Farewell, Wildcat.

IF they remove Cedars I doubt that the midway will expand that direction. I could be wrong (I was wrong about them removing Wild Cat) but I doubt it.
Most likely they would expand the Marina and/or out of park dining that direction.

I always liked Wildcat and am "kinda" sad to see it go but I know it was down quite a few times last year. I am disappointed that they are just scrapping it and not moving it, either in the park or in the chain. Heck even sell it to another park somewhere.

I wonder if they will offer parts to any of the companies that own the other 4? They probably figure they will get more money out of it in scrap than they would selling or moving it. Hmmm anyone know how much steel is scrapping for now? :)

Mid-Michigan's only roller coaster (thats how they advertise it, which I think is funny), is very similar to Wildcat. It's the Serpent at Kokomo's and its a Galaxi. It's a little longer but about the same height and speed, and runs two cars in a train instead of single cars. It was moved there about 4 or 5 years ago and is fun for what it is. It may not be a ' Schwarzkopf' either, but to the GP, it might as well be. Very generic carnie ride.

I couldn't have been more shocked when I saw this on the site this morning, and I'm very upset by the news. It was on my list of must-ride rides every trip since a small child, and it was a really fun family ride. My memories of sharing a car with my family of 4 on Wild Cat always stood strongest, as it was one of the only rides my Mom would ride with us.

I really don't think this has anything to do with some surprise mechanical failure. If that was the case, getting a part would have been much easier than tearing the ride down and making your $6 million show location appear very poorly planned.

The only reason for the surprise removal I'll be semi-okay with is if the steel track was decaying and didn't pass inspection. King Cobra at Kings Island was supposedly removed for a reason similar to this. Still, you'd think the trend could have been spotted earlier to prevent such a sudden decision if that was the case.

This news seemed to follow my worry that the orientation of the show seemed poor, given the narrow amount of front-center space for the planned VIP seating, etc. Also, the Wild Cat area looked really cluttered after the addition of all the Luminosity stuff in front.

If Wild Cat's removal has anything to do with the addition of Luminosity (which I think it does), consider me annoyed. Sure we lost the big screen, but we lost another great family ride and have an out-of-place stage sitting in Iron Dragon's queue.

Last thought... I remember Kinzel stating how much he hated to get rid of rides, knowing how sentimentally-attached customers get to them over the years. I really liked his style of having a closing ceremony with rides to be lost the season before, like Demon Drop and Paddle Wheel. It was very respectful, and a little easier for people to handle than doing what was done with Wild Cat here. It'll be painful for me to see Wild Cat's empty hole in the midway this year; this really hurt the overwhelmingly positive mood I had for the park's opening.

Ahhhh this makes me mad!! That was my favorite ride as a kid! I feel that these last minute announcements are so stupid. They should allow people to celebrate its life and get their last rides.

Your acting as if they planned this. If they were planning on doing this, they never would have spent the time and money to work on the ride in the off season and test it over the last few weeks. They had ride ops selected for the ride. You don't do that if your planning on taking it out.

I wonder if there is time to move the control both to the back of the new open area. Right now if you want to see the show from that area you have this two story building right in front of you. If they could move it back I think they could make a really nice elevated VIP area.

How many parks can say they haven't removed a coaster in 34 years? Think about it, the last coaster to be removed from Cedar Point was Jumbo Jet in 1978.

Memphis Kiddie Park :-) But, yeah. Not many.

No, I'm not thinking they planned Wild Cat's removal in this way. I'm thinking that they made a rash decision as a result of Luminosity's poor planning. I really hope I'm wrong and that this was all some very costly issue with Wild Cat, like decaying steel. But again, I don't see how that couldn't have been spotted earlier.

Ffej said:[/
Last thought... I remember Kinzel stating how much he hated to get rid of rides, knowing how sentimentally-attached customers get to them over the years. I really liked his style of having a closing ceremony with rides to be lost the season before, like Demon Drop and Paddle Wheel. It was very respectful, and a little easier for people to handle than doing what was done with Wild Cat here. It'll be painful for me to see Wild Cat's empty hole in the midway this year; this really hurt the overwhelmingly positive mood I had for the park's opening.

Yeah, just like he let us say goodbye to Geauga Lake :/

Needless to say, getting this bit of news earlier today was a downer. But its time did seem to be up.

