Mantis removal or transformation?

Shawn Meyer said:
If they are truly making this a Floorless coaster, maybe they are going to play with the route a little after the mid-course brake run to make it longer. Still hopeful that this is going to be a Floorless! :)

You know what Shawn.... that part of the ride after the brake run could possibly be changed, but I can't see how that would make it bigger/better? I dunno but if a park relocates a coaster, wouldn't they clean it up before taking it apart? Wouldn't it just get dis-assembled and shipped out? Can't see CP sending the potential recipient of Mantis, a dirty, 20 yr old coaster! But then again, they'd definitely have to clean it before painting it as well!

Either way I still can't get over, why CP would close it 2 weekends before the end of the season? There is no way a transformation would require those 2 weeks!

And you know that for certain based on what? By making such a claim I assume you have a bit of experience in the coaster-building business.

WishfulThinker83 said:
Seems like they've been doing a lot of cleaning and the lift-hill is running abnormally slow, may be nothing but I thought I was riding a Japanese coaster?

I too was at the park yesterday and I also noticed that the trains were crawling up the lift hill. I didn't end up riding because the line was out of the ride entrance and the sign said it was an hour and fifteen minute wait.

What if new trains were placed on it for the final 2 weeks, and then the bigger and better reworking of the ride happens over the winter?
Just trying to come up with something that has yet to be put out there. But then there is no way they would be able to certify new trains that fast.

Kevinj said:
And you know that for certain based on what? By making such a claim I assume you have a bit of experience in the coaster-building business.

You know what kevinj, I apologize for the mix up with my post on this topic, which I was just being friendly. When I said I cannot see a coaster being relocated without being cleaned first, I should have ended the sentence with a ? So so sorry for letting people on here know what I saw yesterday, and my bad for the mistake!

And if you were referring to the layout of Mantis being changed/altered? Why would CP put sooooo much $ turning Mantis into a larger ride, when they could just replace it? Oh and there is a little thing called Physics!!! You would have to change everything if Mantis' height, speed, layout, etc etc were to be changed! That's just the reality of science! You need to hold the snotty sarcasm, I mean no harm!

Changing or altering Mantis in any way from it's original design is like doing $6,000 worth of upgrades to a partially rusted 1996 Chevy Cavalier! Just not worth it!!

I once owned a 96 cavalier, had great gas mileage!

kylepark said:
I once owned a 96 cavalier, had great gas mileage!

I used that reference because my sister had one and it's relevance to Mantis' debut year! It was a good car though... Great gas mileage but there is no way I would put any substantial amount of money in it.

WishfulThinker83 said:

Oh and there is a little thing called Physics!!! You would have to change everything if Mantis' height, speed, layout, etc etc were to be changed!

I'm no physics major, and have no expertise in building or design of roller coasters, but I'd imagine if the MCBR were removed or just unused, then after that point could be changed and added onto without change to the earlier half of the ride.

samosuband said:

WishfulThinker83 said:

Oh and there is a little thing called Physics!!! You would have to change everything if Mantis' height, speed, layout, etc etc were to be changed!

I'm no physics major, and have no expertise in building or design of roller coasters, but I'd imagine if the MCBR were removed or just unused, then after that point could be changed and added onto without change to the earlier half of the ride.

I was referring to making it bigger in the sense of it's height, but changing the ride after the brake run or doing away with it completely is a possibility! For sure and could definitely improve the ride of a potential floorless, if the conversion ends up being Mantis' fate!

The more that I think about it, the more I've come around to believing a conversion to standard sit-down trains would be better than turning it into a floorless, from the aspect of offering the smoothest ride possible.

Mid-course LIM launch like Maverick.

Going out on a LIM, aren't we? ;)

How about a mid-course lunch on the long-rumored rotating restaurant?

I'd rather go out on an LSM, since that's the technology that's in vogue. It just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Pete said:
Mid-course LIM launch like Maverick.

Why not? LOL, it could be done!

OK, just got home from a loooong weekend at the point.

I was the one who posted about seeing the powerwashing of Mantis before the drop, on Friday lunchtime.

I rode the ride today, and sat in front so I could see what the deal was. Right where they were working, the paint is removed from a small section of the box (not the tubular track, but the box beneath it). Just the top side.

If they are testing to see how easy the paint would be to remove, there must be easier spots to check without needing a 100+ ft boom.

There appears to be no rhyme or reason to the selection of the spot or the time in which they did it. I'm stumped.

Nevermind. I figured it out.

It's part of an elaborate slight-of-hand ploy by tony and the gang to distract us. Geez, the lengths they will go to, to keep us guessing and interested

So I had a dream about the new ride. A 220 foot dive machine called Darkness Falls. Black track and royal purple supports, with orange harnesses. From the station to the drop, you are in a haunted themed tunnel much like verbolten's tunnel. Followed by a 92 degree drop into a world record breaking 180 foot vertical loop, 170 foot dive loop, 100 foot themed airtime tunnel, water brake. Don't be surprised if you see the words "The Curse" on track pieces, that's the secret project name ;)

Mid-course LSM launch would be cool, and could account for the alledged tree removal (could somebody mark the tree removal location on a map), especially considering B&M is starting to work with LSMs (Thunderbird.) It seems a bit far-fetched somehow, however, and might require unusual engineering of the LSMs to fit with the current brake and chain lift equipment alignment (or re-engineering of the brakes and lift too.)

If it does get such a radical layout change, I'd expect floorless trains and rebranding too. They wouldn't modify the stand-up trains for an LSM launch when they are the most complained about part of the ride (even through the ride isn't terrible IMO.)

Here's another idea for a overhaul with new trains and layout modifcations- replace the lift with a launch, Immelmann or dive loop, which turns the ride 180 degrees and ends into the current layout. Maybe also modify the post-MCBR section. This might require fiddling with passing this new inversion under and over Iron Dragon. It might be feasible - I imagine you could size the inversion correctly so that the ride would enter the remainder of the layout with its speed intact. It would also get rid of the lift structure and make the start of the ride mostly unrecognizable to the GP until they get up close or are on the ride (at which point they will love the new ride anyways.) Of course, this idea is also very far-fetched. Also, especially with the pull-out of a dive loop, this might cause too much sustained g-force combined with the following lineup of forceful inversions.