Top Thrill Dragster 2022 Status

^Trolls gonna troll.

I've never known Tony to be cryptic in his responses to reporters. He either just tells you what's up, or falls back on the proverbial "we cannot comment on coming attractions, blah blah blah tagline".

I think he just communicated what's up.

On one hand, it's impossible not to acknowledge that the area of the track being removed is curious (as RCMAC noted above). That said, it's only curious or coincidental if it fits into your belief (or really strong desire) that a reverse spike is coming.

Other than that it's just maintenance on the lagoon.

Plague on Wheels:

I agree, fake news. I'm sick of these biased woke reporters with their hidden agendas. Give me the raw Tony quote, not your talking point narrative.

Susan Glaser is one of the top travel writers in the country, not the leader of some media cabal. You sound cosmically unhinged.

If Tony did say the work was unrelated to TTD, that would be a correct statement because TTD does not exist anymore.

CPfan1976:

So this ^ is the pic I was talking about from the Fall of 2002. Notice how the lagoon was closed off and fill dirt was later added to make more buildable land area for TTD.

I may be mistaken, but if this involves altering a "waterway" it may require U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers approval and/or permits. I am not sure whether a project of this sort falls under that category or not, but some of you who are adept at locating publicly accessible permits and such can look into it. Tony referring to "maintenance" on the lagoon could be the vague type quote he is required to issue on the subject, or it could be a direct statement of maintenance on the lagoon.

GoBucks89:

Seems to me the park doesn't really need to hint or tease at all. Some enthusiasts do that all on their own. Read into anything and everything the park says (or doesn't say). Enthusiasts are self-executing in that regard.

Cosmically Unhinged :). Watching Fox News enough hours of the day will do that to a man, unfortunately....

Touché

Kevinj:

the area of the track being removed is curious

Yeah, what is weird is the location. It seems like an odd spot to try to get heavy machinery back to the lagoon.

I saw someone post this on Twitter awhile back; it's an entire index of TTD construction photos. I haven't had time to sift through them all, but maybe they can give us more insight;

https://thepointol.com/pict...0Dragster/

I lied - I sifted.
I couldn't really find anything, although I thought this one was interesting considering how deep they had to dig a trench;

https://thepointol.com/pict...on0020.jpg

A little ways back IIRC someone commented that ElToroRyan's Zamperla reveal video was released after Z unveiled the new trains at IAAPA, thus potentially diminishing the likelihood of him having a legitimate inside scoop that would lend credence to his spike claim.

However, I seemed to remember the video coming before the convention.

So I looked online and it appears his Zamperla TTD video was in fact out at least by 4 November, a couple of weeks before IAAPA.

Well, that was me. First of all, I stand corrected. I never bothered to fact-check my timeline, but was going off of memory. Now that you did the work, I did some as well.

In his (Ryan) Nov. 4th video he says:

Is Top Thrill Dragster being reimagined by Zamperla? Playland Amusement Park in Vancouver, Canada appears to be receiving a new LSM launching coaster from Zamperla that appears to be a reincarnation of Senzafiato, a closed Intamin Accelerator coaster.

That's because earlier on that same day Zamperla released this.

His speculation about Zamperla being involved, though, is just putting 2 and 2 together (well, and another 2 when you consider Zamperla being involved with Wild Mouse this year).

Nothing based on a "source". Kudos to him following the industry closely, though.

Point being; after IAAPA, Zamperla seemed like a clear frontrunner to be involved with TTD 2.0. That said, anyone who watched that earlier (11/4) Zamperla video regarding Playland would have logically made that as a great guess (because it contains essentially the same info). Which is all Ryan's video is. A really good guess that makes a lot of sense.

I'm not dogging on Ryan's Youtube videos. Let your freak flag fly. He clearly is super into the amusement industry and that's cool. I'm just eternally amused by anyone who claims to have a conveniently unnamed "inside source". I'll leave it at that.

I came up with an idea of how the whole Dragster midway could get a retheme. I keep the racing theme of Dragster and make the whole area a racing/xtreme sports style theme. With the new midways, don't freak it out it's not blacktop, it is black pavers like what Aeronautica Landing is getting. The grand stand remains, but right in front of it that red rectangle thing with the flags and #1 metal on it is a giant jumbotron that does some cool things and gets guests who are not wanting to ride involved. Cameras are installed around the grand stand and in between cycles, they do crowd shot type things like what sporting events do. There are also tons of racing/xtreme sports props around for cool theming and while I didn't include it, there would also be some interactive stuff for kids to do themed around racing/xtreme sports. Sorta like the midway activities for the Monster Jam event in 2019, but permanent. There would also be some new midway games added or moved from other areas of the park to the new area. There would also be a large stage added for new shows (think the stage by Full Throttle at Magic Mountain.) The queue for the new dragster (which wouldn't be called Dragster) starts back towards where the photo booth was near the spike and snakes around under Iron Dragon and Rougarou and then goes into a pretty well themed shaded queue house between the brake run and Iron dragon. Then you go up a bridge over top the brake run and then into the station. You exit the ride on the other side of the station and the stairs lead underneath the station (the station is a little higher off the ground than the old one so it would work here) where your on ride photo can be seen. You then exit into a path to the main pathway that goes under the massive vertical spike. The whole area retheme is called "The Strip". Remember just a concept and nothing is confirmed by the park. Just something fun I drew up.

Kevinj:

I'm not dogging on Ryan's Youtube videos. Let your freak flag fly. He clearly is super into the amusement industry and that's cool. I'm just eternally amused by anyone who claims to have a conveniently unnamed "inside source". I'll leave it at that.

That’s a completely reasonable take. I do put some faith in Ryan. He sits on information a lot longer than some YouTubers that claim to have inside sources and make videos day off. Ryan said is source told him a while ago about the spike.
Theme Park Predictions made the spike claim long before Ryan and used the “I’ve got a source claim too.” TPP has been wildly wrong in the past. I don’t put a lot of faith in his claims.

Ray Barker:

...that would be a correct statement because TTD does not exist anymore.

Tony was not quoted as saying it was "unrelated to" Top Thrill Dragster. The author stated that the work "was not related to Dragster’s rebuild."

Frog Hopper King:

It seems like an odd spot to try to get heavy machinery back to the lagoon.

Without knowing what they need access to it's hard to say whether or not it's an odd spot.

I guess if you want to be pendantic about it, Tony did say exactly that.

CP enthusiasts whenever Tony says anything:

CPTony reading this thread:

Will you settle down and have another cup of coffee?

Plague on Wheels never has a second cup of coffee at home