Tony Whitney
Contributing Writer
I’VE always respected
automakers that make
an effort to try and
explain to consumers
exactly what it takes
these days to develop
safe, reliable vehicles at ~
reasonable prices,

Most buyers don’t really
understand how much
research, development and
intensive pre-launch testing
lies behind their new car, van
or pickup and few automak-
ers have figured out a way of
bridging the communication
gap.

Earlier this year though,
General Motors took an
unusual, but highly effective,
step towards auto consumer
education by working with
the Walt Disney, Corporation
to develop a new ride at the
huge Epcot Park in Florida.

Having been through the
attraction three times, | can
confirm that the park’s
newest and most popular ride
is far more than just a glori-
fied roller coaster. Test Track
Bives-visitors a unique per-
spective of the entire business
of automobile development
and wraps it up in one of the
most thrilling rides in the
entire Disney family of parks.

The idea of Test Track
(which is fully wheelchair
accessible) is to recreate an
automobile test facility —

Options
variety
From page 38

While a lone vehicle sug-
gests a limitation, there. are
enough modes, options and
tweak-menus to offer up a full
complement of bike varia-
tions.

There are six difficuity lev-
els here, from rookie, with
default settings like auto-
brake, stecring-assist and “no
damage,” to absolute Acc,
which appears to be beyond
the abilities of all. but the
most ardent
fans/gamers.

Superbike Racing is as
much trip to the
Castrol /Honda Academy of
Superbiking as ix is a well-
attended racing simulation.

When all that schooling
becomes tedious, one can
always slip on the “auto
brake” and get back to blow-
ing the competition away
with a bit of vircual assistance.

Superbike Racing is a
game to admire, but not nee-
essarily a game that warrants
your utter and total devotion.
Ie offers nothing revolution-
ary to the video-game world,
but it does present a nice
package of modifiatle fea-

tures on a virtual RC45 and
some serious, flat-out racing.

Superbike

something most members of
the public never get to see in
a bfetime of car-buving. The
focus of Fest Track is very
much on automotive safet
though there are other fasci-
nating glimpses into the
industry.

Visitors waik through a
series of displays explaining,
how vehicle safety systems are
developed and there are
whole families of crash test
dummies being put through
various forn:s of mechanical
torture.

Other displays show how
vehicle seats, doors and other
components are tested to
destruction.

There’s even a section
devoted to GM’s work devel-
oping lamp posts and road

EPCOT’S Test Track provides all the hair-raising chal-
lenges of an autoi:ctive proving ground: bumpy ter-
rain, hair-pin turns, freezing cold chambers and 50-

degree banked curves at 60 m.p.h. Not recommend-
ed for peopte with heart, back or neck problems!

vehicles away from oncoming
traffic.

All the exhibits use actual
test equipment and there’s no

signs as which “dreak away”

en struck, along with con-
crete median barriers
designed to deflect wayward

7

fakery at all. A seyment of an
auto plant assembly line,
complete with overhead con-
veyor systems carrying com-
ponents, is so well done it’s
easy to believe you’ve wan-
dered into a real factory.

On the ride itself, visirors
travel in six-passenger electric
vehicles, complete with four-
wheel dise brakes and wide
“slick” tires.

The computerized “test
car” endures desert heat and
Arctic cold test chambers,
takes ina “with and without”
ABS brake test, drives past a
cleverly re-created barrier
crash test and finally heads
out of doors to the test track
itself,

Phere are same surprises
too, but J won't give them
away.

Soon the car is up to
speed and flying around
banked turns and fast
straight-aways. Speeds top
100 km/h, making this the
fastest ride at any Disney
park. It’s also the longest.

Before they head off to
other Epcot attractions, Test
Track participants can browse
a large GM vehicle display,
complete with feature prod-
ucts on huge sound stages.

Interestingly, the cars,
vans and trucks are not

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locked up and roped off, so
people can climb inside and
try them on for size. A GM
executive tald me that so
many visitors grab a chance
to sit in the vehicles, the
upholstery has to be replaced
every few weeks.

I've been to proving
grounds and test tracks all
over the world and was
amazed at how accurately the
Epcot/GM experience dupli-
cates the real thing.

The ride is based on GAs
Milford Proving Ground near
Detroit and Disney “imagi-
neers” visited the facility
many tines prior to develop-
ing the attraction. ‘

incidentally, Epeot, which
is part of Walt Disney World
near Orlando, has just begun
a 15-month millennium cele-
bration and the GM ride is
certainly one of the major
draws.

Naturally, GM is using the
ride to market its vehicles,
but other automakers benefit
too. Visitors leave with a lot
morc knowledge of automo-
tive research and develop-
ment than they went in with
— ané that’s good news for
the industry as a whole.

Tony Whitney’s column appears
courtesy of the B.C. Automobile
Dealers’ Asociation (BCADA).

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