Epcot Celebrates 30 Years – Test Track

The new Test Track Sim Car
Image from the Disney Parks Blog

Epcot opened 30 years ago as the second park at Walt Disney World. To celebrate this impressive anniversary we’ll take a tour of Future World and look at how the different Lands have changed over the last 30 years. If you want to learn more about this innovative park read The Imagineering Field Guide to Epcot (affiliate link). World Showcase is also part of Epcot. For a fun tour of that area check out my World Showcase Wonders series. Today we’ll look at Test Track.

This is a difficult attraction to talk about. I could tell you about the Test Track of the past, but I can’t talk about the Test Track of the future because as we speak it is being redesigned. It officially reopens on December 6.

Why is it being redesigned? One answer is that the attraction has a new sponsor. The original ride was sponsored by General Motors and now the ride is presented by Chevrolet. The other reason is that it gave the imagineers an opportunity to play with the ride concept, something that they like to do often.

The Test Track that I rode took the car and the Guests through several endurance checks that cars go through every day. The car was tested for extreme heat, extreme braking, extreme terrain, and extreme acceleration. It was extreme! It also had extremely long lines and had extreme delays due to equipment problems.

The new Test Track is based on auto design. While in line the Guests will get to design their own vehicle and then see how it performs. In the after-show you’ll get to play with your design even more and make a commercial for it. This sounds much more high-tech than the previous version of this ride. I look forward to this new extreme experience. Happiness squared.

Goofy Trivia: I decided not to do a 5 fun facts since I don’t know what the new attraction will be like. However, I do know  one interesting tidbit so I thought I would include it here. According to the Imagineering Field Guide to Epcot, Test Track’s cars accelerate up to 65 m.p.h. making this the fastest attraction at any of the parks. Extreme!