Parc Asterix Discussion Thread

I imagine a "Hit Yourself on the Head with a Hammer" attraction would attract a similar line at Parc Asterix.

Was no queue here!! AND it was a Sunday!

(sorry - had to do that!!)

^No fair using foam-rubber hammers.

Sad to hear this ride doesn't live up to its hype. Visually it is definately a site to behold and gives Montu a run for its money on themeing. At the end of the day however, it's all about the ride experience itself.

I rode it last saturday - two times.. One in the morning and one around parc closing.. Total queuetime for these two runs: 3 hours...

Experience First Run:

Summary: custom SLC with barely any forces. Weird headbanging in the first drop and a very slow ride experience. I think it was about on-par with vampire in walibi belgium.

Experience around parc Closing:

My absolute #1. Awesome ride, forceful, epic rolls, nice forceful turns. Totally awesome and #1 new ride for this year in my opinion (behold, I only did 2 2012 coasters so far: dragonfly and Oz Iris)..

Asterix / B&M has a big issue to fix, this can't be right..

^Very interesting that you had two totally different experiences on the ride. Thanks for sharing!

I think we may have a clue as to why opinions on that ride are so polarised.

I also rode both in the morning and in the afternoon before closing and both of my experiences were the same as his first. :shrug:

The ride at least *looks* REALLY nice!

I also rode both in the morning and in the afternoon before closing and both of my experiences were the same as his first. :shrug:

 

The ride at least *looks* REALLY nice!

I really hope they fix the ride, it is totally awesome when it runs fine..

Same thing with Tonnerre.. In april I had a (in retrospect) mediocre run (I found troy to be far superior), but my reride last saturday was entirely different.. I have TdZ as my favorite rollercoaster. Oz Iris on 2, because of it's "issues", #1 if they fix it, ##FarDown## if they can't fix it or 'fix it' by putting it into the 'modern B&M' mode instead of the 'B&M Classic' mode.

The strange thing about Oz Iris in slow mode is it is slow throughout the entire ride. I have quite some experience with slow runs on Robin Hood in walibi holland (season pass) and you can see and feel the difference very well (seeing is mostly on the return curve).. That one slows down meter by meter, like you'd expect. So on hot days robin hood is a really wild thing on it's way back.. Oz Iris doesn't have this effect at all, it's slow in the diveloop, slow in the overbanked (which is awesome when it's fast), slow throught the loop (epic hangtime though), slow through the immelman (trimbrake was off - luckily), and the zero-g-rolls were neg-rolls backseat.. Which means the hangtime in these rolls must have been epic in the middle of the train, but not something I expected from that ride, not after the 12 runs I did in april (not too busy that day)..

Getting that experience after such a long wait is very disappointing. We were just passing by later that day so the person I went with could get his bingo and we saw it run faster than imaginable, so after hesitating for a long while we joined the 2hour+ queue.. The queue could be worse, because we saw it improve run after run, faster and faster and faster and faster .

When I first read your posts a few months ago I couldn't believe and thought you were just being selfrightious or stupid, but in retrospect.. You were right, it does sometimes suck badly.. And if you read reviews about it being totally awesome (which it is if you're lucky) and they keep telling you you're wrong afterwards... Aww, you really had bad luck.. Well, luckily you do lots of rides (I don't), so don't feel too bad about it.. Just go back someday (preferably in early season, it's really crowded in the summer and also in sept-oct-nov).. Asterix is awesome

I have two good news for you guys!

First, Oziris seems to run faster and smoother as the trains get revised.

Potionmagix, a guy who work at its maintenance, say the speed can be very different from a day to another. They recently putted some nylon wheels, and he said if you have a warm day, OzIris can be a lot faster.

Second, Potionmagix (again) is a good guy. Thanks to him, you can see how to start a B&M on video!

Three parts are already out, the 4th is coming soon.

Part 1 (operator booth)

Part 2 (daily tests 1)

Part 3 (daily test 2)

Its in french, it got a lot of french references or some intrusions you may not catch, but it really worth a view!

Don't be afraid to ask if you don't understand a part of the video.

Oz Iris is really good, but nothing more, sadly! It just looks a lot better than it is. But hey, a nice add to the park!

I have two good news for you guys!

 

First, Oziris seems to run faster and smoother as the trains get revised.

Potionmagix, a guy who work at its maintenance, say the speed can be very different from a day to another. They recently putted some nylon wheels, and he said if you have a warm day, OzIris can be a lot faster.

