TEST TRACK
LINER NOTES
1. GM’S MAKE YOUR OWN MAGIC
Certainly the most well capitalized sponsorship in all of EPCOT Center, GM created a plethora of promotional materials during its sponsorship of all the transportation pavilion’s incarnations up to this day. Among the many brochures, pins, and commercials were GM’s free video presentations that showed scenes from all over Walt Disney World through a decidedly World of Motion bent. The most prominent of these was “
Make Your Own Magic” produced in 1993. Its soundtrack, included here, consisting of upbeat electronic instrumentals, like many of those in the Epcot Expanded Universe (see Footnote) of production music, has become as evocative as scores specifically created for the park.
TEST TRACK
2. HYPE TRACK
With its extremely complex and controversially contorted ride system, Test Track’s heavily touted premiere as Epcot’s “First Thrill Ride” (apparently forgetting Body Wars) was notoriously delayed for nearly two years. During this time, its advent was continuously marketed with several campaigns continuously revising the announcement of its eventual opening. This “Hype Track” includes those appropriate techno-industrial underscores as a preamble to the original incarnation of the slot-car attraction.
3. TEST TRACK MEDLEY
In comparison to its counterparts in Future World and especially its prolific predecessor, the original version of Test Track with its “theme” of appearing like an authentic GM facility is one of, if not THE, most musically inept attractions in Epcot history. Still, master composer George Wilkins was tasked with developing a succession of percussive cues to accompany guests traversing through the garage-like setting of its queue. This medley (arranged by Walt Disney Records music producer Randy Thornton) combines George’s 11-cues into a concise experience that encapsulates the chaotic environment of this late 90s calamity.
4. GM'S INSIDE TRACK
Bob Rogers & Co. returns (now as BRC Imagination Arts) to design a new post show exhibit to replace their Transcenter original. This time creating “The Assembly Experience”, simulating the floor of a vast automotive manufacturing plant as the entrance to “Inside Track”. Unlike, Transcenter there are no narrative experiences this time with nearly all of the space devoted to promoting the latest products from GM that was frequently updated to include things like Fuel Cell technology that featured this compilation of downtempo electronic beats.
SIM TRACK
5. TRACK TRANSFORMATION
Decidedly off-brand for Epcot’s Future World, Test Track would receive a 21st Century renovation in 2012 on an impressive scale given its lean budget. This time focusing on the now primarily digital process of new vehicle design, the attraction was such a departure from the original that it was even given a new name “SimTrack” short for Simulation Track which was unfortunately scrapped at the last moment to retain the Test Track recognition. This composition (Cerulean by John Adams) was the attraction’s intro music for its Grand Re-opening ceremony in 2012.
6. SIMTRACK SOUNDTRACK
Entering the sleek Chevrolet Design Studio, we are quickly whisked into our SimCar and up into the TRON-inspired digital world of the SimTrack to conduct several tests on your custom vehicle designs before heading thru the Performance Portal and back to the physical world on the high-speed Turbo Track finale.
THE SIMTRACK SUITE
CAPABILITY
POWER
EFFICIENCY
RESPONSIVENESS
SPEED
Paul Leonard-Morgan’s extremely exciting atmosphere for SimTrack segmented into its five distinct movements and unofficially named after the attraction’s four (originally five) test criteria.
Footnote
THE EPCOT EXPANDED UNIVERSE
Ranging from the tangential, like Duran Duran’s “Rio” on The Living Seas opening to custom-created compositions as in Danny Kaye’s many musical numbers for the park’s Grand Opening Special, many works have become inextricably associated with the park. And although not presented inside its gates, they are nevertheless an intrinsic part of its history.
