors was in no position to sign on to another long-term commitment with Disney, so they didn’t. Instead, they continued their support for one more year as a trial.
Image: Disney
After that year, their fortunes had improved and General Motors offered to extend their support for another decade, but with a caveat: they wanted Disney to design a new attraction for their pavilion. And rather than telling the history of transportation, this ride should focus specifically on cars. After all, an attraction that served as an embassy-showroom for General Motors and an ambassador for its vehicles would be much easier for shareholders to accept than a whimsical journey through time.
Disney approached General Motors with a fresh concept: reimagining the forgotten “vehicle test” attraction concept and pairing it with 21st century technology. The concept struck a chord. World of Motion closed forever on January 2, 1996. Just over a year later, in May 1997, a brand new thrill ride was due to take its place. That was the plan, at least… Read on…
On February 7, 1997 – mere months before Epcot’s thrill ride was due to debut – it became official. Disney Imagineers were on-hand at the Chicago Auto Show where GM announced details of its ambitious new ride: TEST TRACK. In an official press release that day, Disney and GM called their new ride, “a behind the scenes look at the thrill of automotive safety.”
Image: Disney
“It’s not often that consumers get a behind-the-scenes look at how our vehicles are developed and how much effort goes into vehicle testing,” said Philip Guarascio, vice president and general manager of marketing and advertising for GM’s North American Operations. “In addition to its high entertainment value, Test Track will provide our guests with a better understanding of GM’s commitment to safety, quality and advanced technology.”
“The work done by GM research engineers has set new standards for the industry and contributed to the substantial reductions in the number of automotive crash fatalities and serious injuries. Test Track is an extension of that safety effort.”
Image: General Motors
But Guarascio was quick to head-off any insinuation that GM’s reinvestment in Disney was untimely given the company’s financial meltdown a few years earlier. He insisted that GM would track visitor traffic, collect surveys, and monitor test drives, referrals and vehicle purchases to evaluate whether or not the multi-year investment would deliver.
“We didn’t do it because it feels good,” Guarascio said. “We did it because it makes good business sense.”
The Perfect Car
Like World of Motion, Test Track would be a dark ride. But the similarities would end there. First, walls separating the show scenes from World of Motion would fall, turning the pavilion’s second story into one massive, cavernous industrial warehouse full of “safety tests.” To endure them, Test Track would ascend and descend sharply, accelerate and brake, rumble over rough terrain, tackle banked turns, and slow for show scenes throughout the ride’s interior before revving to 65 miles per hour for a speed test finale. That required a new, versatile ride system.
At its core, the vehicles used on Test Track would have a lot in common with the pioneering, groundbreaking vehicles used just a few years earlier on Disneyland’s 1995 Modern Marvel: Indiana Jones Adventure.
Image: Disney
Imagine the slot car tracks you might’ve had as a child, where small model cars are affixed to a track using a pin inside of a guide groove. In these pint-sized slot cars, battery power charges the track, energizing a small motor inside the car through electrical pickups.
On a human-sized scale, these vehicles would ride along a track with a bus-bar fed down a central slot to guide tires and power supplied beneath. Each of Disney’s vehicles would include three on-board computers to track the ride’s progress and speed, activate show scenes and lightning, and control on-board audio and video cues.
While Indiana Jones Adventure would then place a hydraulic motion base atop the powered, slot-guided chassis to simulate rough terrain, Test Track’s thrill would come from speed. That would take a little restructuring. And that’s where the problems began to mount.
System Error
Image: Disney
While Disney’s Imagineers were developing the new Test Track technology, they were concurrently working on a project for Disneyland that would use the same basic principles. There, Tomorrowland’s Lost Legend: The Peoplemover had closed in 1995 in anticipation of a sweeping Possibilityland: New Tomorrowland 2055. This incredible new vision of the future would’ve transformed California’s Tomorrowland into an intergalactic alien port of landed ships, alien speakeasies, interstellar languages, and a headlining new thrill: Disney’s scariest attraction ever, the Lost Legend: Alien Encounter.
