New Test Track Refurb Details: Updated 11/14/12

[Melanie]

Message updated on 11-14-2012

More details have been released by Disney:

November Press Release from Disney

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Message originally posted by Melanie on 08-27-2012

Today, there was a 'live chat' conducted with WDI Imagineer Melissa Jeselnick. Below are some excerpts of her answers with some of the more interesting details, along with the artwork released of the new marquee.

The queue, the whole attraction is completely reimagined. The queue will look like nothing our guests are used to seeing it look. We'll use the space to introduce guests to Chevrolet’s Automotive Design process - how it starts with a line and ends with the cars you can buy on the showroom floor. We'll have actual items, sketches, cars, models from GM that have never been seen before by anyone outside the Chevrolet family. It's basically changing from testing to design.

Let's talk about the Design Studios. In the studio, you have a chance to design your own custom concept vehicle. That design follows you into the ride, which is still the same physical ride that our guests know and love. You'll ride in our sim car. As you move through the space, your custom design will be scored in areas such as Capability, Efficiency, Responsiveness and Speed.

It's still the same track layout that we know and love.

The new attraction will be sponsored by Chevrolet. It's been great working with the dedicated Chevrolet team members and as Imagineers, we've learned a lot. They're really integrated members of our creative team. It's not Disney's creative take on Chevrolet; it's a real partnership.

Someone asks how the new 'customize your car' feature will work when there are multiple parties in a car.

It's an interactive design kiosk, so in the full experience you can start from a line, then shape your vehicle and add attributes - pick the colors, the tires, and make it truly your dream vehicle.

Everybody in the vehicle will have their ride design, whether they designed individually or as a group. As you move through the four groups, you'll see how the design stacked up against the sim car design.

I think the coolest thing is how we integrate the pre-show with the experience, and then in the post-show, your ride vehicle travels through the entire experience with it. And you can keep interacting with your ride vehicle after.

Let's talk about the four show scenes in more detail. Capability is where your car is tested for rough road and weather conditions. Efficiency tests your car design's environmental footprint. The Responsiveness phase tests maneuverability, and finally, Speed is tested.

Fastpass and Single Rider lines will be returning. Late fall is opening.

[faline]

It will be interesting to see how the operationalize the design your own part.

[FriendsofMickey]

I'm excited to see the changes. I'm hoping it is open when we are down there Late November.

[faline]

I'm excited to see the changes. I'm hoping it is open when we are down there Late November.

Perhaps you'll be lucky to come across a soft opening. I believe it's not scheduled to reopen until December 1st.

[Melanie]

Even from her answer regarding how they will handle multiple parties in a car, I still don't get it.

[DizneyFreak2002]

Even from her answer regarding how they will handle multiple parties in a car, I still don't get it.

Because she didn't answer it... These chats are short on substance, long on nothing... She ignored all the questions everyone wanted answered... And only responded with canned, prepared answers...

[faline]

Even from her answer regarding how they will handle multiple parties in a car, I still don't get it.

I don't either. I've been trying to figure out how they could possibly do that right from when they first announced the concept behind the changes.

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

That's the part I just don't get as well, the whole design-your-car ... both in terms of timing and in terms of car sharing.

Oh well, I guess we'll see!

[BrerGnat]

My guess is that each seat will now have a little monitor. You will tap your RFID encoded whatever and you will get a computer read out on how your design compared to the "sim car" (the one you are riding in). You will not be riding in your "design". Thus, each rider can have their "own" car to follow along with.

My guess is that the things you can customize will be things like: spoilers, tire types, horsepower, shocks, paint. Depending on what you choose, "your" car will perform differently (virtually) than the car you are comparing it to and riding (the sim car). I kinda get it, but it doesn't sound exciting. In fact, it seems like it will just add confusion to the whole ride experience. I can just imagine the backup as people stand in front of computers trying to make choices for all this stuff, and the confusion that foreign visitors will have in trying to understand and figure out the whole thing.

