Top Thrill Dragster 2022 Status

CedarPoint150:

Also there will be an audio package that plays on the trains.

djDaemon

43 minutes ago
OK, cool, but which company is ultimately responsible for the deliverable attraction? Because regardless of where the individual components come from, the discussion here has been centered on that.

That’s a great question. One that I am not certain of either. If this were to ever be the case (keep in mind, I’m just throwing out ideas), I would assume in terms of actual operation and controls, the company doing the controls and launch would be responsible for one component and the company doing the track and manufacturing the trains would be responsible for that component. I mean, it would be something never done on a coaster of that size before, right? Tony did mention that in the news interview, so I am trying to dissect what he said and make crazy assumptions 😉

Here is something else that is dark grey, with a red and white alternating pattern. The top hat is like a F1 turn.

The Formula 1 theme makes the most sense, considering the teaser video in January: “A new Formula for thrills”, and the track colors.

Typically there will be one company in charge of the project, and would subcontract out other facets.

At the end of the day, I would say it would be Zamperla (if it is them). From there, Zamperla would subcontract out components within the "product" that are outside of their wheelhouse.

Think of it like Apple. An iPhone is considered an Apple product, even though most of the components are subcontracted out to other companies. It's not a Sony/Qualcomm/Corning/Toshiba/Samsung/LG/Apple iPhone.

Plague on Wheels:

top hat is like a F1 turn.

Go see my post on Pg 180-185. You’re late to the party ;)

djDaemon:

High Flyer:

Obviously they're not going to know or care who the manufacturer is, but CF will look foolish if their expensive "reimagination" project ends up being down as much or more than the original.

This is a nonsensical statement. If no one knows or cares who manufactured the ride, why would CP end up looking foolish for choosing one or the other? People will just say "dang, the ride broke down and I didn't get to ride. Guess I'll get some funnel cake and ride something else" and move on with their lives. No one outside of enthusiasts knows or cares who builds these things.

I went on to explain why it would matter in the rest of my post, which you left out. I'm not going to continue on with someone who argues in bad faith by cherry picking and removing context, which seems to be a pattern. Go ahead and get the last word in.

Wondering if PHP is just a nod to the F1 theme. There is a website for PHP coding help and it's PHPF1.com

High Flyer:

This is a complete nonsense response, because what I said has nothing to do with a bunch of enthusiasts on the Internet. Many millions of guests happily rode the "lemon" that was TTD while plenty of others were unhappy because they couldn't ride it due to downtime. If TTD 2.0 is constantly down, will people be happy? Obviously they're not going to know or care who the manufacturer is, but CF will look foolish if their expensive "reimagination" project ends up being down as much or more than the original.

CF is a publicly traded company, and has a board of directors and investors to answer to. If their gamble on Zamperla ends up being a total flop, the fact that they went with an entirely unproven company to handle a flagship project will be an issue.

Here's the full quote, which I previously trimmed (bolded above) not to take it out of context, but to eliminate unnecessary dialogue. The part I elected to selectively quote was important because you simultaneously argue that the average guest doesn't care who CF chooses to build a ride and that if the ride is down due a lot the average guest will think the park is foolish for choosing not-Intamin. The fact of the matter is that average guest doesn't think about this stuff in the way we do, and thank goodness for that. How does what I removed from the first paragraph materially affect this point?

As for the second paragraph, I omitted it because it's unrelated to the guest point of view. But to be fair, I'll point out that it is also silly to assume the CF board would be more concerned about the initial month-or-so of operation of a new attraction than they would about a certain manufacturer repeatedly delivering attractions that did not meet their advertised goals, both in terms of timing and actual rider experience, and also repeatedly injured and nearly killed their guests.

I'm not late to the party, I just wanted to make sure the party was worthy of my presence.

You weren't even invited.

High Flyer, why would you tell him to get the last word in? That’s exactly what he ended up doing… wait, he was going to anyways

I don't follow F1, but it does seem to be the "in" thing these days. I think it has become extremely popular so a theme surrounding that is very time relevant.

Believe it or not, Wild Mouse may actually be a more complex coaster to design than Dragster since Dragster essentially has 1 element and a launch.

Intrasys (perhaps Indrivetec, but last I heard they strictly design LSM for Intamin) is designing the launch. They know how fast a train needs to accelerate to clear the top hat.

Zamperla is on record saying they've been amassing talent for a long time to become a major player.

There's sentiment out there that Zamperla is made up of a bunch of dudes off the street that got their engineering degrees out of Cracker Jack boxes. They aren't tasked with building a 420 ft top hat. Some of their leadership folks have strong ties to Intamin. Their main objectives might be to build 1 new element and a train that can fit on the track.

This isn't as high risk as people are making it out to be.

So now we're debating subcontractors and their qualifications. Cool cool.

Judging from the size, it could handle a second top hat, judging from the location, direction, and the second set of footers closer to the station, it’s a spike.

Jeff, I'm just curious since this seems to be a sentiment I've seen a couple of times in this thread, but would you prefer silence and twiddling of thumbs until an announcement is made versus traffic to your site, even if it's nonsensical stuff like subcontractors?

If so, that's cool, but it's not like it's unprecedented to talk about the nuts and bolts of ride manufacturing here. Hell, there was a whole "Ask RideMan" section for a while.

Formula Racing includes several races worldwide. Indycar is included in this and is more popular in North America over F1. I also thought F1 until I learned this. I see Cedar Point going with Indycar theming. Also, you have the Indy500 a short drive away in Indianapolis, well within Cedar Points market. Regardless, the general public won’t know the difference

F1 racing and IndyCar series are two totally different motorsports. The only commonality is "open wheel" race cars. The cars themselves are different and the way they race them are different.

I think it was named Dragster originally due to the location of CP to Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk where they have the NHRA nationals each year.

Curious if they will change the theming. Just can't wait to see how they re-imagine it! Like the new color scheme thus far...