Cars Technology

Originally Posted By believe

We all know that the Cars attraction will be based off Test Track, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and even Rocket Rod, and maybe even Indy, but truth be told, I don't know that much about the tech.

TT was delayed a good 2 years before it opened. There were rumors that there was a crash before it opened. Although I haven't heard any negative newsworthy incidences since opening, I'd be concerned about safety.
Questions.
1. Are these vehicles attached to a track (ie the slot in the middle) to prevent the vehicle from flying off the road.
2. Do the vehicles steer mechanically via a track or electronically? ie, what if the tires decide to steer forward in a turn?
3. What's to prevent a crash?
4. Can they operate in rain?
Thoughts?

 

Originally Posted By trekkeruss

I have no idea about how the technology works, but as far as I know, no one has ever been injured in an incident on TT, JTTCOTE, or the RR, no have I ever heard of a vehicle coming close to crashing or leaving the track.

FWIW, you may as well throw in Indy as another vehicle you should be concerned about, at least from the perspective of a speeding car that you can't see how it works.

 

Originally Posted By mousermerf

I guess you missed my other post, which i can't find either (so we're even!) that answers a lot of those questions.

Radiator Springs Racers is based on Test Track's ride system.

No one outside of Disney/WDI really knows what happened to Test Track. We have a few outside fact - they sent invites to the press and AP holders for the grand opening scheduled in May 1997. That was all canceled abruptly. It became the longest delayed attraction in Disney history, soft opening Dec 1998 and grand opening March 1999.

The system remains powered on for roughly 20 hours a day because of how labor intensive and problematic start/stop can be. On days when Epcot stays open late they just leave the ride on cycling the cars overnight.

One long standing rumor is that banked turn is capable of handing the forces of much faster vehicles then the current show program, and during testing in '97 someone decided to try to run a vehicle at top speed and that lead to a crash and major damage to the attraction. The rumor says it wasn't the high speed turn that was the problem, it was the vehicle not being able to stop fast enough for the sharp turn and drop back into the building. Some versions of the story state it crashed into the wall, others say it rode up on the guardrail, and some say it went through that part of the wall and cleared the entire building and landed in a flaming heap between Test Track and Horizons.

No one is really sure what happened. Another rumor says it's the Crash Test that failed during the Imagineering family day testing. That a vehicle hit the doors for the Crash Test with riders resulting in injuries and a redesign of the Crash Test doors to be breakaway.

Again, nothing official either way.

It's known that the ride had/has issues with tires. Rocket Rods had similar problems. The tires get flats and blowout with a level of regularity far beyond what was supposed to be their normal rate of failure. Disney ended p seeking out new tires and changing the vehicle tires frequently.

Which, in and of itself is a bit ironic, since the 4 big tires visible on the vehicle have little to do with its operation. The slot you mentioned attaches the vehicle to the track and another part of the ride vehicle underneath there is what powers it. It has some crazy number like 200-something little metal wheels. The 4 big tires only aid in breaking since they're rubber and thus have physical traction on the track surface.

The whole system is designed in a series of zones. Vehicles travel along at their own speed (some go faster, some go slower) and dispatch into the various parts of the ride as long as there isn't another vehicle already in the zone. If a vehicle catches up with another one and thus putting two in the same zone, it will stop abruptly to avoid collision.

There have been minor accidents since the attraction opened, no major injuries that i'm aware of.

One of the bigger failures was a vehicle entering the high speed turn from the straight-away. Something broke in the system that connects the lower apparatus to the ride vehicle. The ride went into E-stop, the vehicle had to rely on its 4 tires entirely to break after it had achieved maximum speed, so it melted the rubber and creates a small smoke plume as it skidded to a hault at the front of the building. Parts of the tires and the broken apparatus went flying into the queue below (no injuries) and the bar that connects the vehicle to the system wobbles violently during the stop and mangled a few sections of the track's guide slot.

It was closed for repairs for a few days after that.

As for rain, it can operate in light rain as long as there is no lightning in a certain radius of the building. Heavier rain is painful for guests because of the speed. The control tower watches the conditions (also signaled to via radio from management who is outside watching the weather at that point) and release vehicles one at a time to the outside speed/turn portion.

There's an automated safety system though, so if there's a sudden nearby lightning strike the system will E-stop, and that leaves cars "stranded" on the outside loops in torrential downpours until a CM comes to unlock the seatbelts and walk them off the ride. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

 

Originally Posted By trekkeruss

Thanks for the informative post mm. If I had to pick on you though...and you know I do LOL...the word is "brake," not break.

 

Originally Posted By mousermerf

Side note - something that freaks a lot of people out is that once you sit down in the vehicle it will dispatch into the ride, regardless of whether your seatbelt is fastened. Seatbelt check is up and around the corner of the first little climb.

This decision was apparently made because load/unload was taking too long and backing up the system. So 3 or 4 vehicles can advance and be held awaiting full-dispatch at the seatbelt check station.

 

Originally Posted By believe

Awesome info mousermerf.

Only Disney would spend so much on such a high maintenance attraction, in both building it and maintaining it.

 

Originally Posted By mickeymorris1234

So are you saying the RR will be fixing those problems or will have similar. That sounds like a very expensive ride for Disneyland. WDW can afford that between all the parks and the tons of tourists, DLR I don't know if it can which is why RR was pulled.

