If you can't tell by now...

I'm not so concerned about the forces,but the radius of the turn is quite sharp,won't it hurt the neck a bit? I mean going straight up,and over a turn 1/3 as wide as Xcelerators would be a bit much judging by the video I've seen of Xcelerators,it looks like it snaps your neck a bit at the top.

The one thing that's got me questioning if this *is* going to be a launch-tophat-brakerun ride...

Up till now (and please, correct me if I'm wrong)... Cedar Point has only announced this as a "thrill ride", not a "roller coaster".

To call this a "roller coaster" from the start, and have it end up only being a launch-tophat-brakes, that would be a huge disappointment. But, call it a "thrill ride" and you've got your bases covered.

It's something to think about...

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gravity: down to earth, without the sugar coating.

www.geocities.com/gravityjmb

Gravity, I was thinking that from day one...

Well, let me put my 2 cents in...even if this does end up just launch-tophat-brakes, it will still be an incredible ride. While it's not the world's best coaster, I still had an absolute blast on Hypersonic XLC at PKD, and that's just launch, hill, turn, hop, brakes. And if estimates are right, this hill will be nearly 3 times the height of Hypersonic's....that's INSANE. The launch itself, along with a hill of that height would be such an incredible experience, that you'll still love the ride, even if there aren't other elements.

But, that said, I hope there's more to it.

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Jman
Webmaster, Gravibulb Coasters
http://balder.prohosting.com/gravbulb/coasters/

I almost got down to PKD to ride Hypersonic, but I have been on Xcelerator, and for how short it is its amazing. I loved every second of it! Went on it 16 times in one day. Just a pure adrenaline rush. So if this is a larger scale of it i will NOT be disapointed. And if everyone eles is, good, shorter lines for me! And no MFJedi, it doesnt snap your neck at all, it was smooth as silk, you just float over that tophat like your gonna keep going, then all of a sudden you get pulled down, its insane! I cant wait to get on this one.

CoasterFreakMan said:
I mean, those things are tiny compared to the supports on the giant tower. I dont know if you think so too, but its gotta be true! Those supports arent strong enough to support a 5+ton train coming down at that angle at 80+ MPH
There is just no way!

The supports are actually pretty thick. The tower is probably some of the largest diameter tube in the park, so everything looks small in comparison.

I've got a question. If this coaster does turn out to be launch, tophat, brakes, why did they start so early? The way they are going they'll have it almost completely done structurally before the season is over.

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If you meet me and forget me, you've lost nothing. If you meet Jesus and forget Him, you've lost everything.

The reason for starting early is to get more testing time in spring. They'll probably have the tower structure done by closing day and the track will probably hung soon after that. That means all the "difficult" construction will be complete way early. Putting up the rest of the ride should be relatively easy in comparison. The hard part of this project will be tweaking in the launch and control system, and a lot of time and testing is the only way to really get that done.

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Scott W. Short, Rail Junkie
mailto:scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com

Exactly... how many delays did Superman: The Escape go through? (Yes, I know it's a different launch system... I'm using it as an example as far as speed/height.)

I'd rather have them start early and be staring at it now... and have testing complete by opening day next season, than to be staring at it next season, unable to ride because it's not ready for the public.

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gravity: down to earth, without the sugar coating.

www.geocities.com/gravityjmb

By comparing the tophat from Knott's and the shot of 2nd to last photo from the last update on Virtual Midway, they look pretty similar, width-wise. It doesn't look nearly as large in the photos as in real life. I mean, aren't the base supports like 4-5 feet thick?

Also, if the trains are going the same speed at the top of this one as there do Xcelerator, there will be little difference in the forces on the riders.

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June 28th: LocoBazooka Tour (Sevendust headlining)
July 11th: Korn, Puddle of Mudd, and Deadsy
*** This post was edited by CP_bound 10/1/2002 9:54:53 AM ***

I have a pic from twisted rails that gives a good perspective as to how far apart the track is on the tophat of Xcel. If i have time i'll upload it soon or give a link to it but anyways, The structure at CP looks much wider in person and like CPBound said above me, the supports for this new structure are about 5 ft in diameter. Thats really big. The supports holding up MF (minus the lift hill) are all about the same size as the grey/tan that we have for this new ride.

Perhaps they're finishing the vertical construction early to try to avert some of the inclement weather that we're going to get this winter....I would guess if the weather's bad at ground level during the winter, it would be much worse at 400'.

Or maybe the crane company had a special...:)

Seriously...

If you were renting the crane and paying so much per day (as a lot of construction equipment is), wouldn't you want to get the work done while it's still nice out and you have less chances for missed work days?

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James Draeger
-Captain Sarcasm

Going back to what Gravity said about this just being a "Thrill Ride". A couple of months ago I E-mailed CedarPoint about this new ride, they said "CedarPoint will be building a MAJOR new ride for 2003". They never said anything about a roller coaster, just a new ride...

Take a look at this pic http://www.thepointol.com/z8.jpg

See all of those bolts sticking out of the ground, they appear to a footer for a large support. If a support is attached to that footer than it will be off to the side of the launch and therefore would have to be a turn. Very interesting, maybe it won't just be L-TH-B.

Later,

Chris

See all of those bolts sticking out of the ground, they appear to a footer for a large support. If a support is attached to that footer than it will be off to the side of the launch and therefore would have to be a turn. Very interesting, maybe it won't just be L-TH-B.

I hope you are right. I think you might have saved us from the 'L' shaped coaster. On the topic of it being a thrill ride, it is a coaster. Nothing more, nothing less.

thedok, if you are referring to the bolts in the foreground of that picture, those are not footers. They are just sections of bolts to be used for footers elsewhere. Check out this picture (look at the bolt structure laying on its side): http://www.virtualmidway.com/popup/mysterypopup6001.asp?image=attraction202.jpg&title=Mystery%20Attraction

The bolts in the picture from TPOL are just a couple of those standing up.

If you are talking about the footers between those bolts and the main support structure, they DO line up with the tower/pullup/pullout. It's just tough to tell from that perspective.

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

Don't forget that there's going to be ths crazy thing called a transfer track too! It's one of those new-fangled rides.

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- John
Toasted flying banana's are fun.

Transfer Track in the middle of the ride???

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Guess who's back....back again ;)

I've been exremely busy these past few weeks, too busy to read or post. Therefore, I appologize if this was mentioned earlier in this thread, I don't have time to read it all.

My thoughts are that the ride will do launch, up right hand side of tower, down left hand side, straight back toward station (as seen in existing footers). It will then make a massive overbank near the station that will go over ID and possibly some of Mantis. Then onto the island, an element or two and back to station. Just my two cents.

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-Chris Woodard
Let's ride the "Sky Ride Sponsored By The Ohio Lottery Odds Are You'll Have Fun" Ride!