Jim Hill
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Kermit from Kalamazoo writes:

Dear Jim:

I really enjoyed the story you posted last week over at Amusementpark.com about Disneyland's Rocket Rods and how budget cuts profoundly hurt the operating efficiency of that attraction. But weren't there other factors involved here? I remember hearing something about how this New Tomorrowland attraction originally had a sponsor, some major corporation that pulled all of its funding at the last minute. Is this true? If so, would that loss of cash also have hurt Rocket Rods?

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That's true, Kermit. Disneyland's Rocket Rods originally was supposed to have a sponsor. General Motors, or so I hear. However, executives at the auto maker were allegedly really steamed by how poorly the Mouse had handled the delayed opening of its revamped Future World attraction, that the corporation reportedly decided to punish Mickey by ...

Test Track at Epcot

Wait. Maybe a little background info is in order here first.

Surely you folks know about GM Test Track. The first new thrill ride to be added to Epcot since "Body Wars" opened way in October 1989? Well, Disney officials were so confident about the eventual success of this Future World attraction that the company put a ton of "Test Track" related merchandise up for sale months prior to the ride's summer 1997 projected opening date.

However, this Future World attraction was shut down during pre-opening testing in early 1997 after one of its ride vehicles suddenly blew through a brake zone, snapped off its guide track and smashed through a wall. Since there was no one on board the vehicle at the time, nothing was hurt but WDI's pride. But that would take a real beating before the attraction was up and running again.

Since "Test Track" had been working flawlessly up until this incident occurred, the Imagineers were dumbfounded as to what the problem could be. They examined the damaged vehicle as well as the mechanism that was supposed to have held the car on the ride track. They even checked the software that had been used to control the vehicle during its test run for glitches. But no one clear reason emerged as to why the vehicle had left the track.

Weeks went by as the Imagineers investigated the accident. In the mean-time, Disney Company management was under tremendous pressure from General Motors to get "Test Track" back up and running. The reason behind this was that GM had just kicked off a multi-media, umpteen million dollar promotional campaign for its new line of cars. What made this difficult was General Motors' campaign was built around the supposedly soon-to-be-opened "Test Track." If this WDW attraction wasn't really going to open anytime soon, GM would have to junk the whole campaign.