Interesting though about the lightning, why is that? I can't imagine it being anymore dangerous than being on the Mickey wheel or thunder mountain in a lightning storm.

 

Originally Posted By DlandDug

Please call it "RSR." Every time I see "RR" I think of Rocket Rods, and then my head starts to hurt.

Thanks!

 

Originally Posted By ni_teach

I also want to point out that in Disney Seas in Japan the same technology of Test Track is used in "Journey to the Center of the Earth" built several years later. They have not had the problems or issues that Test Track had when it was first started.

 

Originally Posted By mstaft

Maybe weather conditions - like lightning - are why a larger show building was designed for RSR. Fewer shutdowns?

Mark

www.InsightsandSounds.blogspot.com

 

Originally Posted By mousermerf

If it goes outside at all, which it does, it'll have the same problems.

 

Originally Posted By trekkeruss

<<Maybe weather conditions - like lightning - are why a larger show building was designed for RSR. Fewer shutdowns?>>

Lightning storms in California are rare.

 

Originally Posted By SuperDry

<<< Lightning storms in California are rare. >>>

On the order of a handful a year, as opposed to a handful a *day* sometimes in Orlando.

 

Originally Posted By Schmitty Good Vibes

mousemerf,

I know you are only reporting rumors, so please don't think I'm criticizing your post, but,

>>>Another rumor says it's the Crash Test that failed during the Imagineering family day testing. That a vehicle hit the doors for the Crash Test with riders resulting in injuries and a redesign of the Crash Test doors to be breakaway.<<<

This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard, that you wouldn't design the crash doors to be break away in the first place. But then, I wouldn't put it past some in WDI.

 

Originally Posted By The Goddess Mara

Part of Journey to the Center of the Earth runs outside, and the ride runs even when it's pouring rain in Tokyo.

 

Originally Posted By TMICHAEL

I've not been on it, just asking.....Aren't the "diggers" on JttCotE covered so the rain isn't pelting you in the face? RSR are supposed to be pretty identical to the TT vehicles so the open top design would allow full facials if run in the rain. And rain at 40 mph or so, doesn't feel to swell, LOL

 

Originally Posted By TP2000

I've ridden Test Track many times over the past decade, and Journey To The Center of the Earth several times in the last few years.

One thing that is very noticeable with the Journey ride system is how much smoother and refined the experience feels. Test Track has a bit of grumble in the feeling of the ride system, and the accelerations in particular don't feel nearly as smooth and fluid as the accelerations in Journey. It's like Test Track is a 10 year old Chevy, and Journey is a new Lexus.

There's just a refinement in the overall ride system that can honestly be felt as you travel along, most noticeably in the high speed segments.

This is likely very good news, as Radiator Springs Racers should be taking advantage of whatever it was they learned about the system to make Journey noticeably more refined and smoother.

 

Originally Posted By mousermerf

So, here's a few examples of Test Track breaking down...

First, let's start with a good clean ride-through for reference:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cv57sdQz_E" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...57sdQz_E</a>

Then we have a stop lots of folks encounter - vehicle cascade at the anti lock brake portion:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MTAM4TCNho" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...AM4TCNho</a>

Which is neat also because it has a good shot of the "peeling out" effect at the start of the ride. Those sort of stops are common due to vehicle timing getting off, but the system recovers usually in just a few seconds.

Then there's the dreaded scene crawl, which happens in this video at the hairpins turns:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlJAT7oCloc" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...AT7oCloc</a>

It means there's been a delay at the station and all the vehicles are crawling or stopped at the next checkpoint. It's very likely the vehicle ahead of them got stuck at the evasive maneuvers scene - which it sucks to be stuck at since it blacks out, the scene cycles, then the horns blare and the lights on the truck blind you for a few seconds before it resets... over and over again.

And speaking of that - here's a group of people who got screwed and stuck at that exact point:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIc2R0gDitY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...2R0gDitY</a>

And really, they got a little lucky - I got stuck there once with the show scene looping. Horrible. Note the audio of the car trying to restart that plays when the system shuts down.

Someone in Imagineering has a sense of humor.

Apparently the ability to recover from those stops without a full evac and repositioning of the vehicles to zone-starts was one of the programming hurdles it took a long time to overcome with the system.

 

Originally Posted By mousermerf

Found some articles on Test Track's delay..

Just as a reference point, I found an article from Feb 1997 touting the new ride as opening soon. Then there's this article from October 1997:

<a href="http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1997-10-16/business/9710151309_1_walt-disney-test-track-epcot" target="_blank">http://articles.orlandosentine...ck-epcot</a>

George! And Disney is being pretty forthcoming with what's wrong with the ride...

Then December...

<a href="http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1997-12-06/business/9712051316_1_kalogridis-test-vehicle-test-track" target="_blank">http://articles.orlandosentine...st-track</a>

George wont answer any questions, and more notably, wont deny a vehicle crashed.

 

Originally Posted By barboy2

///Maybe weather conditions - like lightning - are why a larger show building was designed for RSR. Fewer shutdowns?///

I don't follow you.
If lightning abounds then any part of the weather exposed track could still invite problems.

I don't think Disney would operate the ride during storms just because 50, 75 or 90% of the ride is protected from the elements.