Top Thrill Dragster 2022 Status

MillieMichael:
Second, why all the hate and negativity just because some people said they are disappointed. Are they not allowed to have their own opinions and expectations? If the ride doesn't appeal to them , why are some people crucifying them because it's not their taste or style?

It has been my experience that having your own opinion, or dissenting opinion, on this site does deserve being crucified.

Briella:

It’s pretty settled it’s a 374 ft crane.

The crane as it stands now without a Jib will extend 256’. That’s why I said keep an eye out for more equipment to arrive.

When you start building to 400+ feet, there are limited crane options. Capital city has some crawlers but I bet they ain’t cheap to rent. Do you think they’ve considered using a helicopter? Possibly the crane on site builds to 350’ and the last 70’ are for a helicopter.

Well, I'm not disappointed. It's pretty much what I expected, multiple launches, a rollback, and my guess was a spike between 400 and 500 feet.

I agree I had hoped that the rollback would be from near the top of the tophat.

But who knows, with the lighter trains maybe it will go higher that postulated here so far.

For a given speed, a lighter train will actually go lower than a heavier train because it has less momentum. Of course, lighter trains are easier to accelerate to that speed in the first place, which is probably necessary given the weaker LSMs (although I suppose it's possible the LSMs could achieve higher speeds, and it's a conscious decision to limit the height of the first climb to decrease cycle time).

Just a thought...

If the Zamperla TT2 page was simply a matter of an unlinked but live page being discovered, why take down the whole site. Why not take down just that page? Easy to do, just a one-line command to change permissions on a linux/Unix server.

The fact that the whole site is down makes me wonder... Is it a hoax where someone hacked into Zamperla's site and posted a completely fabricated page? That would explain Z taking their entire site down.

Personally still pumped for Tuesday morning. The details that were leaked were more or less exactly what most people here assumed already anyway, aside from the actual height of the spike (which is frickin' impressive).

We still don't know the name, the theme, who will get fired at Zamperla, what the area around the ride will look like, etc...

Obviously speed and weight dynamics are different with different trains. But some easy math.

420 ft / 120 mph (old TTD launch that cleared the tower) = 3.5

3.5 * 72 = 252 FT. So first launch should be somewhere between 200-250 feet up the side of the top hat. Right about half way isn’t bad at all

CoasterHawk:

It has been my experience that having your own opinion, or dissenting opinion, on this site does deserve being crucified.

Well, I will say, having been around since the GTTP days as well... I have perceived a culture where dissenting opinions can receive some blunt and perhaps condescending replies, and where beta followers tend to righteously parrot the conventional wisdom.

DA20Pilot:

If the Zamperla TT2 page was simply a matter of an unlinked but live page being discovered, why take down the whole site.

I get that traffic beyond the capability of the server could have brought the site down, similar to a DoS attack.

But isn't that a separate concept from SSL / HTTPS?

My technical area of expertise is related tangentially but not directly to this, so if this is your thing, could an expired SSL certificate have caused the site to be more prone to hacking?

peaksix:

For a given speed, a lighter train will actually go lower than a heavier train because it has less momentum.

Given this fact, I can’t help but wonder with the new ride hitting the same top speed (120mph) as the old ride, is that speed an estimate? Are the new trains not as light as we think they are? Is physics fake news?

DA20Pilot:

The fact that the whole site is down makes me wonder... Is it a hoax where someone hacked into Zamperla's site and posted a completely fabricated page? That would explain Z taking their entire site down.

I was able to get on the actual page before it was pulled down. Once you enabled cookies, those images you see in the "Fast Switch" section and the manufacturing of the track and supports are YouTube videos showing it in action in the factory. Those to me were the best evidence that this was not a hoax.

Edit: It appears you can view the videos on the WayBackMachine Archive as well — it just takes a second for them to load once you've enabled.

CPVet:

ride hitting the same top speed (120mph) as the old ride, is that speed an estimate? Are the new trains not as light as we think they are? Is physics fake news?

Good point. Perhaps another reason to wonder if Zamperla's site was hacked and the TT2 post a hoax.

That said, what they posted mirrors both my expectations as well as common sense plausibility.

Looks epic! Looking forward to the official announcement on Tuesday.

OnPointTony! We need your help; have we been debunked again!?

CPVet:

Given this fact, I can’t help but wonder with the new ride hitting the same top speed (120mph) as the old ride, is that speed an estimate? Are the new trains not as light as we think they are? Is physics fake news?

Honestly, I feel like the weight is probably in a similar enough ballpark that it's unlikely to move the needle all that much. But if it were to have an effect, it would be in the lower (not higher) direction.

I've also seen a suggestion (but can't recall where at the moment) that TTD very rarely ran at 120 mph, and in the 110 to 112 was much more common during normal operation. If that was the case, if the new ride actually reaches 120 mph, that could help overcome the loss of momentum.

Edit: It was ElToroRyan's video here. He's worked on both Kingda Ka and TTD and discusses how they run slower than advertised.

CPVet:

with the new ride hitting the same top speed (120mph) as the old ride, is that speed an estimate?

Though I replied to this but look like my post never posted! TTD rarely ran at 120 mph due to a multitude of factors. More commonly in the 110-113 range. Partially due to the nature of the launch not being variable (how it was described to me by a CP mechanic!) where it always launched with roughly the same amount of force. LSMs computers should be able to compensate in either direction how much force is being applied and thus give a much more reliable and accurate 119-122 every launch!

Maybe that’s why they got rid of that speedometer. “Hey this is false advertising! It’s only hitting 110 mph!”

So records and firsts I can think of off the top of my head:

• Fastest multi-launch in the world
• Tallest multi-launch coaster in the world
• First coaster to break 400 ft TWICE
• Fastest backwards launch in the world
• First spike over 200 300 AND 400 ft
• First coaster with multiple launches over 100 mph
• Tallest spike in the world

Any others I’m missing?

Y’all… what if Zamperla’s site was “right” about the name but didn’t format the text correctly.

New “formula” for thrills = Math formula

2 420 foot towers.
I present my new proposal for the name Top Thrill Squared stylized as: