Journey into WDW

With the new version of Test Track at EPCOT just around the corner, I thought it would be fun to reflect on the previous versions of this wonderful attraction!

To start it off we’re going to go all the way back to the World of Motion (buckle up for a wild ride).

The World of Motion opened with EPCOT on October 1st 1982. I never got to experience this version of the attraction (as it closed before I was born) but I know it is missed by many! Guests would walk inside the building and you were taken through the history of Transportation, starting with the invention of the wheel and continuing all the way until you would reach CenterCore, this was considered the future (in the 1980’s). It had similarities to Progress City, and stated that the car chairs (the ride vehicle) were the cars of the future.

 

The “edutainment” (educational entertainment for the uninformed) provided by this attraction was part of it’s charm. Nevertheless, by the 1990’s the sponsor of the attraction, General Motors, wished to have the attraction turned into something centered around cars. World of Motion closed on January 2nd 1996 to make way for the first version of Test Track!

The ride system was something never before seen in a theme park and required a lengthy test period resulting in the attraction’s opening to be delayed from May 1997 to March 17th 1999. The ride system was ground breaking at the time. It functioned like a giant slot car (think Hot wheels on the track or Autopia) with all four tires contacting the “road”. it even had real disc breaks like on modern cars, and a rollercoaster derived assembly underneath to keep the vehicles locked onto the track. Each vehicle had more computing power than the space shuttle!

The premise of the attraction was modern day vehicle testing. Guests were taken through several punishing tests along the ride’s layout. Some of the most memorable being the hot and cold environmental chambers, as well as the fake out crash test at the climax of the ride. The finale was a high speed test that takes riders through a portion of the backstage of EPCOT before circling the building. Needless to say, after the bugs were worked out the attraction was a huge hit.

This version of the attraction closed (sadly) on April 15th 2012, to be transformed into Test Track 2.0. Honestly it was a very quick turn around to the 2.0 version. Test Track 2.0 replaced the concept of the guests being essentially crash test dummies like the original ride and places them in the role of vehicle designers. The preshow of the attraction had guests take to a console and design their own vehicles that would be “tested” out on the simulated track.

Said vehicles made in the design portion had to comprise of Power, Capability, Efficiency, and Responsiveness. The guest with the highest score between all four categories would be shown at the end of the attraction. I actually found multiple articles about how to get the top score. The example car below was the top score of the day at 232 points (a combination of all four ratings)!

Other than the addition of the interactive vehicle design aspect, this version of the attraction was largely a re-skin of the original. many guests referred to it as “Tron Track” due to the new theme being visually very similar to Tron. The original ride programming and track layout were kept, as were most of the set pieces. Most of what made Test Track 1.0 fun was watered down or stripped away completely in 2.0. For example, the Environmental section mentioned earlier was one of the main highlights on the 1.0 version. On 2.0 the hot and cold effects were stripped away and replaced with unimpressive lighting and smoke effects. While this version had it’s fans, this is widely regarded as the weakest of the two Test Tracks.

Test Track 2.0 closed on June 17th, 2024 to make way for Test Track 3.0

Disney has shared very limited details on what this version will entail. General Motors is still the sponsor, although the new ride will say “Sponsored by Chevrolet” just like 2.0 did. (General Motors is the parent company of Chevrolet). The new version is supposed to feature some callbacks to the “World of Motion” (back from pre 1.0 version of the ride). What those will be we will just have to wait and see.

With Disney Imagineers working hard on Test Track 3.0, it won’t be long before we will be able to judge whether or not the new version lives up to the legacy that made way for it.

Opening date for Test Track 3.0 has not been released at the time of the posting of this article.

Hopefully this coming summer you can find out yourself!