I hope there is an "express" option to just ride the ride without going through all that "design" junk.

[Roger's #1 Fan]

Sounds like another "interactive" queue disguised as a car design challenge.

[BrerGnat]

Sounds like another "interactive" queue disguised as a car design challenge.

Yep, that's how I feel too. Anyone wanna bet how long that will actually last before the terminals get broken?

[Quadstriker]

My guess is that each seat will now have a little monitor. You will tap your RFID encoded whatever and you will get a computer read out on how your design compared to the "sim car" (the one you are riding in). You will not be riding in your "design". Thus, each rider can have their "own" car to follow along with.

My guess is that the things you can customize will be things like: spoilers, tire types, horsepower, shocks, paint. Depending on what you choose, "your" car will perform differently (virtually) than the car you are comparing it to and riding (the sim car). I kinda get it, but it doesn't sound exciting. In fact, it seems like it will just add confusion to the whole ride experience. I can just imagine the backup as people stand in front of computers trying to make choices for all this stuff, and the confusion that foreign visitors will have in trying to understand and figure out the whole thing.

I hope there is an "express" option to just ride the ride without going through all that "design" junk.

Yep, this post sounds right on the money.

Design "your" car preboarding, and a monitor will tell you how "your" car would have done. In other words, "your" car means diddly squat in terms of what's going on in the ride - which is pretty much what everyone here expected all along - a video display that does nothing for the ride itself.

The feasible way we all were hoping it would work is that your car group "designs" your car together (meaningful choices like suspension, brakes, steering responsiveness, etc.) and those settings are then programmed into your ride vehicle making each journey just a little bit different. NOPE. Sorry. You lose. Good game no remake kthx bye.

Oh well.

[Tekneek]

As I expected all along, the "design your car and ride it" thing was a red herring. You "design it" and then ride the same old car you always did. It won't be long before a lot of people ignore the design part and just wait to move to the ride, because it is meaningless. I suppose it will get the kids, at least the first time.

Too bad we can't get the money spent on this into keeping Splash Mountain open an extra hour or two. I would make that trade.

[Mousemates]

so...the whole design your car thing is really only designed to make the wait (that the next generation fast pass thing is supposed to help diminish) not seem so long?

[TiggeRia]

I'm just happy they are changing the queue...and hopefully the "music". That one always gave me a headache by the time I made it to the ride.

[Janmac]

My guess is that each seat will now have a little monitor.

My thought, too. Like designing your house of the future at the end of Spaceship Earth.

Jan

[Jared]

Disney announced today that Test Track will reopen on Dec. 6. I would expect some soft openings sometime in late November, perhaps around Thanksgiving.

[CMCTxMom]

Well, that's opening day for Fantasyland too, so maybe their soft opening dates will be similar as well...

[Figment!]

Here's the latest Press Release from Disney:

Buckle up for Fun! Epcot Guests “Drive their Design” at the Re-Imagined Test Track Presented by Chevrolet

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Walt Disney World Resort guests will experience the thrill of designing their very own virtual vehicle – then putting their design through its paces – when the re-imagined, multi-sensory Test Track Presented by Chevrolet grand re-opens Dec. 6, 2012.

The iconic Epcot attraction, a new collaboration between Chevrolet Design and the creative team of Walt Disney Imagineering, celebrates how meticulous design not only shapes the look of Chevrolet cars and trucks, but drives their performance on the open road.

For inspiration for the project, Walt Disney Imagineers made numerous visits to Detroit, collaborating with Chevrolet designers and touring the inner sanctums of Chevrolet’s design studios.

“As storytellers, to be able tell Chevrolet’s design story was fun for our Imagineers,” said Eric Jacobson, senior vice president of WDI. “Chevrolet designers come from the same creative roots as Imagineers. Test Track Presented by Chevrolet will become, for Epcot guests, an exciting part of their visit to Walt Disney World Resort.”

