Figmentforever24
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2014
So as many of you know I have been doing the very long If you owned the Disney Company project. But now I realize that it was getting nowhere and honestly I was running out of ideas. So I figured why not look at the history of what is there? Look at the things that was, is and never were at Walt Disney World? So in this thread that is what I am going to do. With a little digging and an insane amount of luck I hope to uncover the true history of the most popular rides that are at Walt Disney World.
Test Track (Original Version) - So my first project is going to be Test Track. Now I am not talking about the new version, but the original 2001 version. So lets get started. So as you know the original ride was named World of Motion and was an omnimover ride through the history of transportation. The ride was sponsored by the company General Motors. In fact General Motors was the first company to sign a 10 year contract with Disney in 1977. (December to be exact) The ride was pretty popular for the first few years but started to lose its guest near the end of the contract. So obviously the contract expired in 1992, ten years after the opening of Epcot Center. This also happened to be the time with GM was facing so MAJOR money issues. They were laying off many people and for a while almost didnt want to renew the contract. Like we are talking major economic problems. After one year of consideration GM agreed to renew for another long term contract. But in turn for renewing GM wanted Disney to change the ride to something new. They wanted a ride that focused only on the car. Disney agreed to the terms and actually had an idea from a visit they made to GM many years ago. In 1976 Disney toured the main GM factory to get inspiration for the Transportation Pavilion. They watched cars at GM go through different road test and operations. Originally Disney wanted to have two rides in the 1982 pavilion. The first was what would become World of Motion while the second was going to be car going down the race track. Check out early models of the pavilion to see a race track leaving the main building. This faster attraction was going to allow guest to test the vehicles of tomorrow. The idea was dropped in 1979 due to budget cuts and time restraints.
The plans were placed on a shelf and forgotten until 1994 when GM was ready for a new attraction. When they first started reworking the attraction in 1994 they were going to let guest ride of a type of sled. These sleds were soon dropped and replaced by a more similar car style vehicle. Disney was wanting to recreate the testing procedure they saw in 1976. The beginning of the ride would begin with a 3 story hill climb. Environmental chambers were included to let temperatures go from 40 degrees to 140. 2100 ft of track was also placed on the outside for an outdoor speed portion. The original speed was going to be 95 mph but Disney lowered it to 65 for legal reasons and for better banking on the turns. Banks more then 47 degrees were considered to sharp and would make guest too uncomfortable if the ride was to be stopped. The plans was to complete gut the inside of the building. Only the outside would remain. A new track and ride layout was designed for the new ride. The ride was extended outside the building just like it was originally planned to be in 1978. (When two rides were planned) Work began immediately and they started to rebuild the ride. The lower floor of World of Motion was removed altogether while the outside portion of the queue was turned into a new indoor queue section. The load hall in World of Motion was then converted into what became the pre-show room and holding area. The upper level was also removed. At the center of the building was the 80 ft wide center where the city of the future model was in World of Motion. This area was going to be the location of the new hill that would take guest to an higher level.
This 3 story hill would go over the environment chambers and would lower back down to ground level. The cars then would travel back up to another high level. On this upper level would be a spur track that cars could be stored. The second storage area was behind the loading station. The lower spur would also be the entrance to a work station for messed up cars. Two new opening were made in the building so cars could exit and reenter the building. The first was where the spinning wheel scene was located in World of Motion. The unload station for Test Track would be in the same spot that the loading was for World of Motion. A total of 31 cars were made for the new ride coming soon to Epcot Center. These cars would be equipped with special braking properties as well as 3 different computer systems. The cars have their own motor but would be connected to a track to give power to the motor. Under this track were 18 wheels that made sure the car never left the track. You could sometimes see them if you were standing at the right angle. World of Motion closed permantly to the open public January 2nd of the year 1996. (What was ironically the year Disney World turned 25) Disney wasnt shy to announce the new ride replaced World of Motion and posted a HUGE mural outside the building. The mural announced that the ride would open in 1997. (Yea Right) To excite guest Disney even opened a preview center under the mural! I mean they really wanted you to get excited for this ride coming the next year! I was lucky enough to also find the original timeline Disney was trying to follow for Test Track. January 2nd close World of Motion, February 13th would be the opening of the preview center. March 4th would be the beginning of the outside track installation. The hopes was to finish this by March 29th. By October 25th they wanted the entire inside of the ride to be finished to start testing on October 29th. February of 1997 have the final scenes finished and have the cars on the track by the 28th of the month. The attraction was then set for a May 16th 1997 opening. As we all know Disney set the bar a little TOO high for this one. Disney did actually complete the interior of the ride on schedule with how they wanted it. The only thing was May of 1997 passed and the ride never opened to the public. So something went wrong.
