| Watch the on-ride POV |
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| Manufacturer | Dynamic Attractions | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Manufactured | 1997 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Designer / calculations | Walt Disney Imagineering
General Motors Corporation | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Type | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Capacity | 29 cars seating six guests each | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Hourly capacity | 1,200 riders per hour | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Speed | 65 mph | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Diameter | 150,000 feet | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Track length | 5,246 feet | ||||||||||||||||||||
| HELP | |||||||||||||||||||||
Test Track is a slot car-type attraction located at Epcot in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA. The ride takes guests on a ride through car testing facilities, and has an outdoor car section near the end. The attraction soft opened to guests in December 1998 and officially opened to the public on March 17, 1999.
History
World of Motion was the attraction that was then housed inside of the attraction's round building. After the sponsorship of the pavilion expired, GM began to conduct lay-offs and cutbacks, forcing Disney to sign another agreement.
In order to keep the agreement, GM asked Disney to gut and replace the ride currently in the space. The ride would turn out to be a construction and programming nightmare, having to have new wheels be placed on the track after they would constantly wear out, and the computer being only capable of handling six cars on the track instead of the intended 29. After both of those long and arduous problems were fixed, Test Track was ready to soft open to Passholders.
After a delay that halted the Spring 1997 opening date, Test Track finally soft opened in December 1998. The ride would take guests as they are crash testers, see how cars are manufactured and take a car to a test track to test speed, temperature conditions, the handling, suspension, and more, all leading to a finale outdoors where the ride would hit its 65-mph top speed, before re-entering the building inside a thermal chamber and back to the station.
The ride officially opened on March 17, 1999, nearly four months after the soft opening. From this point, very few changes were made except for minor adjustements and improvements.
On January 6, 2012, Disney announced that Test Track would undergo a big makeover, that would last until the fall of 2012. Part of this refurbishment included Chevrolet becoming the new sponsor of the pavilion, after 29 years of GM sponsoring the Transportation pavilion.
The new ride saw guests entering the SimTrack on a virtual simulator to test their car designs in Capability, Efficiency, Resistance, Handling, and Speed. All references to GM Would be removed and the ride would now advertise Chevrolet cars and products. Test Track still operates today with this sponsor.
Design
The ride has car-like vehicles that are situated on top of the track, with a rod under the car underneath to attach it to the slot in between the track, in which the car can adjust its speed. There are screens Infront of guests on the cars, that display several screen videos along with their car design. There are several screens throughout the ride that display the results of the guest's cars in certain areas, e.g. A guest's car will do better in handling than it might in efficiency.
The vehicles also have engines on the back in order to produce an engine like sound throughout the ride. The ride also uses the same glass dome building that its predecessor, World of Motion, was housed in, but it is now wrapped in the ride's final banked turn, and a blue (formerly white) canopy now hangs over the entrance.
Images
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Test track's old entrance before the refurbishment