Amid upbeat music, eye-popping lighting effects and a collection of Chevrolet concept cars and model vehicles, guests themselves will become automotive designers – and peer into the future of personal transportation in the process.

“Through an enduring partnership, Chevrolet and Disney continue to inspire generations to imagine the impossible and innovate,” said Chris Perry, vice president, U.S. Marketing, General Motors. “The re-imagined Test Track reflects the personality and values of Chevrolet design and offers guests a behind-the-scenes look at a discipline that drives our business. This first-of-its-kind automotive design attraction represents the best of Chevrolet design and Disney innovation.”

Test Track guests enter an all-new, interactive pre-show area – completely retooled and re-imagined from the garage-like testing area of the former GM Test Track. The sleek new “Chevrolet Design Center” invites guests to create their own virtual custom-concept vehicle. Car design wannabes will get to shape their own virtual car, truck or crossover vehicle and learn how their design choices perform against four important attributes:

• Capability
• Efficiency
• Responsiveness
• Power

At design kiosks, rows of touch screens become canvasses for guests to try their hand at design magic. Here, they can virtual-draw – maneuver their vehicle design by shape, length, width and engine size. Once they create the design of their dreams, guests complete their creation with even more choices. They can make a design statement with an expressive front grill, order up wheels by size and style, add paint and other graphics and trick out their vehicle – top to sides, front to back – with the latest accessories. Then comes the crowning touch of their design – adding Chevrolet’s world-famous bowtie logo.

Their virtual Chevrolet vehicle complete, the adventure then shifts into high gear as guests – armed with a card encoded with their personal design that travels with them – board their 6-person “SimCar” ride vehicle. Ahead: a thrilling journey into a dazzling multi-sensory digital experience as guests put their personal design through a series of performance tests – the exhilarating heart of Test Track Presented by Chevrolet.

Along their route, riders experience changing terrain and extreme conditions as their designs are scored for Capability, Efficiency, Responsiveness and Power. How does their design stand up on the challenging hills, switchbacks and straight-aways of the Test Track circuit? How well does it navigate through bumpy roads, icy conditions, turn-on-a-dime curves and other surprises? Their design skills are put to the test – at speeds of up to 65 mph.

The fun and excitement continues in the post-show area.
• Scoring their design. Guests get to compare their car’s results to that of a baseline SimCar – and also see how they performed against their fellow “designers.”
• At a digital driving table laying out a road course, guests can race their virtual custom-concept vehicles against other guests’ designs, over changing terrain and encountering extreme conditions.
• Brand-new car designers can create their own commercial – starring their virtual car.
• In another experience, guests get to pose with actual Chevrolet vehicles. Through green screen technology — with a few taps on their touch screen – guests can suddenly find themselves posing with their Chevrolet on the lunar surface, arcing across the galaxies, navigating the bright-white of a polar landscape or other thrilling scenes. The images become easily sharable on social media, sending virtual postcard greetings to family, friends or co-workers back home.
• New and concept Chevrolet vehicles are laid out showroom-style. Guests can get behind the wheel of Chevrolet’s latest models. Chevrolet product specialists are on hand to answer any questions.

[Quadstriker]

So it sounds like exactly what most of the sharps here predicted.

You design a car during the queue or preshow. The choices you make don't influence the physical ride you have, but instead are used to calculate results and scores they will you after each test phase the ride goes through.

Afterwards there are some cutesy extras you can do with your car design.

Eh, sounds alright. For me though it's going to be all about the physical ride itself, and it had better be dang good with lots of speed or I'm going to be cheesed off. (My guess is that it'll be pretty much the same.)

FREE IDEA FOR DISNEY TO MAKE MORE MONEY:
Get one of those 3d printers used in the design industry and by companies like FigurePrints and let people order a 3d resin sculpture of their designed car in the gift shop. BOOM. Monies. That's on the house Disney. Take it to the bank, ship ship mcgrip.