Top Thrill Dragster 2022 Status

^Not to mention the idea sounds like some planet coaster type ****. I'd make that after getting carried away with the rides to begin witj.

Magdrag95. - to answer your post from yesterday, that fence is cheap. It is made from all of the trees they keep removing.

Warning for Halloweekenders - Iron Dragon ridership will jump off the charts as people try to get a glimpse of the Project TTD Overhaul!

I’ve been seeing a lot of claims on social media from “experts” saying there is no way Cedar Fair will be working closely with Intamin again in the near future. A lot of those “claims” suggest a different manufacturer will be doing this “reimagining”. Serious question: Is there still some animosity between Intamin and CF? I thought that may have changed once Kinzel and Hildebrandt retired. I’d be very interested in knowing the full story between Intamin and Cedar Fair then.

I have no idea what their relationship is like, but the only thing publicly I remember from them was this blog post a few years back…

https://www.cedarpoint.com/blog/when-intamin-visits

I think the lack of Intamin rides in the chain since Shoot the Rapids tells us the relationship hasn’t been great the last decade or so. I suppose anything is possible though.

I think it’s interesting that they are putting up this giant fence when they’ve told us they are ‘reimagining’ the ride, when there was nothing to stop us watching them build the thing when they hadn’t even announced it yet.

—Dave Althoff, Jr.

As a slight aside/comment on one of the more recent developments- isn’t it possible that Intamin removed TTD from their website simply because it no longer exists (“retired” per the announcement)? Seems like this shouldn’t necessarily eliminate them from the discussion of potential companies doing the work, assuming it is an LSM conversion it would be easy enough to add the “new” coaster with X name back to the website where it would at that point properly show as an LSM launch coaster.

Not saying it is in fact Intamin, just that I’m not sure this automatically points to someone else working on the coaster. However CF’s recent relationship with Intamin might hold the answer, as has been pointed out.

Could someone please clarify how the hieght of a roller coaster is measured? Is it the top of the track to the bottom of the track or total hieght from ground level? Just saying that if Cedar Point wanted the tallest coaster in the world staus back, how many feet of loweer track or higher track would they need to get that notoriety back?

There was a comment a few pages ago about how hard it might be to tie new track into 20 year old track. That endeavor would actually be quite simple, fabricating new track to match up to the existing would be the same process as fabricating new track for a new ride. That said adding anything to the existing tower structure, especially adding additional height would not be so easy. Even though there would some wiggle room in the support structure to hold additional weight I highly doubt it could handle additional loads required to make whatever the new ride is taller than Kingda Ka.

Of course I have no first hand knowledge of what there are going to do but I would be willing to bet adding height to re-claim the tallest coaster in the world crown is nowhere on their list of objectives for this project. Cedar Fair has proved Cedar Point doesn't need that title to get record revenue and attendance.

50% chance of a good view of the progress if you ride Power Tower Green!

My excitement continues to increase!

I don’t recall any walls in 2002 but I do remember walking right up too the partially built tower. Probably the first section with red and white track pieces just hanging there in the air. It seemed that whatever it would become would be huge!

Chuck_E_Cheese:

Could someone please clarify how the hieght of a roller coaster is measured?

My understanding is the height measures from the highest piece of track to the ground (420 feet) while the drop (TTD dropped 400 feet) essentially takes into account how far it stays off the ground on that side of the track. For example Millennium’s height from ground to highest point of track is 310 feet and drops 300, obviously since it gets closer to the ground than TTD.
There’s a coaster near me with a height of only 95 feet, but it drops into a ravine so the drop is 120 feet I believe. Was at KI recently for only the 2nd time and didn’t realize Orion was this way too, height 287 ft and the drop is 300.

I agree with JUnderhill that it’s highly unlikely they’re adding height to the structure. I think it’s more likely it would actually be shortened, but I doubt that’s in the plans either. My guess is they’re leaving the tower portion standing as is. It’s already been engineered/supported and assuming it is a lighter train then that’s even easier. Hopefully a coaster train does in fact travel on it though…

Also one quick thought, thinking about the distance from the tower where the launch released the train previously, along with the fact that LSMs can be put on sloped track, wouldn’t it not necessarily have to hit the same 120 mph to clear the tower? Basically the acceleration could/would be over a longer length of track anyway, so it wouldn’t start losing momentum at the same point on the course if there were LSMs partially on the ascent?

edit-August I remember looking over from Millennium’s line and thinking the same thing. Can still picture that view.

It's my understanding LSMs will not be able to get the acceleration that the hydraulic launch was capable of.

^ correct. If we are looking at a LSM conversion, the launch will without a doubt feel less intense. We’d be looking at getting up to 120ish MPH over a longer period of time over a longer length of track. This video was posted by someone else a few days ago, but really goes into great depth on the subject:

There’s a video on YouTube that was just uploaded by BeachCliff Studios and around the 9:20 mark he’s talking to a guy and apparently S&S commented on someones Twitter page and said they can’t wait to install the LSM on Dragster. Can’t really see the guys phone in the video but it’s a interesting video.

I think breaking records is what made the park what it is today. I'm glad they're finding a way to "fix" TTD because I think it helps bolster their coaster lineup. The new Wild Mouse coaster isn't helping much.

S & S would be an interesting choice. They have this page on their website:

Ride Rehabilitation, Reconditioning, and Train Replacement

I doubt they blatantly tweeted info about what is currently the industry's biggest mystery, however.

hmm. Is S&S’s only LSM coaster GaleForce in Jersey? That didn’t go so well as I recall.

The issues with Gale Force were mostly track-related (the track had to be refabricated by a different manufacturer after the first set was messed up), not LSM-related.

Watching that video... it looks like a fake S&S account on Instagram commented on something. There's lots of that kind of account on IG.

I wonder if the loading platform will be moved to the opposite track. If they did that, there would be more straight track to work with for the LSM's to get up to speed, if LSM's are even being done.