Test Track 2.0 closed at the end of the day on June 16, 2024, ahead of a lengthy reimagining before Test Track 3.0 opens likely sometime in 2025 or beyond. In this article, we’ll take a look ahead at what’s to come, as well as a look back at the “2.0” version of the Test Track attraction.
Test Track 3.0: What’s Next for EPCOT’s High-Speed Attraction?
We’ll start with a look ahead at what’s next for Test Track. Back in September 2023, Disney announced that Test Track would be reimagined for a third time at EPCOT. Here’s the announcement and concept art for the interior retheme of the attraction:
Imagineers along with teams from Chevrolet are reaching back into history for inspiration—from the original World of Motion—and bringing that spirit of optimism to the next iteration of the Test Track attraction.
In addition to changes to the interior of the attraction, Disney World released concept art for the updated exterior of the attraction in April 2024.
So far, Disney World has not announced a reopening date for Test Track, but the ride is expected to have a lengthy downtime, almost certainly into 2025 and likely more than a year long.
Test Track: Exterior
We’ll start our tour of the current version of Test Track by starting outside of the attraction. As seen in the concept art above, the exterior of the ride entrance will change quite a bit, with a more sleek look and the removal of the canopy. Here’s a look at the current exterior of Test Track.
Test Track: Queue
Test Track has an outdoor queue that is in use during most days, and an expanded outdoor queue that is in use during the busiest day of the year. Thankfully, the current version of the ride has some large trees in addition to the canopy that provides much-needed shade for guests waiting in the outdoor queue.
Over the years, Test Track has averaged 60-70 minute standby wait times. The standby queue uses the right set of doors to enter the building, and the Single Rider and Lightning Lane queues are sent through the left set of automatic sliding doors. Once inside, both the standby and skip-the-line queues walk past a futuristic concept car, complete with a video loop behind it.
Concept Car: The Chevrolet Miray
Miray, developed by the Chevrolet Advanced Design team, combines mid-engine proportions with an advanced hybrid powertrain. The design explores what a future sports car might look like while preserving the strong bond between car and driver. By creating concept cars like this one, automotive designers can explore exciting new styling ideas and groundbreaking technologies.
A futuristic model vehicle sculpt is in a nearby display case, made of a clay interior as designers shape the final form of this vehicle of the future.
The main standby hall contains a deconstructed electric vehicle of the future, as well as models showcasing the various vehicle capabilities that we’ll try to optimize for when making our own test vehicle.
Power
Designed with power to spare combined with minimal aerodynamic resistance.
Capability
Designed to handle extreme weather or punishing off-road conditions.
Responsiveness
Designed with an advanced performance suspension able to handle the most demanding turns.
Efficiency
Designed to reduce environmental impact with fuel-saving features and low emissions.
The standby queue circles the centerpiece display and offers a wonderful 360-degree view of the EN-V vehicle before turning toward the next room, and a wall showcasing the next steps of development beyond the concept stage.
EN-V
The Chevrolet EN-V (“Electric Networked-Vehicle”) offers an innovative solution to some of the transportation-related environmental issues facing the world’s growing megacities. The EN-V is designed to help reduce future traffic congestion and energy consumption while improving parking and safety. The two-seater electric urban mobility concept can be driven like a traditional automobile or it can drive itself.
A promo photo provides a unique view of the EN-V vehicle on display.
The Chevrolet Design Studio at EPCOT wall showcases the next steps of vehicle development.
A closer look at the design studio wall shows how designers bring a car to life. From right to left in the photo below, designers create the outline of a car on paper, using lines to define proportion, shape, and surface. Designers then make a clay model to turn 2D lines into 3D form. From there, digital sculptors model volume as math data before emotion is infused into the vehicle to give it a personality.
The Chevrolet and Walt Disney World partnership stretches back decades, with General Motors being the very first attraction sponsor at EPCOT back in 1982. Since then, Chevrolet has been a staple at EPCOT and around Walt Disney World. Even before EPCOT, Disney and GM partnered on projects for Disneyland.
A small, semi-circular room showcases the design process before you get your first chance to get hands-on experience designing your own test vehicle.
A short hallway allows guests to draw vehicle lines on an interactive screen. After drawing lines, guests can adjust the lines to see how they impact vehicle characteristics such as efficiency, responsiveness, and more. This area simply whets the appetite before guests have their own design panel in the main interactive pre-show room.