 

 

Second, Potionmagix (again) is a good guy. Thanks to him, you can see how to start a B&M on video!

 

Three parts are already out, the 4th is coming soon.

 

Part 1 (operator booth)

Part 2 (daily tests 1)

Part 3 (daily test 2)

 

Its in french, it got a lot of french references or some intrusions you may not catch, but it really worth a view!

Don't be afraid to ask if you don't understand a part of the video.

 

Thanks for linking those videos. I had always wondered how to start/run a B&M. Why is that Asterix went for a coach-style panel instead of a conventional table-like panel?

It's also amazing to see how many details need to be checked even before trains are let on the track every morning! Hopefully, part 4 will come soon enough.

Hi everyone

i don't know yet if that news has been reported yet but Potionmagix on his websites has mentoned that Goudurix will get a retracking soon by Vekoma .

The park will empty the lake and will set up scarfoldings to make that retracking easier for vekoma to access the coaster easily . I don't know if this is a good idea for the park to do a whole retracking but if was them i would totally replace it by a new coster .

here is the topic where they talk about the retracking plan for Goudurix .

www.potionmagix.fr/forumix/retracking-de-la-piste-de-goudurix-t2474.html

photo credit ; potionmagix

a picture with an overview where all the re tracking will take place .

Hopefully this coaster will also get the new Vekoma trains with Rubber-OTSRs.

Awesome news! The coaster layout itself is pretty sweet if you ask me. And hopefully with the retracking the experience will be a lot better. New trains would be a great idea aswell!

Forgive my ignorance, but how, exactly, does one retrack a steel coaster? I have heard of track work being doing around welds and such - Kings Island tweeted a picture of them working on Top Gun recently - but is Vekoma going to replace whole pieces with better shaped elements? Those new trains are probably a must, too. Nice to see they're doing this I guess. I've never been to the park, but the ride looks quite striking.

^ They just manufacture new pieces, and swap them out. Really easy.

Since they are redoing large parts of the ride, they might redo some calculations so that the bankings and such are better than what they could come up with when the ride was initially built. But what this ride needs the most are the new trains, but then again I doubt that it will do any better in the Mitch Hawker poll whatever they do.

Better to rip it to pieces and give the metal to B&M/Mack/Intamin and have them recycle the ride into something new/better.

You can't polish a turd. I'd much rather see them pull it out and put something better in. They could put ANYTHING in and it would be better!!!

^I vote for a Wacky Worm!

You can't polish a turd. I'd much rather see them pull it out and put something better in. They could put ANYTHING in and it would be better!!!

Exactly. Hell, if they want to stick with Vekoma, they'd be better off replacing it with a Mine Train.

You can't polish a turd.

Well you can, but I doubt that Gouderix would be any better if you buffed it up to a high gloss

I've always thought that this ride has a great layout. If they can solve comfort issues with this refurb, then it's a great idea.

Every time I see that rollover I'm reminded of how much it hurts to look at. No wonder Vekoma never made another rollover like that.

Perhaps this is just that little push that I needed. This ride always kept me from the park and with OzIris opening last year I'm thinking about this park a lot. I'm going to hear if the ride is getting better after this, if it is I'm going.

Every time I see that rollover I'm reminded of how much it hurts to look at. No wonder Vekoma never made another rollover like that.

Yes they most certainly did. I'm not sure which came first, but the Dinosaur Beach Kamikaze (known today as Ninja at Six Flags Over Georgia) also was designed with Vekoma's "butterfly" element. According to the RCDB, Kamikaze and Goudurix both opened in 1989.

^Exactly, I never understood people that thought that Goudurix was at least so different or 'had a great layout' there are very similar Vekoma creations out there that are equally bad. They should put a Sting Ray in that spot instead!

^And then proceed to reduce the capacity to nil. Unless Vekoma can figure out how to run two or three trains on one track.

Yes they most certainly did. I'm not sure which came first, but the Dinosaur Beach Kamikaze (known today as Ninja at Six Flags Over Georgia) also was designed with Vekoma's "butterfly" element. According to the RCDB, Kamikaze and Goudurix both opened in 1989.

Not really. I looked at both and noticed that they are both under the name of "Butterfly", but Goudurix's transition between the two elements is perpendicular to the entry and exit, whereas the butterfly on Ninja is more loose, almost like two loops rather than a rollover variation.