lucazferrazCBMR

this park is actually in Brazil, South America... We rode FireWhip on december 13th, on a pre-opening exclusive for the Brazilian Coaster Club. I'll send some pictures later on today!

^^ They've bought the coaster like that and decided to keep it that way. Since brazilians are not used to inverted coasters, it gives a bigger sense of safety for the audience more "family". It came from Japan, so it's got lot's of extra-safe devices...

It was a terrible event, but the whole country is united helping the victims. The park not only is donating the money from tickets but they also lent an helicopter and three trucks to the rescue teams. Acording to officials, in about 1.5 years the whole area will be completely rebuilt. And the park was not hit, so we still have a touristic spot alive to keep bringing the tourists... Hope to see TPR here some day.

The opening was scheduled for december 13th, but a huge storm hit the state of Santa Catarina (where the park is) leaving about 73 thousand people out of their houses (31 thousand of them totaly LOST their houses) and killing over 100 people. All the roads were closed for a long time (it stormed for 40 days!) so some theming equipment didn't arrive. Besides, with the state in emergency, there's no room for celebration. But on the 13th, the brasilian club of roller coasters will be at the park and the coaster will open during one hour only for us to ride and tha park ill donate 100 % of the money from tickets to help the victims of the storm. To do our part, we, from the Brazilian Club of Roller Coasters, organized a campaing: The two people who give more donations will get the right to ride the two front seats on the first train dispatched.

It's a very beautiful park, with a very nice landscape. The park was built on an old farm. The islands were built. Usually it was all plain land. Take a look at the picture below. It shows the area before the park was built. I marked in red the exact area where the park is nowadays. I hope TPR sets up a trip down here. I'll be glad to show you guys around all the parks in South America.

On the Brazilian SLC Construction topic, some people asked about the park and I published a few pictures. But I just received some very nice pictures from Jailson Souza, a park employee who happens to be a member of the Brazilian Club of Roller Coasters, our organization (www.cbmr.com.br) So, I decided to publish them in a separate topic, to make things more organized. Some were taken from the top of Big Tower, their 300 ft free-fall tower. Others were taken from very unusual angles. Hope you like them. Lucaz

I'm pretty sure they'll make it run smooth. They have a 1979 Vekoma Corkscrew with Bayern Curve and it runs perfectly. They have a former Vekoma engineer in the park ahead of the maintenance. So I guess they know how to handle vekoma coasters

Just got more pictures sent by the park operations director. The idea is to make some parts of the coaster "almost terrain", with trees underneath and very close to the track. The parts that have no trees underneath will be filled up with water from the waterfall. Hope you guys like it!

James, I don't think they'll buy new trains any soon. It's already a huge investiment for a south american park to buy such a huge coaster and build such a nice themming. Altought, the park is really very beautiful and has a nice collection of rides and shows and a nice zoo. Anytime you want to come to Brazil, I'll be pleased to go to the parks with you!

As far as I could notice when I took that picture, the restraints are covered. that is not the real shape, but a cover, like you put on your car or motorcicle when you park it outdoors. So that might explain the apparent difference from the others. Abou the handlebar, I really don't know....

Beto Carrero World just announced that the FireWhip trains are gonna have a sound system with a theme song. They didn't say exactly which song it is, but they said they've taken a song and made a more 'heavy' version of it. More rocky, I guess. The trains are already being refurbished and the speakers are being installed. Pretty nice, isn't it?

Beto Carrero World sent me today some 3D images of how the coaster entrance is going to look like. Including the bridges that conect the coaster island with the free-fall island and the log flume island. They also announced the coaster is gonna have special effects on the trains and along the track.

I trust this park. They have a Vekoma Corkscrew With Bayern Curve that doesn't give a headache. Because they really care about keeping the wheels close to the track. So, they're coasters run pretty smooth.

As far as I know, they'll use the same trains, just refurbished. They've put the first car in exhibition here in Rio during a Tourism Convention. I took a picture on it. The girl next to me is Juliana, Beto Carrero's daughter. Really nice person and park's Markting director.

The park just announced the name: FireWhip. It's was named in honor to Beto Carrero, park founder who died in february this year. He was a cowboy and used to present circus shows with his whip. The pre-opening, for the press is gonna happen on december 7 and the oficial openning for the public will happen on december 13.

KDCOASTERFAN, Anytime you want, I'll be honored to ride Katapul with you and show you the brazilian parks. Very sad you never got the chance to ride it when it was close to you. It's a pretty good ride!

Great pictures, Gui!!!

^^ So come down here to ride Katapul! If you like Schwarzkopfs, you'll like it here. We ha a Looping Star, a Jet Star II and the Katapul. We also used to have an alpen blitz and a Double Looping, which was sold to Dorney Park under the name "Laser". You don't like wood coasters?

My pleasure, Montezooma! Anything you wanna know about the brazilian parks, just ask. I'll do my best to find out the answer. BTW, did you know the largest rollercoaster in the country is called Montezum? \o/

Great picture, Eder!

Yeah, I agree sidwinder is not that bad, but It's definitly not as smooth as other Boomerangs. Particularly, the one at Playcenter, in São Paulo, Brazil is quite good. In other hand, the one in Parque De La Costa (Buenos Aires) will give you a headache on the firts run. I would really like to understand what makes one boomerang different from the other. I know the restraints at Playcenter are a little different from the ones at De La Costa, but they're not different enought to make such a difference on the ride. You think it could have something to do with the kind of maintenance they do?

Another one: http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=iCE9g8P2dN0 pretty cool and shows more of the rides.

To see a little more about the park: http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=zc7OygjJv54

It's good that they intend to build a new park, but it's a shame that Astroland operators haven't being treated wth the respect they disearve. It's very sad when a park closes. On my first reply to this topic, I said the closing down of Astroland reminded of when my childhood park closed down. Here, a picture of the sign, on the entrance of Tivoli Park in Rio. It says: "We inform that sunday, 12/17/1995, will be the last day of operation of Tivoli Park. We thank the people of Rio de Janeiro for all the love along these 23 years." It's awefull to see Astroland ending too. Signs like that should never be written. Parks should only open. Never close.

We had a reality show in Brazil for some time called "The Game". Two teams living in a small town. There was mistery in the town and the teams were detectives. They had clues and had to interview the town citizens to solve the mistery. It was pretty cool. They could do something like that in a theme park. Clues on the rides. People would have to ride the ride to find the clue, than solve it to find the new clue/lead. They could do each season in a diferent theme park....