Top Thrill Dragster 2022 Status

What plans were those?

Downtown Cedar Point, duh.

And Pickleball courts. Lots of them.

CPkid77:

do we think the original 2024 plans were put on the back burner

Assuming there were 2024 plans for an attraction....

Cliff notes:

-Current hole where the transfer track was is to help with drainage
-Same sources who have said Zamperla was involved/reopen would happen in 2024 have said that dragster will receive a swing launch and vertical spike where the current photo booth is.
-Track on tower to be replaced

Obviously, ElToros sources can be wrong. This still is speculation and we don't know who his sources are. (I wont be fully convinced until I start to see footers go in the ground). Also, my biggest confusion would be about the current track. If the tower is getting replaced with new track, why hasn't the track been removed yet?

That being said, this would be very cool.

I will say that given the extent of what's been removed I'm slightly less adamant that this is a simple LSM conversion, and given the complete removal of the station and preceding track a swing launch seems slightly less far fetched.

But what doesn't make sense is removal of the tower track. If the tower track needs some modification, why wouldn't that track already be removed, or be in the process of being removed? One explanation would be that the track cannot be modified and instead needs to be replaced for some reason. But if the tower track needs replaced, why not the other track, which was carefully removed, staged, and shipped halfway around the world?

^Agree with basically all of that. Also, if we're to believe that an airtime hill is going to be added during the launch sequence, why did they keep all of the straight track previously used for the launch?

CPkid77, not to rain on your parade, but I think the pop up of the chef in the Christmas video was just a teaser. They usually put out lots and lots of teasers if it’s a year for a new coaster and it’s a “big coaster”. Not that Wild Mouse isn’t a big coaster, I’m definitely looking forward to the cars spinning, but wild mouse is a pretty common ride at boardwalks nowadays so that’s probably why not many teasers for that one.

Shhh, you need to be quiet about a layout extension. The last time someone mentioned it on this board they were attacked. Strange that at first they did such a surgical removal of things at the beginning and then just wound up leveling everything anyway.

That initial work gave the impression of just an updated launch and brake system and now more seems very possible. I would not be surprised at this point if the canopy of the station is also removed.

If indeed they are adding a back spike to the ride layout I've gotta think the station has to move further down the existing layout. That back spike would probably need a couple hundred feet to ramp from horizontal to vertical and the existing station location wouldn't seem to provide that.

Haven’t they always had a 5 year plan?

Considering they carefully excavated around the canopy I would be shocked if it were to be removed at this point. Which, to BleauxJays' point, limits the radius to the back spike and therefore the velocity and ultimately the height of the spike. But it would be possible to fit - the horizontal distance of the radius to the existing tower is roughly 200 feet, and there's roughly 100 feet to work with behind the station. So it'd just have to be taken at slower speed.

Unless they remove Iron Dragon.

What about a switch track? If it pulls out of the station and then crosses a switch track so that the swing launch doesn't interact with the station but is instead somewhere nearby?

djDaemon:

Unless they remove Iron Dragon.

the video speaks of a possible switch track....or how would you move trains in and out? I see a switch track (either like Hagrids at Universal or like Ice breaker...

Switch track makes sense. Still think the canopy itself may interfere

Bring in a crane and just lift the whole canopy as an assembly to its new location. Problem solved. :)

I've always hoped for more than just a launch conversion and new trains. That being said, anything more than that was deemed unrealistic by many here. Eltororyan puts out another video and all of a sudden a swing launch has reached "legitimate discussion status". This thread is itself a rollercoaster. I love it. Even though I dislike the fact it took a rando talking about it on YouTube. That guy gets a lot of *ahem* love from enthusiasts for some reason.

It's perfectly fine to adjust your viewpoint or opinion when new evidence is presented. ;)

Everything about the process has been a tease. The fact that things have been left up but then removed in a meticulous manner makes it impossible to say for sure where they're going with all this. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the possibility of this reverse spike but it definitely has received a boost in it actually being true.

Hear me out. The infield will be a new layout for not only one, but two dueling launched coasters. And the tophat is no longer a tophat, but each side of the tower is the reverse spike for each of the dueling launched coasters.