previously housed in the space. In 1976, Disney Imagineers had visited GM's Milford Proving Ground; the Imagineers later made a second trip to the facility as they designed Test Track. After numerous problems encountered during the construction of the ride, Test Track soft-opened on December 19, 1998, but did not officially open until March 17, 1999, nearly two years later than planned. In November 1995, Epcot announced that World of Motion would be transformed into Test Track. After the attraction closed on January 2, 1996, everything inside the ride building was removed. Meanwhile, the elevated track was already being constructed outside and behind the building, part of the high-speed test portion of the ride. Work outside the building began in the fall of 1995, while work inside the building began in the spring of 1996. The ride was scheduled to open 29 months after World of Motion's closing, in May 1997, but after numerous problems arose, the ride opening was delayed by nearly two years. The cars used on the ride were designed to resemble the look of a test car that is used to go through multiple safety tests. Throughout the construction of Test Track, numerous problems occurred causing delays in the ride opening. After failing to open as scheduled in May 1997, park officials announced on October 15, 1997 that the opening was delayed until at least sometime in 1998. The first problem that Imagineers had to overcome was that the wheels used on the ride vehicles could not stand up to the demand of the ride course and speed. This problem was resolved but a second, more critical issue caused the ride to be delayed by over a year. For Test Track to run with the highest hourly capacity possible, twenty-nine ride vehicles would be needed. The ride's programming system could only handle operating a maximum of six cars over the layout of the ride, and the system suffered frequent software crashes. The original software was scrapped, and eventually programmers were able to get the computer system able to run twenty-nine ride vehicles at once. Despite some rumors about rain affecting the outdoor segment, park officials assured that weather issues were not a factor in the delay. In August 1998, Disney announced that the opening of Test Track would be delayed once again. Officials told park guests that the technology was new and still being developed. Reports