Zoug68 said:
I am going to stand by my claim of carnival coasters being close enough to Wildcat. They may not be quite as big, but they are close enough for anyone who desires this type of coaster.

http://www.wadeshows.com/attraction-details.asp?rideID=10&type=spectacular

With the expense of the work they are doing to that midway, it is completely out of place. To me it always looked that way.

About the only thing the Zyklon and the Wildcat have in common is that they are both generally figure-8 configurations and they are both portable.

The Zyklon is a slow-moving, rough running, poorly paced mess with almost no interesting forces to speak of, and depending on which version you're riding, frequently runs slowly enough you could catch up on your knitting while rolling through the helixes. Just be careful not to stab yourself in the eye when you hit the trim brake on the back side that always has to hit hard so that you don't go flying down the midway when the car hits the final turn. I don't think Pinfari ever figured out how to bank a turn.

The Wildcat is a beautifully engineered coaster that generates both higher- and lower vertical accelerations than Milennium Force in less time than it takes the bigger ride to get up the lift hill. Ever notice that while there are block brakes all over the Wildcat (including one on a section of track that goes *uphill*), there are *no* trims on the ride at all? That's because Herr Schwarzkopf used gravity and kinetic energy to his advantage. Apart from the quick jerk on the lift hill and the sudden stop on the final brake, it's a smooth running masterpiece. Sure, it's the smallest adult coaster in the park. But it's also one of the finer examples of the craft.

The bottom line is, the Wildcat and the Zyklon are far from equivalents. Wildcat has a lot more in common with a Jet Star than with a Zyklon.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I can't believe how many people are so upset about this and how often I read........."this was my favorite ride as a kid". Here is what I was thinking while reading these comments, when was the last time you rode this coaster more than once a year?

This coaster was clearly past it's prime, the ridership was way down, the queue line was really slow, had break down problems.

This is a coaster that the company clearly didn't want to stick any more money into.

RideMan said:
The Wildcat is a beautifully engineered coaster that generates both higher- and lower vertical accelerations than Milennium Force in less time than it takes the bigger ride to get up the lift hill. Ever notice that while there are block brakes all over the Wildcat (including one on a section of track that goes *uphill*), there are *no* trims on the ride at all? That's because Herr Schwarzkopf used gravity and kinetic energy to his advantage. Apart from the quick jerk on the lift hill and the sudden stop on the final brake, it's a smooth running masterpiece. Sure, it's the smallest adult coaster in the park. But it's also one of the finer examples of the craft.

The bottom line is, the Wildcat and the Zyklon are far from equivalents. Wildcat has a lot more in common with a Jet Star than with a Zyklon.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Thank you! Finally someone who gets my love for this coaster. I could not have picked a more fun ride to work over the last two summers. The beauty of it was in the simplicity of engineering.

Coaster Curt said:
I can't believe how many people are so upset about this and how often I read........."this was my favorite ride as a kid". Here is what I was thinking while reading these comments, when was the last time you rode this coaster more than once a year?

This coaster was clearly past it's prime, the ridership was way down, the queue line was really slow, had break down problems.

You would be surprised how many repeat riders we have and I know most of them by name. Sure a lot of the guests who are the most enthusiastic are kids, but why does it matter?

Ridership in fact last year was way UP and I take a lot of pride in the fact that we also had minimal downtime as well.

Ridership last season was around 400,000.

You would be surprised how many repeat riders we have and I know most of them by name. Sure a lot of the guests who are the most enthusiastic are kids, but why does it matter?

Ridership in fact last year was way UP and I take a lot of pride in the fact that we also had minimal downtime as well.

But is that more because you actually knew the person or they truly enjoyed the ride? An operator that is enjoying the job and having fun with the customers can make all the difference in the world.

Walt said:
Ridership last season was around 400,000.

Compared to years past, that's a huge improvement.

Curt,

It was because they truly enjoyed the ride.

I was giving you a compliment tcgolfer :)

I am not and have never been a fan of these types of coasters, for the most part they are loud and not a very attractive ride.

Thanks Curt. :) I guess after how the rest of this thread has gone I was just prepared to be continually bashed.

You're right about how loud it was, the crew definitely had to yell to each other at times. I will miss the sound of the anti-roll backs however. I could stand on the midway and tell exactly where every car was with my eyes closed just by the sound alone.

Walt said:
Ridership last season was around 400,000.

Wasn't it down for a while though? I went on June 8 and it wasn't operating and it hadn't been for a couple days atleast.