The Test Track presented by Chevrolet
With mid-winter and early Spring breaks approaching many families may be thinking of planning a vacation. What better place to spend some time in the winter than sunny Florida at Walt Disney World? While visiting one of the most “magical places on earth”, make sure to spend some time at the brand new Test Track presented by Chevrolet at Epcot. The attraction was reopened in December and offers a fun and educational experience perfect for the car enthusiast in every family (and even those who aren’t).
General Motors has had a relationship with Disney since the 1970’s and it continues with the reopened Test Track presented by Chevrolet at Epcot. This isn’t your normal “turn style” ride. The new “re-imagineered” Test Track offers Walt Disney World Resort guests a one-of-a-kind experience where they enter the world of automotive design making it a “must-see” on your family vacation.
In December Kristin of the Manic Mommies and her family attended a special media event to get a sneak peek of the new ride. Kristin claimed that the original Test Track was one of her favorite rides and was worried that the new ride wouldn’t hold up.
Luckily, it sounds like she was pleasantly surprised with the new “re-imagineered” version that incorporates personalization, design and education into a fun and exciting ride that still “flings you outside of the building.” Kristin especially liked the element of education that was present throughout the ride that allowed her daughter to create a hot pink muscle car with turbo engines that fit her personality perfectly.
The ride is a ton of fun for all ages because of the hands-on activities throughout the course of the ride that still offers all the thrill and excitement you can expect from a Disney ride.
The Disney Imagineers and Chevrolet Designers created an experience that offers personalization for each individual rider every step of the ride. The attention to detail was achieved from the Disney designer’s visits to Detroit during the design stages to see first-hand what goes into designing a Chevy vehicle.
Disney Imagineers and Chevrolet Engineers plan the new Test Track ride
“Test Track tells the Chevrolet story,” said Imagineer Melissa Jeselnick. “Putting their design to the test engages guests and inspires their imagination.”
In the “preshow” riders design a concept vehicle and can see how changing parts of their design affect the capability, efficiency, responsiveness and power of the vehicle. Then, riders put their design to the test and board their “SimCar” vehicle to see how the design performs throughout the ride when obstacles and changing road conditions are thrown their way. Next, during the “post show” riders can see how their car stacked up against the others; design a commercial for their car and much more.
The Test Track is something all car fans must ride and is great way to spend some time while one a family vacation. Where else can guests get the experience to create, test and promote their own Chevrolet concept vehicle?
This looks like it would be a lot of fun, and a great place to take the family.
I have to say, this ride was a big disappointment. I rode it yesterday, and while visually, the attraction is updated and modern, it is very boring. Compared to the old Test Track, which had the excitement of testing your car in different conditions, and even the anticipated “front end crash” surprise, this one is obviously the same ride system, but now you’re testing a “sim car.”
Visually, inside, the whole attraction is dark, highlighted by blue neon graphics. Its a cross between Tron and On-Star. Anyway, the narrator of the whole attraction is telling you what you’re testing, but again, your car just moves around and theres nothing visually to attach to it. It was totally pointless. The whole area of testing ABS brakes vs non-ABS brakes and then into the hot, cold, and chemical tests, was fun. Now, you’re literally going through the same motion in darkness.
Before the ride, you “create” your own car, and is apparently integrated into the different steps of the attraction. After each ‘test’ you can see how your hot wheels looking car stood up…. but the numbers and the way it is all presented makes absolutely no sense…
I’m sorry to say, but Chevrolet and Disney completely missed the mark on this one, at least if you know what the previous version was like. Personally, I was hoping for a very similar ride. All it needed was an aesthetic refresh to get it out of the 90s.
Bummer.