However, the disastrous debut of Disneyland Paris canned any large-scale projects across the parks division, including any hope of a Tomorrowland 2055. Instead, Disney would borrow from the in-production Test Track technology as a hasty and “easy” replacement for the Peoplemover, giving the despised New Tomorrowland 1998 that resulted a single headlining attraction…
Image: Disney
If they had worked, the Rocket Rods would’ve allowed guests to blast along the second story of Tomorrowland, weaving in and out of showbuildings before entering a wild finale of twisting and turning over Tomorrowland’s Submarine Lagoon. The Rocket Rods would’ve taken about 3 minutes to complete the same circuit that had taken the Peoplemover sixteen. Of course, they didn’t work. You can read all about why Disney’s most disastrous ride ever literally didn’t work in its own in-depth Disaster File: Rocket Rods and Tomorrowland 1998.
The failure of Rocket Rods was like watching dominoes fall. Disney’s budget hadn’t allowed the old Peoplemover’s track to be banked on the turns, requiring the Rocket Rods to constantly start-and-stop, slowing to a crawl at each twist in the track.
Image: Disney
As a result, the software developed to control the attraction was fried. It was simply beyond the software’s capability to continuously monitor the distance between vehicles and their respective speeds, starting and stopping and slowing and accelerating so unevenly. The Rocket Rods were doomed. As for Test Track…
Test Track’s announced May 1997 opening came and went, and the temperamental prototype ride system was not working in Florida, either. Like its sister in California, Test Track was turning out to be a disaster. But while Disney could quietly shutter the Rocket Rods and leave well enough alone, Test Track would be dedcidedly more difficult to brush under the rug. Allegedly, Disney scrapped the software developed by an outside manufacturer entirely and took over themselves, building and installing new software to monitor and run the ride.
At an estimated cost of $100 million – one of the most expensive rides ever developed – Test Track opened on March 17, 1999… almost two years after its scheduled debut.
Was the ride inside worth it? We’ll strap in and go for a ride on the next page.
If you were one of the lucky generation of Epcot guests to experience World of Motion, you may be surprised to see just how much has changed in Future World’s Southeasternmost pavilion. Sprawling banners fall from a towering tent structure placed before the symmetrical transportation pavilion. The open wedge that once revealed a spiraling, ascending Omnimover track was windowed over, and a new style pervades: construction zone.
Image: Disney
While the new ride, TEST TRACK, did take two years longer than expected to open, construction is finished. The look is intentional. This new thrill ride brought to you by a longstanding collaboration between Disney and General Motors is meant to show you behind-the-scenes of vehicle testing, so yellow and black stripes, orange cones, and reflective traffic signs will be the norm.
And think about it – if you didn’t drive a car to Epcot today, you probably drove one to an airport to get you here… And as you strapped into a two-ton, hulking metal frame vibrating with pulsing engines, shifting gears, and airbags poised to deploy, how did you know you were really safe? The truth is, you probably didn’t. But after this ride, you will. Or, you’ll at least have a better appreciation for it.
As you approach the mammoth showbuilding, you may hear a high-pitched electrical whir in the distance. As you wait, it grows closer and closer before the metallic roadway overhead – perfectly encircling the circular building – sways with force, the sound zooming past and off to the right. This isn’t your grandather’s World of Motion.
Image: Disney
Inside, you find yourself in a most un-Disney place: a warehouse packed with antique vehicles, warning stripes, deconstructed cars, exposed wiring and ducts, lighting rigs, and real crash test dummies. TEST TRACK is different from anything you’ve seen at Walt Disney World before… it’s an unabashed look into the extreme conditions vehicles are put through years before they hit the showroom floor.
In this kinetic, musical queue of spinning lights, squealing tires, and videos, you’ll see just a few of the extensive tests GM uses to ensure your family was safe on the way to the park.
As the end of the labyrinth-like queue, you’ll be invited into a Briefing Room for a review of today’s goal.