Test Track: Pre-Show Design Studio
Guests are paired off, two or three to a dot, for the upcoming interactive Chevrolet Design Studio interactive pre-show rooms. There are two design studio rooms – Studio A and Studio B. Groups of guests are sent into the rooms in alternating fashion. The Lightning Lane queue merges with the Standby queue in this room, which means that while the Lighting Lane guests missed a close look at the designs from the main room, they will be able to participate in the Design Studio. There is even a smaller Design Studio setup for Single Riders.
When the doors open to your Studio, guests are directed to the Design Station number that matches the number they were standing on, and in the row that they were standing. Nearly too much information for the average tourist to apply, but it seems to work out in the end.
Guests tap their MagicBand or park entry media on the reader, which begins the design process. The design process is available in six different languages.
Here’s a look at the Design Station process, starting with a choice of vehicle type, along with optimizations, customizations, and additions. The four capability scores shift in real time as guests make adjustments to their vehicles. The “top score” available is 232 and is obtainable with a rather standard car design, loaded with additions and optimizations.
Guests are given roughly 4 minutes to complete the design process before the doors at the far end of the room open, and directions on the Design Studio consoles advise guests to continue on to the test track.
The two Design Studios each dump guests into the same room. Guests walk up a ramp to another small show scene before reaching the load area.
Design Concept
Before building new vehicles, automotive designers create 3D concept models to help evaluate the potential of their 2D designs. Concepts like this one-of-a-kind fiberglass model help designers set the tone for future Chevrolet vehicles, serving as a visual roadmap for their final design.
The SimTrack load area contains four load zones, with two rows of three guests across. In the photo below, the single rider line is on the left, while the merged standby and Lightning Lane queues are in the lane that we’re standing in. A Cast Member gives priority to the merged Standby/Lightning Lane queue, backfilling with Single Rider guests to try and achieve as high of a ridership as possible. During the closing weekend, we found that the Single Rider line had an average wait of 10-15 minutes.
Before boarding the vehicle, guests can tap their MagicBand or park access media on individual readers to test the vehicles that they designed in the interactive pre-show area. Guests who did not design a car can also tap and have a randomly assigned vehicle as their own.
Time to ride!
Test Track: Ride Photos
The SimCar contains two rows with three guests across each row. The side seats contain over-the-shoulder seat belts, while the middle seat has a lap belt. On-board audio ensures that each guest can hear the narrator throughout the ride which informs guests what each stage of the attraction is testing.
After loading into the vehicle, Cast Members ensure that everyone is seated and that their seatbelts are clicked in before dispatching. That said, the seatbelt check is a secondary position, sort of like DINOSAUR and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. A short drive up a curving ramp brings us to the seatbelt check before final dispatch into the attraction proper.
After the seatbelt check, a voice lets us know that “Automated driving technology” has been activated, and our narrator says “Welcome to the SimTrack”.
Animated “technology” is projected on either side of the vehicle during the climb, and the ring ahead of us pulses yellow, indicating that we are entering the next section of the SimTrack.
Capability Test
The first section of the SimTrack is a Capability test, where we will get to see how our designs hold up against challenging weather and surface conditions. A descent through what appears to be a sort of freeze chamber flattens out before we connect to OnStar, which I was surprised to know is still around. OnStar was formed in 1996 and, apparently, is still doing good. OnStar Essentials is included for every purchase of a model year 2025 GM vehicle.
The capability test consists of two relatively high-speed bursts, parallel to one another. At the end of the first high-speed run, the vehicle swerves to the left as it is slowing down. A digital avalanche is presented in front of guests as the vehicle makes a righthand turn to perform a second high-speed run toward a lightning strike.
After the second high-speed run, the vehicle makes a turn to the left, where a clean-line model resembling World of Motion’s CenterCore was, as Disney writes, a happy accident:
This futuristic city scene that guests will see is actually a serendipitous, but accidental, tribute to Epcot’s original World of Motion attraction. Designed by Mike Overman, art director, who had not experienced the original incarnation of the transportation pavilion, the cityscape bears a remarkable resemblance to World of Motion’s futuristic CenterCore finale, which featured an inspiring vista of a bustling futuristic metropolis “on the move.”
