Annual Passholder previews for Test Track 3.0 were this week and we made it over to EPCOT, twice actually! Unfortunately we only got to ride once as the weather had other plans o Tuesday and shut the ride down after were halfway through the queue. Luckily, we were able to join the queue again on Wednesday. This is the third time that Test Track has been revamped. Test Track 3.0 opens to the public on July 22 in EPCOT. Although I am glad it is reopening, I am not sure ALL the changes are good ones. Let’s dive in!
The Original Test Track
To truly appreciate Test Track 3.0 we have to take a look back at the original. The original Test Track pre show was a series of videos talking about how cars handle and how they are tested. They explained how you would be part of the testing. The original was like a road test. You had rough road, high speed braking, turn handling and extreme weather. And of course no road test would be complete without a high speed test. The scenes were very rudimentary and looked like they were created for a road test at a car factory. The main focus of the ride was vehicle safety and crash testing.
Test Track 2.0
The next iteration of Test Track is still my favorite. My kids agree as well! In the second version of Test Track we shifted to showing vehicle performance and design. The pre show now had kiosks where you could design your own vehicle. Adults would design the care they thought would perform best and look sleek. Kids would create monstrosities that were the things of nightmares and had the worst performance ever! But they loved it! It was so cool to watch the kids build their cars and laugh at the craziness they created.
As far as the actual ride goes, it was very similar just focused on your vehicles design and performance. You could scan your magic band before you got in the vehicle and it synced your car design to your vehicle. Throughout the ride you would see screens showing how the ride vehicles in your car performed on each test. In the post show you could see how your designed vehicle held up to the tests compared to other designs.
Test Track 3.0
So here we are, the ride has been closed for a little over a year and we are finally getting to ride Test Track again. We were very excited to get back on this ride but were super disappointed to find out they completely eliminated the design your own car element. We were hoping they would just revamp it and use it a different way. The queue is now like a futuristic showroom of different concept vehicles. They are all very cool and it is visually very stunning but we were sad about the design your own vehicles. The design is meant to give a nod to World of Motion that used to be in this spot.
I will say that the sets I the ride are beautiful and very upgraded from the other versions. The storyline is focused on the future of transportation. The technology that is to come like roads that can charge electric vehicles just by driving through and viewing driving from a vehicles perspective with 29,000 points of light. A little throwback to the customization element is a section that shows technology that can let you change the look of your vehicle. We still get to go 65 mph and see some backstage areas and the ride was beautiful and still fun. But we miss that interactive element from Test Track 2.0.
Conclusion
Don’t get me wrong, we loved the ride, we just really loved that design your own car element. I think creating those crazy cars is a core memory for my boys so they were super sad to see that missing. It is very cool to see what the future could hold for transportation and to have the educational element of explaining things like how a vehicle sees during driving but the interactivity was what made Test Track special. I think this was the third Passholder preview we have been able to do since moving here. Tron was first and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure was the next and now Test Track 3.0!
Check out how Disney describes the new version of this ride here. I do have to say that these previews are one of my favorite things about living so close to Walt Disney World. will we be going back to ride Test Track 3.0 again once it opens, absolutely. Are we always going to be a little salty about the design your own car being gone, absolutely! Once you ride the new Test Track, let me know your thoughts! Thanks for reading along and have a magical day!