Image: Michael Gray, Flickr (license)
The Briefing Room is lined with framed photos of GM’s Testing Facilities worldwide, including the Milford Proving Grounds and, of course, TEST TRACK. Overhead monitors provide a “live feed” of the track’s control center, where we meet Bill McKim who reviews the day’s schedule: we’ll start with an accelerated hill climb, tackle German and Belgian blocks to simulate rough roads to test suspension integrity, experience the sensation of having our brakes lock up, and then see the wonders of ABS – Antilock Braking System. Environmental tests, handling runs with hairpin turns, and a high speed loop should finish us off.
“Now if this routine seems a bit extreme, you’re exactly right!” Bill offers. “But that’s what a test track is all about. The cars you drive at home are made up of over 15,000 parts and every one of them has to pass the test under extreme conditions before we ever let it off that test track and onto the road!”
Today, we’ll be taking on a most esteemed job: we’ll take the place of GM’s crash test dummies to experience the thrills that cars undergo to make sure they’re safe. And Bill and his team will be with us the whole way via in-car monitors to let us know which tests we’re about to undergo.
TEST TRACK
Image: marada, Flickr (license)
Exiting from the Briefing Room, we enter into the ride’s Dispatch center, where a line of self-driving cars arrives. Each is wrapped in yellow and white and dotted with indicator lines, warning stripes, checkers, and graphics. Much like real cars being put through the paces on real proving grounds across the world, there’s no need for these vehicles to look like anything more than they are: test subjects. Six guests fit inside each car – three in the front and three in the back – with a small in-cab video monitor for each row. Once we’re all strapped in (with familiar automobile seat beats), the car buzzes to life and advances forward to a seat belt check, with a daunting asphalt hill looming ahead.
From the seat belt check, we pass under a reflective green highway sign signaling our first test: HILL CLIMB. It’s a 26.8% grade surrounded in reflectors and metal barriers, and at the top of the hill we find ourselves in the warehouse that’ll serve as our testing ground, surrounded by other cars undergoing tests themselves. With a sharp turn to the right, we align with a down grade and see a path ahead lit by industrial spotlights. The ROUGH ROAD test sends the cars shuddering down the small hill and jostling over blocks placed in the road. Surely if our suspension can handle this, it can tackle even the most violent off-roading.
Image: Disney
Now, around the corner, lining up with a straightaway lined by glowing orange traffic cones. Bill appears on a monitor attached to a traffic light next to another green reflector sign: BRAKE TEST. “Okay, I’m going to take you right up to the cones, hit the brakes, and see if I can steer you through.” “Hold on!” The car races forward toward the cones. “Braking… now!” The car yanks to the left seeming to slide out of control.
The car rounds the bend and aligns with another alley of cones. “Okay, let’s try that again, but this time with the anti-lock brakes!” The car jolts forward again, accelerating straight toward an oncoming car! At the last second, the car headily brakes and turns, completely controlled. “That’s how it ought to be!” Two monitors ahead review our Brake Test. “You see how anti-lock brakes help keep control of the vehicle while braking?”
Ahead, the green light gives us a go signal as we pass into a corrugated metal shed with its own green sign: ENVIRONMENTAL CHAMBERS. “Let’s demonstrate some extreme test conditions!” In the HEAT CHAMBER, rows upon rows of incandescent, red glowing lamps power up, immediately baking riders in sincerely sweltering heat… well past 100 degrees.
Image: Disney
The COLD CHAMBER that follows is caked in layers of frost with frigid mist raining down. To have Disney tell it, this chamber is roundabout 0, constituting a 100 degree shift between rooms. The third Environmental Chamber glows green as robotic arms spring to life. “Did you remember to turn off those robots?” Just as the arms begin spraying the vehicle in neon yellow mist, you may notice this room’s sign: CORROSIVE CHAMBER.
Next, we exit the Environmental Chambers. “Cleared for Trial Course A.” The car takes a left at a fork in the road and heads into a “forest” of intentionally-flat cutout trees.
Image: Loren Javier, Flickr (license)
This is the RIDE & HANDLING TEST, where we’ll experiment with the car’s ability to handle hairpin turns. “Increasing speed… 10%.” The car tackles the first switchback with ease, gliding along the roadway as reflective arrows guide us. “20%.” It races up the inclined straightaway then turns sharply again. “30%!” “Are you seeing an increase in lateral forces?”
