Double twist?

A few observations from looking at the construction site tonight.

First, I'm almost positive that the ride will be a L-TH-B ride. Almost all the supports for the return are in place, and they are all in a straight line that matches perfectly with the track on the tower. The reason the supports are low and then rise is that the track will change. The supports rise where the track changes from track with a truss design to the flat trussless track that is the brake run.

Now, the most interesting observation I made tonight is that the track supports on the tower show the track starting to twist. But, the up side and down side are not symmetrical. Clearly, the down side is twisting more than the up side. I'm thinking that this ride will have two or three, or more, full twists on the down side. It's also possible that it will do some twists on the up side. It looks very interesting, and is something no one here thought about.

Whoever mentioned in another thread that the back support is tilting inward is correct. But, they still have to place two more catwalks, so this tower still has a long way to go. I'm thinking the tower itself will be 300 to 325 feet tall with about another 100 feet of track above the tower.

This ride is starting to take shape, and it's still looking like this will be one hell of a great ride.

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Florida may have Disneyworld and Key West,
but Ohio has Cedar Point and Put-In-Bay.
It's great to live in Ohio!
*** This post was edited by Pete 10/19/2002 3:13:59 AM ***

Interesting... I want pictures. ;)

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gravity: down to earth, without the sugar coating.

www.geocities.com/gravityjmb

I can see the *****ing now! "It's just a full circuit Wicked Twister!"

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

What about this. Instead of doing a 90 degree twist to the tophat it does a 270. In other words, instead of twisting to the left a 1/4 turn and going flat over the tophat (or right and go upside-down) it twists right and does 3/4 turn. The twist of each piece would have to be 67.5 degrees to use 4 pieces per side though and those pieces didn't look to be any more than 45. But I think that would be pretty exciting. Just a thought.

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-Mike

The Fast and the Fearless

Looking at the construction of the tower, it seems very unlikely that twists will be "heartline" twists like WT. This means that as the train goes through the twist, we are going to experience some significant "rotational" g's. To keep the g's constant as the train goes up or down the tower, the rate of twist per distance travelled has to be proprtional to the velocity of the train.

Based on this, one could reasonably expect that the twist on the way up and the twist on the way down would be different. On the way up the train is slowing down, and so the twist should "tighten up" as it goes up the tower. On the way down, the train is getting faster, and so the twist will start "tight" and gradually loosen.

If there is significant twisting going on, then we should be able to determine which is the launch side and which is the return side by looking at how tight the twists are on the tower.

Disclaimer : I know this post has three as-yet-unproved assumptions in it...
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Steve

Found the Point in 2002 and love it!

what's that site address?

Thanks. When I was looking through these pictures, I saw this one

http://home.earthlink.net/~mysjivus1/10-18towerlean.JPG

that top support is twisted at 90 degrees. This either means that it twists more than that, or it could mean inverted tophat. Any comments?

When info first leaked on the ride and its magnitude, I was thinking of ways that it could be extreme. I thought it would go onto the island, which it obviously won't now, but I also thought about if they added a twisting spike to the drop side. I almost dismissed it immediately, thinking that it would too extreme. Perhaps my twisted mind was right...(pun intented)

What some of you guys tat are talking about an inverting tophat have to realize is that those supports have a whole 100+ more feet until they hit 400 (even if that's the height that this will max out at). Can they make a full twist on the drop tower before they hit that height or will they have to make it invert? I guess we'll see in time.

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June 28th: LocoBazooka Tour (Sevendust headlining)
July 11th: Korn, Puddle of Mudd, and Deadsy

Unless their is a hill in the coaster layup their won't be an inverted tophat according to the track that has arrived...

This is VERY interesting. The only time that I thought about the possibility of multiple twists on either side is when people were pointing out the suspiciously large amounts of twisting track in the lot. If it did double twist, this thing could be insane! Especially on the down side... think Expedition: Ge Force straight down! :)

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"Meh."
Wicked twists: 10
Danger: Hgih Voltage!

There is more than enough track and supports in the parking lot to prove that this will be more than a L-TH-B coaster. I flipped through more of the pictures from where UR coaster linked from and I saw these to be interesting. The first 2 are of odd looking supports that I have never seen before and the other 2 are pictures of 3, count em, 3 more catwalks that will be going up somewhere!

http://home.earthlink.net/~mysjivus1/10-18bigthinginlot.JPG

http://home.earthlink.net/~mysjivus1/10-18weirdsupport.JPG

http://home.earthlink.net/~mysjivus1/10-18catwalk5.JPG

http://home.earthlink.net/~mysjivus1/10-18catwalks6-7.JPG

After looking at the new Virtual Midway photos of the angled support, I can't help but agree that the down side will do a "double twist", or as I prefer to call it, a full twist. With track peices twisting this quickly, it wouldn't be a problem to fit the full twist in before hitting 400ft. Also, I think that this photo proves that the tophat will in fact be supported at it's apex, unlike Xclerator, and it will definetely not be inverted. This sure adds a whole new dimension to the ride.

This thing's gonna break all the rules. ;)

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-Jon
I'd Rather Be Riding Roller Coasters

Excellent night shots...

Thanks for pointing that out :)

If the tophat isn't an inversion, but the supports turn the track in the oppasite direction, then the only real possibility is for a 270 degree twist.

Insane!

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--Dingo 65--
http://rct.ogresnet.com

That support piece in BadInfluence's first photo is massive! It looks wicked.

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June 28th: LocoBazooka Tour (Sevendust headlining)
July 11th: Korn, Puddle of Mudd, and Deadsy

The HUGE support piece is ALOT bigger in diameter than the current support in the tower. Also, There are ALOT of track pieces that curve...i counted 6 curved pieces....doesnt that seem to be a little too many for a tophat.

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- Dennis

Think about their radius in relation to the standing tower...if you fit them all together would they create a semi-circular shape the width of the towers?

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June 28th: LocoBazooka Tour (Sevendust headlining)
July 11th: Korn, Puddle of Mudd, and Deadsy

After looking at the pics on Virtuamidway, I must take back my earlier statements about the twist not being on the "heartline".

I would agree that the twist is going to be 270 degrees. To start twisting at not much below 110mph is going to be waaaayyy cool.

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Steve

Found the Point in 2002 and love it!

The TH will not be inverted. All the rails on the top of the track have white lines on them. The TH pieces have the white lines on the OUTSIDE of the track. See this picture: http://www.virtualmidway.com/mystery/attraction404.jpg

Naww.....you think???....might want to read the thread.

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- Dennis