Test Track is now as old as World of Motion was, the year it was replaced. Time has come for something new.
I am an old skool epcot fan. Before you all hate me for this fact, realize that I accept the changes Test Track brought! The present called for thrills! I would like to make a proposal that would keep the thrills aspect of the ride while simultaneously reintroducing the sense of history and where we're going (the FUTURE), while introducing new ride effects the likes of which have YET TO BE SEEN anywhere. That's the imagineering way!
Here's the idea: We rename the pavilion World of Motion or perhaps simply Motion. Re-create the queue area so that it's streamlined and futuristic, the way project tomorrow looks now. Preshow would be a holding area similar to what's in test track now, with guests entering a special preview center for a new prototype GM vehicle...a time machine. We board our time machines on the ground floor.
These vehicles will be unique because they'll ride on 3 independant axles - capable of precise, computer-controlled motion. The reason for this will become evident shortly.
We climb a smokey, strobe-light and laser-filled transition tunnel, and suddenly we are in ancient rome. We are traveling in a chariot, and we guests can really feel the bumps in the road - due to the enhanced computer controlled axles - similar to the dinosaur! vehicles, only more sophisticated. Our onboard computer informs us of the era we're in and the vehicle that's taking us through it. We are suddenly in a chariot race and speed ahead just enough to cut off our opponent! Flash forward into the future and we're on...
a stagecoach in the old west! Banditos overlook our vehicle, no doubt wondering if we've got any valuables. A western town is ablaze, and they eye us greedily...it looks like we're next! That's okay because we're now..
..on a steam train, traveling on a mountain track overlooking an empty valley. As the sun sets, time speeds up, and just before the train enters a looming tunnel, we can see buildings and lights sprout up out of the ground as the decades pass. A transition tunnel full of giant spark plugs and pistons and such announces the invention of the internal combustion engine. Suddenly...
...we're in an auto manufacturing house from the 1920s! Our jalopy is "assembled" by AA figures and is jostled about. The garage doors open and we're...
..on the busy streets of chicago in the roarin' 20s! We cause traffic jams as our vehicle honks and bumps its way over cobblestone streets. We enter a transition tunnel that shows a reflection, haunted mansion style, of us in our vehicle as it slowly transforms into a car from the 1990s - 2000s. Now we're...
..on the great highways of america! Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild is blasting on the radio as we cruise down route 66. Now we flash back to GM's testing facility, where Epcot/GM AA technicians prepare the launch bay to send us...
...BOOM! ZOOMING INTO THE FUTURE! Suddenly our vehicle is speeding forward on a mag lev system towards a huge floating city of the future. This is the grande finale, the old "outside" area of test track, now enclosed completely. In the center of the big "loop" is a 3-story model city of the future similar to (but better than!) the old "centercore" of world of motion. We blast around the building, and then hit the descent tunnel full of smoke and strobes. We're back at the testing facility!
Whew!
Time to steal a glance at future GM car models and nab some opening-day World of Motion hats/tees.
- Brian
I am an old skool epcot fan. Before you all hate me for this fact, realize that I accept the changes Test Track brought! The present called for thrills! I would like to make a proposal that would keep the thrills aspect of the ride while simultaneously reintroducing the sense of history and where we're going (the FUTURE), while introducing new ride effects the likes of which have YET TO BE SEEN anywhere. That's the imagineering way!
Here's the idea: We rename the pavilion World of Motion or perhaps simply Motion. Re-create the queue area so that it's streamlined and futuristic, the way project tomorrow looks now. Preshow would be a holding area similar to what's in test track now, with guests entering a special preview center for a new prototype GM vehicle...a time machine. We board our time machines on the ground floor.
These vehicles will be unique because they'll ride on 3 independant axles - capable of precise, computer-controlled motion. The reason for this will become evident shortly.
We climb a smokey, strobe-light and laser-filled transition tunnel, and suddenly we are in ancient rome. We are traveling in a chariot, and we guests can really feel the bumps in the road - due to the enhanced computer controlled axles - similar to the dinosaur! vehicles, only more sophisticated. Our onboard computer informs us of the era we're in and the vehicle that's taking us through it. We are suddenly in a chariot race and speed ahead just enough to cut off our opponent! Flash forward into the future and we're on...
a stagecoach in the old west! Banditos overlook our vehicle, no doubt wondering if we've got any valuables. A western town is ablaze, and they eye us greedily...it looks like we're next! That's okay because we're now..
..on a steam train, traveling on a mountain track overlooking an empty valley. As the sun sets, time speeds up, and just before the train enters a looming tunnel, we can see buildings and lights sprout up out of the ground as the decades pass. A transition tunnel full of giant spark plugs and pistons and such announces the invention of the internal combustion engine. Suddenly...
...we're in an auto manufacturing house from the 1920s! Our jalopy is "assembled" by AA figures and is jostled about. The garage doors open and we're...
..on the busy streets of chicago in the roarin' 20s! We cause traffic jams as our vehicle honks and bumps its way over cobblestone streets. We enter a transition tunnel that shows a reflection, haunted mansion style, of us in our vehicle as it slowly transforms into a car from the 1990s - 2000s. Now we're...
..on the great highways of america! Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild is blasting on the radio as we cruise down route 66. Now we flash back to GM's testing facility, where Epcot/GM AA technicians prepare the launch bay to send us...
...BOOM! ZOOMING INTO THE FUTURE! Suddenly our vehicle is speeding forward on a mag lev system towards a huge floating city of the future. This is the grande finale, the old "outside" area of test track, now enclosed completely. In the center of the big "loop" is a 3-story model city of the future similar to (but better than!) the old "centercore" of world of motion. We blast around the building, and then hit the descent tunnel full of smoke and strobes. We're back at the testing facility!
Whew!
Time to steal a glance at future GM car models and nab some opening-day World of Motion hats/tees.
- Brian