Just before you can make out the DIP sign, the car jolts down a drop and makes a quick left into a dark tunnel. As the headlights power down, we’re left in total darkness… A literal light at the end of the tunnel appears, but it’s a distraction! To the left, a honking horn and flashing headlights send the car skidding a bit to the right before gaining traction and heading toward the clearing.
Image: Josh Hallett, Flickr (license)
A-ha… A crashed car appears to the right and ahead, a new sign signals our next trial: BARRIER TEST AREA. Barrier test? What’s a barri– ahead, massive banks of spotlights illuminate a car smashed up against a wall, its front end crumbled and its airbags deployed.
The car rounds the corner and – gulp – aligns with a concrete barrier dead ahead, marked with warning symbols. The rest of the room lights up to reveal the crashed remains of other vehicles littered about… You can’t be serious! Disney isn’t going to send us careening into a wall, right? And yet, the vehicle moves forward, first in a crawl, then a burst. Now, we’re racing full speed ahead toward the wall. Overhead, the banks of lights hum to life as the wall is mere feet away!
At the last possible second, the wall splits down the middle and slides precariously out of the way. Blinding light bursts from ahead, and we’re outside! Here we are… the SPEED TEST. You might’ve already suspected that Test Track is unlike anything else at Walt Disney World, and this is where that’s proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. Your test vehicle races down a drop and aligns with a straightaway, launching forward. As overhead streetlamps race past, your car veers to the right and banks, entering a massive acceleration curve that circles around the very real vehicles of Epcot Cast Members.
Image: Disney
The breathtaking speed only increases around the loop, faster and faster, equivalent in all ways to riding in a convertible on the highway. Test Track is the fastest ride at Walt Disney World by far, beating even Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster by a healthy margin. The track lines back up with the initial straightaway, zooming back toward the pavilion and passing under a speed reader that’ll signal your top speed: 65 miles per hour. An extreme bank now sends the car curving around the circular pavilion’s front end, roaring over the ride’s entrance.
And now, returning to the back of the pavilion, the car re-enters the facility for a final scan: THERMAL IMAGING. On the overhead screen, you can see the car’s infrared scan… or more amusingly, yours. A final descent leads back to the loading area. “Alright, that completes our test schedule! Thanks for being such a great test crew! Come back and ride anytime!”
As always, we include a point-of-view video to let you experience the wonders of TEST TRACK first-hand. Take a virtual ride through this Lost Legend using the video here:
The ride’s post-show experience includes an Assembly demonstration showing each piece of your car and how they’re assembled together and a General Motors showroom stocked with cars of tomorrow… and those available for purchase today, if you’re in the mood for a serious souvenir. If your souvenir budget’s a little more limited, the classic post-ride gift shop has the perfect gift for you… including a TEST TRACK slot car set.
TEST TRACK was a spectacular ride that forever changed Epcot. But its inclusion in our Lost Legend series signals that the story doesn’t end here… Things were about to change, and TEST TRACK would never be the same. Read on…
A New Future
Epcot’s first certifiable thrill ride was a hit. For better or worse, the “runaway” success of Test Track signaled the beginning of the end for Epcot’s opening day philosophy. The park, it was now clear, was bound by neither nostalgia nor the future. Test Track successfully blended into the park’s industrious roots while proving that this new version of the park could support thrill rides.
Image: Disney
And so, the dominoes fell. World of Motion’s 1996 closing kicked off an aggressive new philosophy. Just two years later, another Lost Legend: Journey into Imagination, became one of Disney’s most embarrassing rides ever. A neighboring Lost Legend: Horizons became the nauseating (and frankly, brainless) Mission: SPACE in 2003; The Land became home to an East Coast cousin to another Lost Legend: Soarin’ in 2005. There was no stopping it. Test Track had spurred Disney to develop a complete, floor-to-ceiling redesign of Epcot that we chronicled in its own in-depth Possibilityland: Epcot’s Project – Gemini feature. Long story short, Epcot was destined to leave its storied roots behind to become Disney World’s park of thrill rides masked as innovation.