So pretty interesting stuff so far right? So after this I want to continue with Epcot so let me know if you want Mission:Space, The Living Seas, or Energy. Anyway during testing Imagineers find something wrong with the ride during testing. The first issue was with the tires on the cars. The tires that they were using on the car were unable to take the cruel tasks the ride was put through during the day. So Disney had their friend Goodyear make them special tires for the ride. The next problem was really weird. Believe it or not the ride was considered TOO HIGH TECH! I mean seriously they literally set the bar too high on this ride. With 29 cars the computer system for the ride had to be massive! Sadly at the time they did not have a massive computer system. A total of 6 cars running on the track would make the entire system crash. So 29 cars on a track were beyond out of the question. In order for this ride to properly function they needed a new computer system. They would need to build one from scratch. This would take a while so Disney changed the Spring 1997 opening to an opening soon date. (So basically whenever we finish) Disney placed new signs and removed the preview center to start on the entrance for the ride. They worked on the ride until the beginning of 1998 when Disney officials were allowed to see the new ride.
Cast Members were allowed to test the ride in December of 1998. Then on December 19th the day arrived that guest were allowed to test the new ride. Since the time World of Motion closed to the time Test Track was dedicated was a total of 3 years. On March 11th of 99 the ride was dedicated officially. So that is the history of the famous Test Track! But of course no ride stays the same forever. So since its 1998 opening the ride went through some changes. Some minor things were done at first like changing and shortening the narration in certain areas of the ride. For the few who remember the ride had a pyro effect when you were about to crash into the truck. This was removed for a few different reasons. One being cost and the other apparently being safety. The next thing to change was the first barrier test you get to witness. The car to your left crashed into the wall. This was changed into a plain white car that remained still. And of course the ride then was transformed into the new 21st century version we know now. But I am saving that for a different time since I wasnt able to find a lot of info on it yet.
Test Track (Original Version) - So my first project is going to be Test Track. Now I am not talking about the new version, but the original 2001 version. So lets get started. So as you know the original ride was named World of Motion and was an omnimover ride through the history of transportation. The ride was sponsored by the company General Motors. In fact General Motors was the first company to sign a 10 year contract with Disney in 1977. (December to be exact) The ride was pretty popular for the first few years but started to lose its guest near the end of the contract. So obviously the contract expired in 1992, ten years after the opening of Epcot Center. This also happened to be the time with GM was facing so MAJOR money issues. They were laying off many people and for a while almost didnt want to renew the contract. Like we are talking major economic problems. After one year of consideration GM agreed to renew for another long term contract. But in turn for renewing GM wanted Disney to change the ride to something new. They wanted a ride that focused only on the car. Disney agreed to the terms and actually had an idea from a visit they made to GM many years ago. In 1976 Disney toured the main GM factory to get inspiration for the Transportation Pavilion. They watched cars at GM go through different road test and operations. Originally Disney wanted to have two rides in the 1982 pavilion. The first was what would become World of Motion while the second was going to be car going down the race track. Check out early models of the pavilion to see a race track leaving the main building. This faster attraction was going to allow guest to test the vehicles of tomorrow. The idea was dropped in 1979 due to budget cuts and time restraints.
