Will Mean Streak get a "New Texas Giant" makover?

As I live in the D/FW area and have a season pass to Six Flags over Texas, I can tell you that I have ridden NTG more than 30 times now. The RMC renovations are amazing! The ride is now smooth as glass and filled with airtime!

I have heard talk about MS or possibly SOB getting this treatment. I last visited CP and KI back in 2001 during my coaster trip. I will be returning to both parks this year in late July. I rode both coasters back then and was not at all impressed by either. SOB still had the loop back then and that might have been the only good thing about the ride. Don't get me started on how bad MS was!

I was wondering how many CP fans would be in favor of MS/SOB getting this type of makeover?

Although I have ridden MS with all the new wood, reports are coming in from folks I know who have ridden it this past weekend, say that the side to side shuffle is starting to come back already!

Thus, if all the off-season work on MS doesn't even last a month, I would definately be for MS getting the RMC renovation given the reviews.

However, will it happen? I say there is less than a 50/50 chance.

When I first heard Six Flags was investing $10 million to renovate Texas Giant, I thought they were crazy. But, now that I see the results, I hope CP does the same to Mean Streak. It's too beautiful of a structure for us to be complaining about every year. I would love for this to be a classic ride, and reprofiling (sp?) it every year does not seem to be working. The overbanked turns and airtime on Texas Giant look incredible!!! So, I hope it happens, especially if Cedar Fair Execs check out the Texas Giant in person.

No thanks. Tear down both and build Gravity Group coasters. It will be cheaper and just as good of a result.

I hope they leave Mean Streak alone. This off-season has finally done Mean Streak some good! I rode Mean Streak opening weekend and was cheering after the ride was over. I'm looking forward to this weekend to experiment a little more with it. Son of Beast, yes I can see them doing the "Texas Giant" makeover on that because that ride is brutal!! From different sources; I haven't believed anything yet, but some sources claim that Son of Beast will be dismantled after this season anyway. Whether or not that's true is yet to be seen.

yes i hope they should make a 80 degree drop, 6 90 to 95 degree turns, fog, LED lights,tunnels, and a loop when it drops that would be awsome. I just hate mean streak right now but if they did that it would be one of the best rides in the park.

Chuck Wagon said:
No thanks. Tear down both and build Gravity Group coasters. It will be cheaper and just as good of a result.

I agree. If CP were to spend $10 million to give Mean Streak the "Texas Giant treatment", CP could just tear down Mean Streak and build a giant GG coaster like Voyage.

If CP wanted to reprofile the track, they could probably just keep the structure, then get GCI or Gravity Group to come in and reprofile the whole ride for less than the cost of Rocky Mountain.

Shawn: Mean Streak may be running good right now because of all the new wood, but by mid-summer it will be tearing itself apart again and running like garbage. This is a yearly process. There are three options...reprofile it every year, modify it similar to Texas Giant, or tear it down.

There is a fourth option. Re-design the train to accomodate the track imperfections and deliver a "smooth" ride to the occupants. Luxury cars today have active ride control to adjust the suspension to compensate for a variety of road conditions. Do the same with the trains and stop trying to make the track perfect.

I will not be fooled again by ms. Quite a few people said how much better it was this year. I can not agree. Rode it this past weekend and was so dissapointed.It was horrible. I love good wooden coasters and want so much to have a great one at cp. Blue streak is a very good coaster, I just want more. sorry.

Please don't rebuild meanstreak. Tear it down and bring in one of these awesome new woodies places have been building - GCI or Intamin.

I've been to SFoT a few times since the giant reopened, but haven't actually ridden it yet. One of these days I will ride it. It looks decent at least, but I'd much rather see a GCI standing there.

Totally random question, but does anyone know why Theme Park Review people generally refer to Texas Giant as "NTAG"? I've never quite understood why the "A" was necessary...

Chuck Wagon said:
No thanks. Tear down both and build Gravity Group coasters. It will be cheaper and just as good of a result.

Agreed. Given what SF spent on the Giant makeover, a GG woodie would be much better in my opinion.

CP lacks in wooden coasters. Reprofiling MS would make it just like Gemini, and would leave the park with only one woody (out of 17!). CP really shouldn't put themselves in that position. If they are going to do anything to it, they should tear it down and bulid a GCI or GG coaster. It will cost less, and it could probably count as a "coaster year," so they wouldn't have to build another for a few years.

Personally, I don't think that MS should get any type of NTG make-over. I wouldn't be opposed to the TopperTrack Treatment (try saying that three times fast), or even for GCI to come in and reprofile the ride, as well as rework the structure, it could make it much better than it even was during it's opening weekend this year.

Realistically, how long could the ride last if the trims were off? Yes, the ride would pretty much destroy itself eventually, but if we could get a couple trim-free years and then demo it, that would make me happy. Of course, I'm living in a pipe dream, but it would be nice to have the ride run as intended.

I would love to see the "Texas Giant" renovation done to Mean Streak. I was on Mean Streak ONE time where it was enjoyable and pain-free, other than that it was rough, jerky, and bumpy throughout. I did not really notice any difference with the new wood on opening day this year either ... take the money you've been investing into this ride and retrack it like the Texas Giant. The TG looks awesome and it's probably an entire new ride experience all together. Mean Streak's layout is great and the structure is nice too, so I'm not for tearing it down ... yet.

Does anyone know how much CP spends on a yearly basis maintaining/adding new wood to Mean Streak? Jeff..Walt? I've got to believe this is a large expense, so why continue this trend every year if it does not improve the ride in the end? They need to come up with a more permanent solution with little maintenance, or put an end to a 20-year run and build something much better.

^ I think they threw out a number during a Coaster Mania Q&A a few years ago, but I don't recall what it was now. It wasn't insignificant though.

I'd still rather have a coaster with an exciting layout. Even if Mean Streak is smooth as glass, it's still boring.

Great replies!!! But in fairness, I expected no less. I would like to invite all of you down to Texas to try out the NTG. Once you've ridden it I think you'll understand why RMC is going to be real busy in the years ahead.

If there going to tear MS down, then I would recommend and Intamin woody like El Toro only bigger and longer!