Image: Disney
And we’re not necessarily saying that each of those changes was a bad thing! Remember that EPCOT Center’s 1982 opening had been marketed as the early arrival of the 21st century. But by the late 1990s, the actual 21st century was looming, and it looked nothing like the ‘80s-inspired architecture and “classic” dark rides Epcot was offering.
A change was needed, and Test Track fit the bill. It was a hit.
Which made it all the more unexpected when, thirteen years later, Disney announced that the ride would close forever on April 15, 2012.
Disney announced that a new version of the ride would debut in the fall. This 2012 redesign was staggering in its scope; so much so that we contest that it’s a replacement more than a reimagining, as the ride that came out the other side not only looks and feels different, but also has a different purpose. That’s why we bestow Test Track’s 1999 – 2012 form with venerated Lost Legend status, remembering it here as a landmark ride that is, for all intents and purposes, gone.
What took its place is arguably still one of Disney World’s greatest rides.
Test Track: Take 2
Image: Disney
The new Test Track that debuted in 2012 might not look very different from the outside. As before, every few seconds the high-pitched electric hum of a car approaches from the left, roaring – out of sight – around the banked track that encircles the pavilion. You might notice that the logo now reads Test Track Presented by Chevrolet, as GM has specifically selected its Chevrolet brand as the ambassador here. But otherwise, what could have changed?
Inside, everything has. You’re no longer in a warehouse. The “construction zone” motif is gone. There’s no indication whatsoever that you – or anything else here – will be a crash test dummy in an industrial safety test. Instead, you’re in a streamlined, sleek showroom where the newest of GM’s Chevrolet prototype vehicles are on display…
Image: Disney
The Chevrolet EN-V is a two-seat urban electric concept car developed jointly by GM and Segway. The Chevrolet Tru looks more like something out of our world, even if it’s sleek, slim, and glistening as it rotates in the glowing queue.
As you wait, you’ll pass dimensional screens showcasing new designs and pass a projection-mapped hybrid of the future, watching as it begins with simple lines before expanding into a three-dimensional design. All the while, Chevrolet’s design team discusses how they go about developing vehicle concepts to power the future.
Image: Disney
But here’s where the new Test Track really begins to shine: you’ll next enter into the Chevrolet Design Studio, a vibrant and otherworldly laboratory where you’ll be assigned an oversized touch screen Design Station.
“All designs begin with a line.” And with a swipe of your finger, you – yes, you! – will create the silhouette of a custom car. You can adjust and sculpt your car’s streamlined shape in any way you like, and then adjust the engine, tires, width, and length of your vehicle in a literally endless assortment of design options.
Image: Disney / General Motors
All the while, live readouts will tell you how your design handles in four key areas that matter to Chevrolet and to consumers: Capability, Efficiency, Responsiveness, and Power. Balance your car, or not! The choice is yours. And with a tap of your MagicBand or RFID-enabled park ticket, your design is assigned to you to follow you onward.
Just as before, you’ll watch as the ride vehicles pull quickly into the loading dock and park for boarding, but something’s changed. First, you’ll tap your MagicBand again before entering, assigning your custom design to the vehicle in front of you. Second of all, the yellow-and-black warning stripes are no more. The car before you is wrapped in a glowing blue grid – an indication that more than just the queue has changed.
Capability, Efficiency, Responsiveness, and Power
Here’s the story: every square inch of Test Track has been entirely designed. The warehouse is gone. You’re no longer in an industrial proving ground. You’re not a crash test dummy. Now, you’re a designer. You’ve used science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics to construct a car worth testing, and the vehicle you’re sitting in – the SimCar – will stand in for your design on the digital SimTrack. Your custom concept will be put to the test in four test realms: Capability, Efficiency, Responsiveness, and Power.
Image: Disney
Leaving the station, you ascend into the glowing, pulsing, digital landscape of the SimTrack, clearly (and successfully) modeled after the world of TRON. A stylized world of laser grids, you’ll track your vehicle’s progress through the four tests and view your vehicle’s real-time results after each.