The plans were placed on a shelf and forgotten until 1994 when GM was ready for a new attraction. When they first started reworking the attraction in 1994 they were going to let guest ride of a type of sled. These sleds were soon dropped and replaced by a more similar car style vehicle. Disney was wanting to recreate the testing procedure they saw in 1976. The beginning of the ride would begin with a 3 story hill climb. Environmental chambers were included to let temperatures go from 40 degrees to 140. 2100 ft of track was also placed on the outside for an outdoor speed portion. The original speed was going to be 95 mph but Disney lowered it to 65 for legal reasons and for better banking on the turns. Banks more then 47 degrees were considered to sharp and would make guest too uncomfortable if the ride was to be stopped. The plans was to complete gut the inside of the building. Only the outside would remain. A new track and ride layout was designed for the new ride. The ride was extended outside the building just like it was originally planned to be in 1978. (When two rides were planned) Work began immediately and they started to rebuild the ride. The lower floor of World of Motion was removed altogether while the outside portion of the queue was turned into a new indoor queue section. The load hall in World of Motion was then converted into what became the pre-show room and holding area. The upper level was also removed. At the center of the building was the 80 ft wide center where the city of the future model was in World of Motion. This area was going to be the location of the new hill that would take guest to an higher level.
This 3 story hill would go over the environment chambers and would lower back down to ground level. The cars then would travel back up to another high level. On this upper level would be a spur track that cars could be stored. The second storage area was behind the loading station. The lower spur would also be the entrance to a work station for messed up cars. Two new opening were made in the building so cars could exit and reenter the building. The first was where the spinning wheel scene was located in World of Motion. The unload station for Test Track would be in the same spot that the loading was for World of Motion. A total of 31 cars were made for the new ride coming soon to Epcot Center. These cars would be equipped with special braking properties as well as 3 different computer systems. The cars have their own motor but would be connected to a track to give power to the motor. Under this track were 18 wheels that made sure the car never left the track. You could sometimes see them if you were standing at the right angle. World of Motion closed permantly to the open public January 2nd of the year 1996. (What was ironically the year Disney World turned 25) Disney wasnt shy to announce the new ride replaced World of Motion and posted a HUGE mural outside the building. The mural announced that the ride would open in 1997. (Yea Right) To excite guest Disney even opened a preview center under the mural! I mean they really wanted you to get excited for this ride coming the next year! I was lucky enough to also find the original timeline Disney was trying to follow for Test Track. January 2nd close World of Motion, February 13th would be the opening of the preview center. March 4th would be the beginning of the outside track installation. The hopes was to finish this by March 29th. By October 25th they wanted the entire inside of the ride to be finished to start testing on October 29th. February of 1997 have the final scenes finished and have the cars on the track by the 28th of the month. The attraction was then set for a May 16th 1997 opening. As we all know Disney set the bar a little TOO high for this one. Disney did actually complete the interior of the ride on schedule with how they wanted it. The only thing was May of 1997 passed and the ride never opened to the public. So something went wrong.
So pretty interesting stuff so far right? So after this I want to continue with Epcot so let me know if you want Mission:Space, The Living Seas, or Energy. Anyway during testing Imagineers find something wrong with the ride during testing. The first issue was with the tires on the cars. The tires that they were using on the car were unable to take the cruel tasks the ride was put through during the day. So Disney had their friend Goodyear make them special tires for the ride. The next problem was really weird. Believe it or not the ride was considered TOO HIGH TECH! I mean seriously they literally set the bar too high on this ride. With 29 cars the computer system for the ride had to be massive! Sadly at the time they did not have a massive computer system. A total of 6 cars running on the track would make the entire system crash. So 29 cars on a track were beyond out of the question. In order for this ride to properly function they needed a new computer system. They would need to build one from scratch. This would take a while so Disney changed the Spring 1997 opening to an opening soon date. (So basically whenever we finish) Disney placed new signs and removed the preview center to start on the entrance for the ride. They worked on the ride until the beginning of 1998 when Disney officials were allowed to see the new ride.
Cast Members were allowed to test the ride in December of 1998. Then on December 19th the day arrived that guest were allowed to test the new ride. Since the time World of Motion closed to the time Test Track was dedicated was a total of 3 years. On March 11th of 99 the ride was dedicated officially. So that is the history of the famous Test Track! But of course no ride stays the same forever. So since its 1998 opening the ride went through some changes. Some minor things were done at first like changing and shortening the narration in certain areas of the ride. For the few who remember the ride had a pyro effect when you were about to crash into the truck. This was removed for a few different reasons. One being cost and the other apparently being safety. The next thing to change was the first barrier test you get to witness. The car to your left crashed into the wall. This was changed into a plain white car that remained still. And of course the ride then was transformed into the new 21st century version we know now. But I am saving that for a different time since I wasnt able to find a lot of info on it yet.