BDG

There's not a single ride with shoulder restraints, so that's good. But I would advice you to keep your hands inside the ride vehicle, as clearance envelopes at Europa-Park aren't that big, especially on Euro-MIR you can easily touch the nets in the tunnels. edit: Europa-Park's website only mentions a maximum height (of 1,95m) for one ride... Euro-MIR: http://www.europapark.com/lang-de/Infos-und-Service/Sicherheit/c479.html?langchange=true

The brake run looks like a lift hill from this angle:

Interesting. Any more info on those wheels ? What does "hard and soft option" mean ? Will they allow the park to pick throughout the season ? Maybe softer wheels in the winter, harder ones in summer ? Or maybe they'll only use a soft wheel train - which I think would be less noisy ? - in the morning and evening, to please the neighbors ? I doubt the public will be able to choose in the queue ? Like choose between a smooth and a rough ride ? Regular and fast ? I think that would require two stations, which the ride doesn't have.

Timberliners are an abomination. They look like they were designed for Space Mountain and don't belong on any wooden coaster.

Great photos. They really capture the atmosphere of the park.

Skyrush does not have a Stengel Dive. End of discussion.

Quick Photoshop of how it will look next year: before after

It had a color somewhere between red and brown.

I don't think anyone would feel 100% safe going up that first lift secured by only a lap bar. A realistic alternative would be the flexible restraints which Vekoma now uses on every new design. However those seats are much wider, so on this ride, you would only be able to use a 3-abreast train, reducing the maximum capacity by a whopping 25%... and didn't Six Flags want the new trains to improve capacity ?

The new trains look great to me. The restraints don't even remotely resemble the old Premier OTSRs, what are you guys talking about ?!

Is Batwing still looking like this ? The ride looks abandoned.

Vekoma always claimed Six Flags was to blame because they requested a ton of changes to the original design AND kept modifying the ride. Stunt Fall was also built by Six Flags and has had its share of troubles as well. It's like blaming Honda when your tuned Civic doesn't make it over a speed bump anymore.

I find it a lot more interesting to discuss all of the above than reading the same "omg it's so big" replies after every photo update. Yes, it's big. We've known that since the ride was announced with a near-perfect virtual recreation. However, the color of that backbone support is something unexpected, as it was painted blue in the announcement renders (see attachment). edit: The park has let me know they will not be repainting it.

The more I look at it, the more I dislike the color of that first drop support beam. Wouldn't it look better like this ?

http://themeparkreview.com/parks/pimages/Tokyo_Disneyland/The_Ultimate_TPR_Tokyo_Disneyland_Update/tokyodisneyland_033.jpg Is that grass real ? Looks better than on a golf course.

Launched woodies, with on-board audio. What an age we live in.

Actually... Shenzhou Coaster, Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park Goliath, Walibi World (Six Flags Holland)

Looks like a véry nice coaster. And for the first time ever, Great Coasters is building 3 coasters in one season ! And slightly off-topic...but why does every major coaster announcement now comes with a Badnitrus rendering ? How I miss the old days where we would get nothing but a lay-out and some artwork and we could speculate over the ride's elements until opening day. Every other day, new construction photos would reveal new details.

Finally. I first heard about their new track (a big-boy version of the family coaster track, so with the wheel thingies on the outside of the track) and new restraints back in 2002 or 2003. We got the restraints in 2008 (Great Nor'Easter), but a big ride with the new track...perhaps in 2009. Anyway, they have been improving in the design department and with these new vest-like restraints, the rides could actually become very comfortable. Looks great.

Trust me, I know. No. Most of them were added in 2004 I think.

