Wicked Twister - Opening?

If you don't play NoLimits Coaster Simulator, you can ignore this link to a NoLimits recreation of Wicked Twister-

http://nolimits-exchange.com/coaster/wicked-twister/293

The creator says

"THIS RIDE WAS BUILT TO REPRESENT THE FIRST 2 MONTHS IT OPERATED AT FULL STRENGTH AND BEFORE THEY ADDED THE SUPPORTS TO THE TOP OF THE STRUCTURE!! THIS IS A RECREATION OF THE RIDE AS IT OPENED - PLEASE RATE AS SUCH!!"

Two questions-

1. It originally did not have the extra supports on the towers? Why were those put up and is there any pictures?

And the more important question-

Full strength? What is that? Did it used to operate faster? Faster initial launch? More acceleration? What?

1. No it didn't. Those were put on later to add extra support to the 2 spikes. I think it was something along the lines of they were swaying too much and that would have led to structural issues. Here's some pics of it with and without the supports. http://www.rcdb.com/1571.htm?p=0

2. The rides speed can be adjusted by the computer. I think there were a few occasions where it was launching fast enough for the train to slam into the bumpers at the top of the spikes.

TTD 120mph said:

2. The rides speed can be adjusted by the computer. I think there were a few occasions where it was launching fast enough for the train to slam into the bumpers at the top of the spikes.

NOOOOOOO THANK YOU.

Wicked Twister scares me to this day... can't even begin to think about how scared I'd be if they still did this.

I believe in the early days it would go all the way up the back tower on both passes. After the first season or two, they lowered the speed on the first backwards pass quite a bit.

Yep! In the first half of 2002, Wicked Twister operated a little differently than it does now. On Swing 1 (the initial launch out of the station), the train would accelerate faster and go slightly higher up the front tower than it does now. On Swing 2 (going backwards up the back tower), the train would go all the way up the back tower just like it does on Swing 4 today (the 2nd time going up the back tower).

Yes you can control the number of swings and how fast the ride will run by computer. From my understanding, they don't run it like they do in 2002 because of the lack of supports on the track, and the amount of transformers they blew running the ride at full strength like that.

Also, the top pieces of track on each spike have been taken down for what seems like every offseason. (Maybe it was just a couple.)

This is a video of WT during the Media Event opening. It shows how Twister used to run during it's inaugural season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOhqZDtaCDQ&list=FLjutxWaZNjBAaxXJjC...plpp_video

The weather was brutal that day.

I bet! It looked awful, yet worth it to ride during it's original operation. Did you get an interview with your buddy Sandor that day? :)

I didn't even know who he was at that point. His reputation took many years of abuse to be more widely known.