Scaparri

Wow! Awesome TR dude! Those are some sweet pictures! I'm going to second that notion.

^EDIT: To call yourself a Hoosier, you must have a deep appreciation for basketball, Mellencamp, and the Indy 500.

If you ever decide to live in Indiana, you just have to have a deep appreciation for three things: Basketball, John Mellencamp, and the Indy 500.

Whizzer at SFGAm.

Holy crap! I didn't think much of it until you pointed out the excavator. That is ridiculous! I'm really looking forward to seeing this thing get built. I doubt I'll be able to ride it anytime, soon, but I bet it's going to be an impressive looking ride.

"Trench Town Rock"- Bob Marley

"Cherry Bomb"- John Mellencamp

^Yeah, Ninja at SFStL gets my vote. The chain guide gets me every time.

The trims weren't what killed Beast for me. It was my back getting slammed into the rock hard seat back over and over again like a jack hammer. G-trains though wouldn't save it. If anything they'd make it worse. What Paul said. First came the jackhammering that left me with back pains the rest of the day. Then came an overly trimmed ride with jackhammering that left me with back pains the rest of the day. I used to love the Beast, but I don't ever see CF taking the time, money, and labor to really get this ride back to what it once was.

I'm really hoping this catches on across the nation. I truly love the SLC layout. The things are a blast when they are actually smooth. Hell, if parks replaced their old trains with these, SLC clones would no longer be listed as a con for said park. Well, maybe not T2. I don't know if anything can salvage that pile of excrement.

Why do people feel the need to start a thread every time they go to a park for the sake of asking people how busy it's going to be that day? Is it going to affect whether you go or not? What difference does it make if you positive that's the day you are going? Do you really not know how busy Saturdays are? I don't get why people feel the need to make separate threads for that, especially when most of the information is generally listed on park websites. Yeah, sure, sometimes there maybe good questions you need to know that can't be found on the park website or by searching the eleventy-jillion other park tip threads that people have made, but most of the time it just seems pretty freakin' pointless.

"Whenever I Run"- Keith Urban

I just got tickets to see Dane Cook! Jackpot!

Dude, I don't mean to come off as a pseudo-ASSisstant, but you might want to seriously edit this. This is another example of what Wes has been preaching against lately with vague topics. I had no idea what flickr was until I clicked your link. There was no real description of it. I almost feel like this would be better suited as a collective online photos page thread, but then again, there's a place for that in your profile. Again, not trying to play ASSistant here. Just my suggestions.

It's just that it's no longer new. When it was, Viper was very popular, talked about, and even advertised heavily. I believe one of it's slogan's was "the most frightening roller coaster on earth" with elements such as "the unholy triple loop." Heck yeah. Even before I got into coasters, I remember watching Encino Man and thinking how cool that coaster looked and how I had to find out what it was. A while later, I got into coasters and started checking out books and saw it more. I just kept thinking how badly I wanted to ride it. I still wanna ride it badly. Hopefully in the not-too-distant future I'll finally make the trek out to SoCal.

^No, not really. The loop structure of Son of Beast was steel, but the track was still wooden track. It's not really any different than coasters like the Coney Island Cyclone or The Voyage having a steel structure. I've heard so many people say, "yeah, but the loop wasn't even wood." No, it WAS wood, it just had a steel structure.

I don't see any reason why not. With the exception of the loop, there isn't really anything that radical about it. It's only 22 ft taller than the tallest pre-fab Intamin.

People. Is anymore elaboration needed?

Touche. When it's put like that, it sounds better. As far as the actual experience goes though, I can't see too much improvement. The one thing I think would be cool with be a combo of the Intamin side-less seats with nothing in front, similar to the ride the GCI interns took on Wildcat when they first put the new trains on. Other than that, I'd be satisfied if Millennium Flyer style trains were put on every wooden coaster made. I'd rather see companies get more creative with the designs of the coasters themselves. I thought the Son of Beast loop was a start to a good idea, and the pre-fab technology is a huge step. GCI has their fluidity. Gravity Group has their out-of-control characteristics, which has also introduced 90 degree turns to woodies. Intamin has 'their' pre-fab track and crazy steep drops. I'd like to see companies start to combine all of these, and then see where it takes them. Instead of crazy train advancements, I'd rather see crazy track design advancements. I feel like the technology is at hand, but nobody is pushing the envelope as much as it could be. Anyway, I've kind of gone off on a tangent, so I revert back to my original remark of "touche."

The bigger question is WHY get creative? It seems most people don't really want change for trains on woodies, myself included. There just isn't really any gain. Floorless is pointless and pretty much every other design that has been conceived wouldn't really work on a woodie, or again would be pointless. There's really no need to 'modernize' the wooden train.

^He said in the first post that X isn't allowed because it's too easy. Does anybody remember the ARROWbatic? It's too bad one of those was never built. Just another coaster concept that never came to frusion.

This too easily goes to Tennessee Tornado. It's smooth, it's really intense, has an absolutely bizarre loop (you have to experience it to understand the twisting motion it does), and has one of my favorite drops of all time. But, if we only consider coasters built up to the mid-90's, where Arrow displayed the style they are known for (coathangers, tiny loops 7000 ft in the air), then I think I have to go with Vortex. I know most people hate the ride but I truly love it. The drop in the back is sick, it's intense, and I've never found the coaster to be all THAT rough.

Is that possible? I'm just kidding. I had to take a computer programming class last semester and it was the bane of my existence. But I'm sure the stuff you do is much different, plus my prof was Chinese with a VERY thick accent so I could only understand 1 out of about every 5 words. Anyway, congrats on the new job. I know it was stressful, but I really get a kick out of your story. Way to tell your boss how it is.

I don't really get what the problem is. The Mr. Freezes seem to run pretty well these days. What can't they get ironed out with these that they've been able to take care of with the Freezes?

^Or what would be totally cool is if they carefully take it down piece by piece so that it can be built somewhere else.