“As the team built off of the city concept art, it arrived in a totally organic way, looking almost identical to the original city but in a new and forward-thinking technological manner to that original notion of this cool, moving, bustling city of tomorrow,” Test Track special effects designer Daniel Joseph shares. “It was almost like the ride guided us there.”
Efficiency Test
That concludes the Capability section of the SimTrack. Next up is the Efficiency section. The Efficiency section is a slow-moving section, giving guests a chance to catch their breath before another high-speed section.
In the Efficiency section, we travel through 3 small rooms. The first room includes a “scan” of the vehicle to determine the vehicle’s optimal eco-efficiency. The second room determines the vehicle’s aerodynamic efficiency. The final room contains a thermal scan for a drive system analysis.
Responsiveness Test
After receiving our scores for the vehicle efficiency, it’s on to the Responsiveness test. A series of climbing s-curve maneuvers allows for some screeching of tires as our car hugs the curves of the road. As part of our final maneuver, we dodge an oncoming semi-truck before getting our Responsiveness score.
Test Track also has a number of Easter Eggs that fans of Disney will enjoy! Here’s one from the Cars franchise. We’ll probably have an entire article dedicated to some of the Test Track 2.0 Easter Eggs in the future.
Power Test
As part of the finale of the attraction, we’re going to test the Power of our vehicle designs. Our vehicle turns the corner and comes to a brief stop before zooming toward a door. At least, there is supposed to be a door. In recent years, the door effect has been hit or miss. During the closing weekend for the attraction, the door was not working. When it works, the door slides open to reveal the outdoor portion of the SimTrack where our vehicles speed around a loop offering backstage views of EPCOT.
As we exit the loop, we have a straightaway back toward the Test Track building. With open road ahead of us, it’s pedal to the metal as we reach a top speed of 64.9 miles-per-hour as displayed on a digital sign above our vehicle. Instead of racing into the building, we race around the building. This track travels over the top of the attraction entrance, providing some excitement for guests waiting in the queue below. The circular turn around the building is highly banked and works as a way for us to decelerate before returning back to the interior of the building at an idle speed.
As we return to the same load/unload platform that we departed from a little over 4 minutes ago, the final vehicle scores are displayed on a screen above us.
Test Track POV
For a look at the ride in motion, check out our full ride POV, filmed this weekend.
Test Track: Post-Show & Chevrolet Showroom
After the ride, there are three post-show opportunities and the Chevrolet showroom. After exiting the ride, there is a spot to review your on-ride photo.
Past the on-ride review area, there is a large room where you can tap your MagicBand or park media to review your score. The screen above the tappoints also showcases the top vehicles in each of the four capability categories.
Walking through to the left in the photo above, we make it into a circular showcase room. As with all of the vehicles, the vehicle on display in this room rotates. Here’s a look at the Chevy Corvette on display during the closing weekend when we visited. The “Design in Motion” consoles put your vehicle into a CGI commercial.
In the photo above, the blue hallway to the right is the room that we just came from, and the blue hallway in the middle of the photo leads to the next post-show room.
There are three “Give It A Spin” stations, allowing guests to race their car creations around a digital track that is projected onto the station. Here’s a look!
Next up is the Chevrolet Showroom where a number of Chevrolet’s latest models. Cast Members are on hand to discuss the vehicles and offer to send you more information. Of course, you can’t actually purchase a car here, but you can be connected to a local dealership should you be so inclined. In addition to the vehicles on display, there are photo ops scattered around the showroom as well. Here’s a look around!
Test Track: SIMporium Gift Shop
The Test Track gift shop is called the SIMporium. It typically offered a good selection of Test Track-branded and Chevy-branded merchandise.
Thanks for reading!
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Good riddance! I’m still not sure I understand why Disney would replace the fun and whimsical World of Motion with the boring and mundane Test Track. What a freaking waste. Decades of an inferior product. Of course, that’s the way Disney rolls. Pretty much every replacement attraction is worse than what was actually replaced. The original Living with the Seas was way better than the current Nemo crap. The original Journey into Imagination was so much better than the replacements. Judi Dench’s voice grates on me while riding Spaceship Earth. And don’t get me started on that Ellen Degeneres crap. Disney. Put everything back. Put it all back to the way you found it. Quit effing around.