Image: Disney
At the top of the ride’s ascent, you’ll pass under a pulsing yellow digital arch – Capability – and explore your vehicle’s reactions to challenging weather and surface conditions as computer landscapes digitize to change your course, gridded sheets of rain fall, and two-dimensional programmed obstacles dot the landscape along the yellow neon road.
Having tested your vehicle on this computerized terrain, a glowing screen ahead shows how your vehicle – the one you designed! – scored in Capability compared to the scores of other riders.
Image: Disney
Then, a green arch – Efficiency – takes you through three chambers that scan your vehicle and test its aerodynamic qualities (remember how you started with a line?) and engine efficiency. “Results displayed and verified” again!
A blue arch signals the start of a Responsiveness test. As before, your vehicle tackles the tight and increasingly quick switchbacks of a hillside, though now the trees are (remarkably) produced by blue lasers and the industrial road has become a glowing neon pathway. The close encounter with a semi-truck remains, too, but it’s now created from lasers as well.
Finally, the three emblems for Capability, Efficiency, and Responsiveness ping to life, lighting up to show their completion. That leaves only one more: Power. The blue roads give way to purple arches that signal the test’s start. As lights pulse and energize, the vehicle revs and races straight toward a “TT” logo, which pulls apart at the last second, leading to the same high-speed outdoor course before seeing your vehicle’s Power test results before your eyes.
Next…
Image: Disney
And now more than ever, you may wish to spend some time in the Test Track post-show presented by Chevrolet. Sure, you’ll see more of GM’s custom cars of the future. But this experience also lets you put your custom concept car to additional tests and trace its path through the ride one test at a time.
As an added bonus today, we’ll include a must-see point-of-view of the new Test Track. We’d ask you to spot the differences, but it’d probably be easier to see if there’s anything that remained the same between versions… Check it out here:
So really, just one question remains: which version of Test Track is better? Well… Read on to hear our thoughts.
Which version of Test Track is better? Here’s where things get tricky… Test Track was a legend. Epcot’s first certifiable thrill, it helped (for better or worse) to redefine what Epcot could be. We offered earlier that the two version of Test Track are so dissimilar, we consider them two different rides, no more related to one another than a Lost Legend: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is to Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!
But to get to the point: which is better? As you might imagine, the decision is a divisive one, and to this day, fans can’t seem to agree on which version of the ride is “better.” In this writer’s opinion, a head-to-head face-off is telling. And any face-off has to begin with this astounding (and sometimes surprising) side-by-side video of both versions of the ride. There are very, very few moments when they resemble one another in anything more than an allusion! (By the way, the video uses binaural sound so that, in headphones, the left ear is the “old” Test Track and the right ear is the “new.”)
With that comparison in mind, here are five head-to-head tests of our own design…
HEAD-TO-HEAD #1: Setting and Story
There may be a litany of complaints worth leveling against the rapid loss of Legends at Epcot and the ensuing half-hearted thrill rides that resulted. One common thread is that many of Epcot’s newest generation of rides hit hard on one of our five tell-tale signs of a “bad” ride: they invariably take place in a corporate office or training center.
Image: Disney
Why does that matter? Put simply, it’s a tactic used whenever Imagineers doubt guests’ ability to leave reality behind. If designers don’t think they can trust you to suspend your disbelief and enter another world, they can ground the story in someplace familiar. By having an adventure start in (or worse, wholly take place in) an office, institute, or training center, guests can stay constantly tethered to reality. Exiting through the gift shop is practically assured since you’re reminded again and again that the ride is happening in a theme park. In other words, it reassures: “Don’t worry! You haven’t left the park’s pathways too far behind, and you’ll be back soon!”
Even if EPCOT Center was always a park that told the truth, rides like Journey into Imagination, World of Motion, Spaceship Earth, The Living Seas, and Horizons could go to incredible places, unimaginable times, and meet unthinkable characters to do it.
Compare that to the coolly received Mission: SPACE, an outright Disaster File: Journey Into YOUR Imagination (below), the short-lived Lost Legend: BODY WARS, and yes, the original Test Track and you’ll see it again and again – constant reminders that what you’re doing is just a test or experiment inside of a theme park, not a legitimate journey.
