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A nationwide touring event called Main Street in Motion took to Epcot’s parking lot at Walt Disney World last weekend, offering guests a chance to test drive more than 70 Chevrolet and GMC cars.
Included among the auto line-up available for driving were many popular (and expensive) cars. Several cone-lined courses wound through sections of the parking lot, some giving guests a chance to drive slowly and by themselves and others offering high-speed stretches, accompanied by the event’s staff.
Lines grew long quickly for the most popular cars, so I chose the two I most wanted to check out: the Chevy Corvette and Chevy Volt, a new electric car.
The “performance” course for the Corvette was shared with a Camaro, but I having never driven a Corvette before, I couldn’t pass up the chance to hop in a convertible and floor it. Yes, drivers were encouraged to push the car to its limits off of the starting line which faced directly toward Spaceship Earth. Epcot’s Test Track ride had nothing on this experience.
Here’s a video of my trip around the course driving the Corvette:
After, I wanted to check out the new Volt, interested to see how this plug-in electric car would feel. To drive the Volt, as everyone wanted to do, guests were required to first drive the Cruze for comparison. While I did record my drive in the Cruze, I’m not sharing it as it was fairly boring – the video and the ride itself. However, my drive in the Volt proved to be far more interesting as not only does the car have pretty decent pickup for an electric vehicle, the course also wound a bit backstage at Epcot, offering a glimpse at some parked Hollywood Studios trams and even a Jungle Cruise boat.
Here’s a video of my drive backstage at Epcot in the Chevy Volt, with some information given along the way by the Volt expert who rode along with me:
Visitors to Main Street in Motion could enjoy free soda, cookies, and walk away with a free flashlight for filling out an exit survey. Plus enclosed showrooms were set up for browsing cars casually off of the course, without any sales pitches being given.
If Main Street in Motion comes to your town, I recommend getting there as soon as it opens in the morning and heading straight for the performance cars. Lines will get long for these and there are only 2 or 3 of each model available for driving. The Volt line was long, but there were plenty around the course so it moved quickly. And interested guests could also look in and around the Volt and ask questions from experts.
The rest of the 70 or so cars available to drive had fairly short lines, as they were the same cars anyone could easily test drive at a dealership. But even with that said, it’s a fun opportunity to try them all out in a completely no-hassle, sales-free environment, where you can just enjoy the ride.
More photos from Main Street in Motion at Epcot:
