Intamin Playground

We already have something to relax on inside.....disaster transport

j2k95sunfire said:

Headrush said:
So how many woodies has Intamin built so far?

9 (and El Toro isnt the biggest one)

The first one was in 1981 so its not like its a recent development.

American Eagle 1981, Pegasus 1991, Jupiter 1992, White Cyclone 1995, Asaka 1998, Elf 2001, Colossos 2001, Balder 2003, El Toro 2006
*** Edited 8/25/2006 9:15:36 PM UTC by j2k95sunfire***

So are they all highly rated or are most of them just OK woodies. (like MS) :-)

My point is with any coaster maker its hit and miss and some just are missing something, its no guarantee. People seem to be annointing Intamin the king of all coasters types when the only top rated woodie from Intamin I've heard of is El Toro.

Was it the Gravity Group that designed The Legend? Even on TV that woodie looked awesome with great speed and airtime through out.

Intamin coasters are my favorite and i feel they are of good reputation other than some small reliability issues on the complex ones. It is hard to disagree about how smooth they are and how they perform and stand as the manufacturer of many of the top rated rides on the planet.

Intamin is king--the rides push the envelope--if a company didnt do that then where are we at===============i know------- SIX FLAGS

claude and walter are too concerned with being tooooooooo smooth. I think they risk alot of g-force problems with their rides.

your friend,

Skank Bait

Colossos and Balder look like a great rides. It's a shame we don't hear more about coasters outisde the US. Actually, a Balder-type (not su huge) woodie would be breat...something reminicent of the old Cyclone. Someday. :)

Speaking of dark rides and such, I wonder if Maverick will be the last touch up of FT we will see for a few years, or if they will keep improving it. We have seen SkyHawk, new lighting, fresh paint, banners, now Maverick...but in my opinion there is still work to be done to Frontier Town.

Obviously we don't know what the effect of Maverick will be (obviously more people back there), but it really needs some...well..."life"...(no, I am not trying to be vague).

Perhaps some live music back there would be nice. A banjo-player...a barbershop quartet...come CP use all those talented performers you have and get them in that gazeebo! :)

Some live music in the gazebo would be awesome.........if you didn't have this massive screeching and huffing machine right behind you!! :)

Headrush said:

j2k95sunfire said:
American Eagle 1981, Pegasus 1991, Jupiter 1992, White Cyclone 1995, Asaka 1998, Elf 2001, Colossos 2001, Balder 2003, El Toro 2006

So are they all highly rated or are most of them just OK woodies. (like MS) :-)

Well, the older ones (pre-dating the prefab track) don't count as much anymore for that question, since any new "wood" Intamin built would be the newer prefab track.

That said, I like American Eagle, found Jupiter tame, thought White Cyclone sucked, loved Aska (but that's a clone of Viper at Great America, so the design is hardly due to Intamin), came off Elf thinking "cute kiddie ride", and absolutely adored El Toro.

However, El Toro hardly counts as a traditional wood coaster. It rides like steel, looks more like steel, and doesn't even "smell" right. It's a great ride, but it I think it would be no different if it were just built from steel. From a traditionalist's point of view, Voyage completely buries it (even with the steel supports, Voyage uses a traditional wooden trackbed, so it has that "right feel" to it). I'm sure El Toro will require less maintenance work than Voyage, so that's a tradeoff, but from a patron's perspective I like the real thing.

All that said, I think after the park's experiences with Mean Streak they WOULD take a good look at the prefab option if they ever decided to build a new woodie. *** Edited 8/26/2006 1:27:02 PM UTC by GregLeg1***

Exactly how long does it take to construct a decent sized woodie the size of el toro for example?

Intamin is today what Arrow was back in the 80's. Cutting edge technology and cool to look at. Unfortunately the parts for Arrows are getting expensive and harder to find which is why parks now tear them down instead of fixing them.

IMO Cedar Point desperately needs a Sally dark ride. I would also like to see more ride company diversity. But I think they are going to try to go the path that Six Flags just gave up, and that is catering to teens. I have to give them one thing, they aren't putting in cheap Vekoma's!

Intamin does make good rides, but I worry about their restraints and their views of American people (and how they don't fit in them.) I would worry about their rides from an insurance standpoint. I do not think their restraints are adequate for most body sizes. Large or small, and I have seen evidence proving that for both sizes.

I see repeating themes here myself. But that's all I have to say about that because if you're absolutely gonzo about Intamin and CP and don't look at each company with an impartial attitude you will just think I am blowing smoke. Every company has it's own problems.

Keep in mind Cedar Fair now has Son of Beast on their hands. So, before they go and build more traditional wood coasters, I'm sure they're going to want to work out the issues with SoB first.

I agree with what you said about the differences in coasters GregLeg, but I have to disagree about looks. I think The Voyage would've looked better in all wood. But, I think it will wear better with the streel substructure. El Toro is amazingly beautiful though. If you look at all the connections up close, its great! I think its a great blend between the traditional structure and newest technology. I can't wait to ride it next summer.

Concidering Intamin has built around 75% of the top 50 rated coasters in the world... im not complaining

I'm sure you were just guessing, but I actually calculated because I was amazed at how many B&M coasters were in the top 50. I should clarify that these percentages only include steel.

Percentage of Top 50 Steel Coasters:

B&M: 48%
Intamin: 22%
Arrow: 10%
Morgan: 6%
Schwartzkopf: 6%
Giovanola: 4%
Vekoma/WED: 2%
S&S: 2%

This:
http://www.rcdb.com/ig543.htm?picture=1
(sorry if it's not a link, don't know my Pointbuzz markup...)
Was an amazing ride. :)

It's only seven years old, I think it was a relatively small area, and blew me away, surprisingly fun.

I personally would be rooting for a Gravity Group, but it wouldn't likely top the Voyage, and that would just leave disappointment.

I would guess that B&M has more coasters world wide then Intamin. Right?

I would think so CP4eva. And halltd...thanks for that rundown. I was also very surprised, but I think CP4eva may be correct...and perhaps it is sheer "volume" that gives B&M so many. To be sure, though, B&M does make great coasters, it just seems that they haven't come up with anything new. They just keep making the same coasters over and over again, and it gets a bit tiresome. I was personally not impressed one bit with Griffon, and as I had previously thought that CP would be installing a dive machine from them, I am now happy that they have not gone in that direction. Plus, didn't that ride (Griffon) seem very short? Where were all the elements? Seems like an odd play for BGE.

Anyway, I am hoping for either a high-quality dark ride (I would LOVE the pirate ride to be replaced with some sort of "adventure" type ride...that has been my wish since it left), or a quality woodie, either from Intamin or GG.

I definetely agree with you, kevinj. Griffon seemed extremely too short. I mean its only a drop and then back up, a drop, and then a brake run already. Then after that it seems like you just fly through, into the water, and then thats about it. At least that's what I would remember from a rider's perspective. Way too short.

It would be very nice if Cedar Point would add some kind of dark ride. It can't be a small cheap one though, it would have to be on the lines of maybe Spiderman at US:IoA. Although, it would be very hard to top that. It would definetely have to be interactive though.

I actually don't think its all B&Ms fault they keep building the same thing over and over again. I would say that's more the parks fault. They're the ones that keep buying the same coasters. Six Flags is a prime example. Buy like four coasters and duplicate them at every single park. If that's what your client wants, that's what they get.

Granted, I heard a rumor that said CP asked B&M to design MF and they said no, but I've never seen that officially.

halltd said:
I'm sure they're going to want to work out the issues with SoB first.

That's easy, they just need one of these.