Hahaha, how funny, a cell phone grave yard. Not. http://www.articlealley.com/article_555003_17.html

He designed pretty much every single Schwarzkopf layout. He was the first to design a ride with banked curves, which Schwarzkopf called a Bob(sled). He invented the modern, tear-shaped looping. He invented the heartline design as well as other, lesser known design techniques. He invented tons of elements, both inversions as well as strange curve combinations. He calculated the first corkscrew for Arrow. He invented the box track. He invented the premanufactured wooden track. etc. etc. The work of the office may include... - layouts - track calculations - support calculations - statics - dynamics - train calculations ...but that's not the case for every ride they have worked on ! Many projects only got another calculation, with some minor improvements. Or they only did the support-placement for example. For B&M however, they usually did do everything. They even gave B&M the coördinates to manufacture the box track! But as of 2002 (Air was the first non-Stengel B&M) B&M is much more independent. They started copy-pasting existing elements, but in recent years improved a lot. For example Silver Bullet, Black Mamba, Hydra are all pure B&M coasters. Fun fact, for Arrow (or was it Vekoma), they reduced the G-forces of their prototype corkscrew (back in the eighties) from 2.5G to 0.6G !! As Stengel commented "It's like the ride was moved to another planet." They also worked on Rock'n'RollerCoaster and the Paris' Big Thunder Mountain trains. Vekoma however never really worked with Stengel in the design and full-calculation department. As you probably all felt. Some more famous rides where Stengel pretty much did everything: Super 8, Wild Cat, Bobbahn, Jet Star, Marienkäferbahn (the famous 88-like layout beetle coasters), Revolution (SFMM), Shock Wave (SFOT), Looping Star, Zweifach Looping, Dreier Looping, Thriller, Olympia Looping, Mindbender (Edmonton), Euro Star, Wilde Maus (Mack mice), Monte Makaya, Stratosphere High Roller, Mister Freeze, Batman & Robin, Millennium Force, Speed, Top Thrill Dragster, Colossos, Expedition GeForce, El Toro, etc. However, what many people don't know is that doctor Stengel also "worked" on hundreds of other rides: - caroussels (90 types, 600 built, over 50 improved: Bayernkurve, Calypso, Monster, Zeppelin, Wave Swinger, Walzerfahrt, Round-Up, Ski-Lift, Buggy Swing, Twister, Apollo, All-Round, Alpenblitz, Raupe, Enterprise, Hollywood-Star, Katapult, Helios, Musikexpress, Wikingerschiff, Kettenflieger, Shuttle-Boat, Condor, Galaxy, Zugspitzbahn, Polyp, Taumler, Doppel-Tagada, Horse Caroussel, Water Caroussel, Spinne, Moonraker, Magic Carpet, Tokaido, Dschunke, Columbia, Fliegende Untertasse, Canyon Trip, Matterhorn, Joker, Mistral, Doppeldecker, Metroliner, Drachenflug, Super Flip, Super Wellenflier, Krinoline, etc.) - bumper cars (6 types, over 30 built) - ghost trains (14 types built, 2 improved) - ferris wheels (22 types, 33 built, 15 improved) - water rides (8 types, 9 built, 6 improved) - monorails (7 types, 7 built, 7 additional designs) That's véry wrong. In fact, the Stengel bureau is one of the few companies of which pretty much every single ride is in the database. They even provided many lists, statistics, dates, etc. themselves.

Correction: about 301 million as of July 2007.

parks per million inhabitants Denmark: 2.38 Sweden: 1.44 UK: 1.37 Netherlands: 1.20 Belgium: 0.96 USA: 0.94 Japan: 0.93 Finland: 0.90 Canada: 0.84 Germany: 0.81 Australia: 0.73 France: 0.64 Taiwan: 0.39 Spain: 0.35 Italy: 0.34 China: 0.04 parks per 10 000 sq km Netherlands: 5.90 UK: 3.44 Belgium: 3.30 Japan: 3.18 Denmark: 3.07 Taiwan: 2.79 Germany: 1.92 France: 0.71 Italy: 0.68 Sweden: 0.32 USA: 0.31 Spain: 0.28 Finland: 0.16 China: 0.06 Canada: 0.03 Australia: 0.02 ---- Inhabitants and land area (land only) by cia.gov Parks (theme parks, fun and educational centers with at least 1 roller coaster) by rcdb.com

That's not a long hot dog. This...is a long hot dog! On August 4, 2006 a hot dog measuring 60m in a bun measuring 60.3m was made by the Shizuoka Meat Producers of Shizuoka, Japan and the All-Japan Bread Association to obtain the world record. International media was onhand, and supporting documents have been verified by Guinness. The hot dog was made as the central part of a media event surrounding the 50th anniversary of the All-Japan Bread Association.