rcjp

And ride it only once, you would have. Yeah at first I was just going to write "would like to ride it once" but, who knows, maybe I would have liked it.

fast

I'm yet to experience a proper wooden coaster (the one I've ridden with the highest ranking was lightning racer at 40th something) and this one looks pretty good. Nice to see all these new woodies popping up in China. Let's just hope they are well kept.

^While I don't love it, I feel I do like it more than almost everyone. In my visit last year I got just as many rides as I did on the other B&Ms. The roughness is a bit nasty but if you sit closer to the front it's not that bad and I honestly enjoy the standing up experience, even if it may be a bit hard on your legs.

I don't want to sound pessimistic but am I the only one who is not super sure the ride will be so smooth? What if the track is part of the reason why it is rough? (although I know the trains must be the main one)

I haven't ridden diamondback but shambhala (which must have a similar drop apart from the extra height) has an awesome one. I really liked skyrush's with its crazy ejector air but shambhala's feels never-ending and provides some nice floater all the way down.

Drachen Fire was Ron Toomer 100% through and through, but received heavy guidance from the former director of planning at BGW. The B&M rumor started online around 2004-2005 when someone noticed that if you looked at DF from a certain angle, it sorta resembled Kumba a bit, and that the supports are more streamlined that Arrow. They took that concept, and ran wild with it to the point that even that horrendously misinformed Wikipedia article on the ride claims it was B&M. I personally have asked Larry Giles, Ron Toomer, and Claude Mabillard about this on three separate occasions, and all claimed it is 100% false. I am also not the only person who has done this. Also, the supports really are nothing at all like B&M supports, and are fairly one of a kind to just this ride. Now some fun trivia about Drachen Fire you might not know! - The first concept Toomer presented to Busch was a HUGE footprint, and would have been very similar to Shockwave/GASM in layout. Busch rejected it and asked for something more compact and streamlined. In the Nova special where they show the design/construction process of the ride, you can allegedly see Ron Toomer penciling out the initial concept design. - The trains were designed in tandem with members of BGW R&D, as were the support structures. Drachen Fire's trains had tracer lights on them at Busch's request (and by the way, LNM also used to have them for a brief time in the 80s!) The two other arrow coasters built with the DF style trains ditched the lights after a bit because they were VERY problematic, but Busch kept them the whole way since it was their brainchild. The lights ran on an independent battery system inside the cars, and if I recall (granted it was 20 years ago), they were low CC motorcycle batteries. - I learned from what I would consider a very reliable source that there was an error with the surveying in the early design process of the ride. Since it happened before any production started, the ride was mirrored as it was considered easier than re-surveying the land. One of the easiest things to point out about this is that the evac stairs/harness release pedals are on the wrong side. On almost every Arrow, it's on the left side, but on DF it was on the right as a result of this change. - Apparently in the the non-mirrored run, the lift would have gone closer to the Wolf village and the wrap around corckscrew would have dove down by the Wolf's mid course brake run. Also, the Wolf village was re-done during DF construction to be full buildings, where as before they were just facades. - The grand opening was a grand flop. The ride's computer had a fault that took days to solve, so all the footage you see on various specials of people lining up to ride was actually of them waiting for nothing. Comedian Dana Carvey came out to help open the ride, and rumor has it he agreed to do it for free as long as he got to be the first public rider, but they never got it working before he had to leave. I always wonder if he ever made it back out to ride. He is apparently a huge coaster enthusiast. - Drachen Fire had traditional Arrow rollbacks for the 92' season, but the lift chain was much faster than most arrows. During testing they weren't satisfied with the speed the train was navigating the first corkscrew and up'd the speed, making the classic Arrow rollbacks even louder. It apparently was waking people up in neighboring houses when they did early morning testing, so starting in 93 they had a one-of-a-kind silent rollback on the trains. It basically stayed in the up position unless the train started to roll back, at which point gravity pulled it down and locked it into place. - When DF originally closed, the plan was to modify the trains. However after deciding the track was the bigger culprit to the problem they decided to sell it. - More than one park offered to buy DF, but no one was willing to pay the asking price ($4.5 million, for a used ride that cost $4million to build...) - DF almost re-opened for the 2002 season. In 2001 they actually did a full track inspection, green tagged a train, and even loaded it up with load testers to cycle for a while. But when they put more advanced g-force testers in it, it was outside the realm of acceptability in the lateral G area. - The fact that the ride bashed people around ultimately was only a part of the closing equation. Something people often forget is that when a ride bashes you around, it also bashes itself around. The maintenance cost on DF was probably massive, which BGW probably wouldn't like even if it had high ridership, which in it's current state, it did not. - I'm told by a friend that was working that day that someone got hurt on the last day of operation which is why there's such an obscure mid-July last day for this ride. It's a real shame. I loved that ride. If I ever win the lottery, I'm donating a replica to BGW that is modernized and has heart-lined track and better entrances to the inversions so it can live on! ...(if only). Thanks. That's very interesting. I haven't ridden many arrows and wasn't a fan of the ones I did. This ride, however, is probably the now defunct coaster I would like to ride at least once.

Both have old school B&M inverts and at one point both had B&M standups. Portaventura and SFGAdv

^I don't think it is supposed to be very big. Isn't it only occupying part of a parking lot? As to operations, this year I only went there on opening day and yes, many rides only opened at 11 and running two trains on shambhala and DK with up to two hour waits was not acceptable. I seriously hope they don't do this for the express passes as that would be just a low blow.

^Funny how GP 1 admitted it could fall down at any second as if it was normal (and while in line)

^Thanks for posting. Much better. Looks like great fun! Decent length too.

Really??

Great

^I do like the GIB colours, actually, although I can understand why someone wouldn't.

I'm not really into flats. In fact, I usually only bother with the drop towers and frisbee wheels. However, this looks like a fun one I'd like to try.

^Sometimes I do find it hard to keep count. Wait, was this the 16th or 17th?......

Me too. It looks like a nice pre-lift section so far.

^Well that would be colossal! It's always the same with these projects: if they get built....

^Oh, ok. Although you can't really see much from the POV, that super odd section between the rolls doesn't seem to be there anymore.

^I suppose that would be too good to be true.

Both have B&M wing coasters. SFMM and Europa Park

^I was talking about a modified version of those trains, of course. Who made the trains for vampire at Chessington World of Adventures? Wasn't it vekoma?

Me neither. But, from what I could tell, it looks fun with some use of the terrain. As to the knock-off slc, did anyone notice that the rolls are in the opposite direction of their normal one? Well at least you're one of the very few here who can tell. The park does look a bit unfinished. That being said, it has some nice rides and if those 3 vekomas come it will be even better.

Agree. I think vekoma would be a good candidate for that model with their family inverted trains.