Image: Disney
In other words, many of Epcot’s current rides seem to mistake the park’s “industry and innovation” focus as a moratorium on transporting guests to another place and time. In the original Test Track’s case, we were meant to believe that we were in a modern industrial factory testing grounds, standing in for crash test dummies. Look up – there are the light fixtures! Look to the left and right – the corrugated steel walls of an industrial showbuilding. The time is now. The place is here. Your role is obvious and contrived. No imagination necessary.
The “new” Test Track changed that, sending us to a world disconnected from our own (even if it’s a microcosm compared to the global span of World of Motion or Journey into Imagination) and, perhaps more than any modern ride Disney’s conceived, trusted its riders to open their minds, make actual choices, and “get” the concept without being hit over the head with it.
Advantage: The “new” Test Track
HEAD-TO-HEAD #2: Future-Readiness
Even separate from its grounded setting, the original Test Track was a product of ‘90s design, and maybe – just maybe! – by 2012, it was showing. The “construction zone” theming around the ride, traffic signs, and “warehouse” queue weren’t inspirational or futuristic, and if Epcot were determined to keep Future World innovative, Test Track would need to change. And what it changed into is, almost inarguably, more futuristic at least, and simply a better design for the 21st century at best.
Even if it might seem odd, the new Test Track was meant to be a flagship for Disney’s MyMagic+, the billion-plus dollar infrastructure rebirth that would update all of Disney’s decades-old systems between parks, hotels, restaurants, and stores in an all-at-once growth spurt. The new Test Track was supposed to be a living example of what that technology could bring – a mere prototype for the way attractions of tomorrow would become personalized to us. At least so far, the new Test Track is the most visible and recognizable personalized attraction credited to MyMagic+, but the test is promising.
Advantage: The “new” Test Track
HEAD-TO-HEAD #3: Fun Factor
Image: General Motors
Maybe it’s unfair to make “fun” into a quantifiable measure, but we wholeheartedly hand this category to the “old” Test Track. While it wasn’t packed with outright puns or slapstick humor, it had an element of goofiness and self-awareness that stuck. Even if we can logically see the fault in the ride’s “grounded” setting and its distinctly unfuturistic vibe, we can also appreciate that there’s something gleeful about passing through the hot and cold environmental chambers; weaving around cones toward our own reflection; zipping past cardboard trees on a clearly-contrived obstacle course; of becoming a crash test dummy.
From its musical, kinetic factory queue to a ride packed with cutout figures and traffic signs, the original Test Track wasn’t very high-brow, and maybe that’s an advantage. Instead, it was just… fun. And to this day, the moment when you realized that you’d lined up with a barrier crash test ought to be regarded as one of the more fun and clever moments on any of Disney’s modern dark rides.
The “new” Test Track, on the whole, takes itself much more seriously. That may be more fitting for the future of Epcot, but it’s not nearly as “zany” as the original ride felt. Whether that’s an improvement or not is up to riders to decide, but for our part, we’ve got to give credit where credit is due.
Advantage: The “old” Test Track
HEAD-TO-HEAD #4: Educational Aspect
Image: Disney
At Epcot’s core is education by means of inspiration. By exposing people to the prologues of the past and the possibilities of the future, it was meant to inspire futurism, Americana, and innovation. But an unfortunate reputation as “the educational park” seemed to cripple it, making it a pop culture parody; the Disney World park kids dreaded wasting a day at.
Test Track, by its nature, was meant to renew interest in a fledgling park that was quickly losing its way and its sponsors. And even if Test Track was vastly different from World of Motion, it retained an educational point – exploring the unseen world of how we know our vehicles are safe. So much more than an afterthought, this dissection of manufacturing and safety was the whole point, even if it was cast in a thrill ride shell. GM would’ve doubtlessly hoped that riders would leave Test Track with an appreciation for what their car can withstand and the process GM uses to test those extremes.
Admittedly, that made TEST TRACK the first Future World ride to drop the “big picture” of an industry’s centuries of development and forward-looking predictions in favor of zooming into a microcosm. But for its practical applications, the original TEST TRACK balanced education and entertainment skillfully.
Image: Disney
The new Test Track has a vastly different point. It’s not at all about safety features or vehicle testing, despite using the latter as a (pardon the pun) vehicle to get its message across. The new Test Track is a living exhibition focused on STEAM – science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics. By placing the engineering process into the hands of guests and allowing them to conceptually connect their choices with four staples of vehicle design – Capability, Efficiency, Responsiveness, and Power – the disconnected “tests” of the original Test Track have been regrouped and repurposed as messages worth remembering. In that regard, the new Test Track is more broadly applicable to career interests and a STEAM-focused future.
Advantage: TIE
HEAD-TO-HEAD #5: Aligned with Epcot’s Growth
Image: Disney
Upon its opening in 2012, fans were struck by just how much the new Test Track looked like it had sprung from the groundbreaking 1982 science fiction cult classic, TRON, and its 2010 sequel, TRON: Legacy. Glowing neon pathways, towering pulsing energy beams, digital mountains erupting into pixels, and simulated vehicles racing through laser-grids… The resemblance was uncanny. So identifiable was the style, fans wondered aloud if the new Test Track might’ve been intended to become a TRON Track.
But it all made sense just a few years later when a radical new departure of a Disney Park opened. We explored the full story in our In-Depth: Shanghai Disneyland walkthrough, but suffice it to say that this one-of-a-kind Magic-Kingdom style park did away with Tomorrowland’s classic Space Mountain and instead features a certified Modern Marvel: TRON Lightcycle Power Run, a launched roller coaster that might as well be a sequel to the Test Track Disney debuted in 2012. It’s obvious now that Test Track was indeed a test… to see if Disney could adequately recreate the world of TRON in a ride.
Image: Disney
And by the way, in 2017 Disney announced a long-anticipated foundational rebuild for Future World on par with (or maybe exceeding) the complete rebirth of a truly deserving Disaster File: Disney’s California Adventure. More than likely, Future World will be flooded with characters (Inside Out in Imagination, the already-confirmedGuardians of the Galaxy in Energy, etc.), and we wouldn’t at all be surprised to see the new Test Track officially adopt TRON when that floodwall bursts.
Advantage: The “new” Test Track
Results Displayed and Verified
To wrap it up, this writer has no qualms about awarding the “new” Test Track over its predecessor. The new version of the ride is transportive, innovative, poised for the future, and educational. While the old Test Track had its strengths in those areas, too, the “new” Test Track was clearly meant to improve upon each (and indeed, why would they change it unless something were broken?) and in our opinion, they succeeded.
Look, Test Track was a wonder – a game-changing ride for Epcot, Disney World, and Disney Parks. Without the original Test Track, we wouldn’t have the new Test Track, Radiator Springs Racers in Cars Land, or Imagineering’s magnum opus, Journey to the Center of the Earth at Tokyo DisneySea. Groundbreaking in every way, we’re absolutely positive that Test Track deserves Lost Legend status, standing among Epcot’s greatest.
Image: Josh Hallett, Flickr (license)
In this particular case, though, saying goodbye to this Legend isn’t about mourning, but celebrating. By our count, the “new” Test Track is an improvement. Even if it takes itself more seriously than the ride that came before, Test Track Presented by Chevrolet signals the direction Epcot should be going in and provides a great deal of hope for the future.
If you were fascinated by this look back at the classic Test Track, we’ve got just the place for you… Make the jump over to our In-Depth Collections Library to rev up and set course for another of Epcot’s storied Lost Legends.
Then, use the comments below to tell us… did you get a chance to experience both version of Epcot’s Test Track? Which do you prefer, and why? Do you think we’ve reached the end of the story for the transportation pavilion, or will the current ride eventually lose its futuristic grandeur and need an update of its own? Is the “new” Test Track poised to welcome TRON if (or when) a sweeping character infusion overtakes the park? Or does that undermine the entire purpose of exploring the very real career of vehicle engineering and design?
