Superdasher

I love the sounds Steel Hawg makes, in a bad kind of way. It’s just so funny to me. When I rode it I had fun standing in line and just watching it for awhile afterwards listening to it go "TSSSCHCSCHCSSCHCSCHCSSSCH…" as the cars went up the lift hill. I like the clunks the brake runs make too.

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42658&start=310 Ginzo does not approve! I recommend none of you use any Hit Point calculators if they ever get invented, or you will face his wrath!

One of my friends has this thing he does for fun: Ride certain coasters immediately after eating the challenge ice cream cone. The challenge ice cream is a triple cone with mint chocolate chip, strawberry, and cookies ‘n cream, and so far he’s done it on: -Montu -Top Thrill Dragster -Dragon Mountain -Steel Hawg -Tatsu -Fahrenheit -Griffon He said Fahrenheit and Montu were the ones that affected his ice cream filled stomach the most.

Stealth at Thorpe Park. Stealth has a 205 ft Top Hat with good airtime and a 0-80 mph launch in 2.3 seconds, yet it’s stuck in the borderline tier because of a perceived inferiority to its fellow rocket coasters. Let’s not kid ourselves, any coaster with a hydraulic launch and a Top Hat is automatically going to be measured against those that have the same elements. I am, of course, referring to Storm Runner and Top Thrill Dragster. When it was first built, Stealth spent a fair bit of its time being compared to Storm Runner, which has a superior launch and more airtime on its Top Hat. Its ferocity also increased with the addition of three inversions after the Top Hat, including a unique Flying Snake Dive inversion. Needless to say, Storm Runner is a more thrilling rush. Top Thrill Dragster was an old competitor, but it has a nearly identical layout to Stealth, is twice as tall, and because it has just a lap bar, it is a far superior adrenalin rush. Basically TTD is a more intense ride than Stealth as well. But, things aren’t all bad for Stealth. Unlike Storm Runner, it has a twisting vertical drop, and unlike TTD, it has an extra airtime hill before the brake run. Packing these elements in a small family park like Thorpe Park is very useful, given that it is built in Europe and broke records for that continent (Europe’s tallest and fastest launch coaster) when it first opened. All in all, Stealth finds itself sitting in the shadows of its fellow rocket coasters, but it’s the kind of ride that can go down well with some patrons. If you’re stuck in England with a relatively low coaster count and are looking for an intimidating ride that isn’t totally over the top, would give you some bragging rights if you rode it, and packs a fairly hard punch, then Stealth might be the perfect ride for you.

Maximum RPM has a top speed of only about 45mph...and it has no loops or anything, so it looks kind of like an Italian Job with a gimmick lift that never seems to work. The name makes it sound like it should be an LIM launch coaster to me.

As we all know, there are so many parks on the east coast of the USA that it's hard to see them all in one trip unless you've got a lot of time and money. Financial troubles kept me from saving up for the TPR 2008 East Coast trip, so I've got two different plans for a trip in 2009. The Lower East Coast Trip includes the following parks: -Dollywood -Hard Rock Park -SFOG -Busch Gardens Europe -Kings Dominion The Upper East Coast Trip includes the following parks: -Dorney Park -Hersheypark -SFGAdv -Knoebels -SFA Both have parks I've never been to, and both have new coasters that are high on my "must ride" list. I'm kind of leaning towards UEC, but I could see LEC being a very enjoyable option, and I want some input before I make my decision.

El Toro first drop in the back seat - probably the most powerful stomach feeling on a thrill ride ever. IMO it puts even Drop Zone to shame.

Wow you are so lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you see it, getting a transfusion would be difficult if you needed one). Being born with AB- blood is about the same odds a getting a rollback on your first ever Dragster ride. I likes those odds.

The title says it all. I don't know what mine is. It's probably on file somewhere in my medical records, but I've never gotten around to looking it up.

That video of people riding it is from a sneak peek preview Indiana Beach gave this last weekend. The winners of the video contest were the first to ride, as well as some others who were there. The official opening and media day will be sometime later this month. I was lucky enough to be there, and I took pictures of the ride, yet somehow lost the camera. So anyway, I rode the ride. Here's my review: It is kind of like a "Wild Mouse that was forced to evolve by S&S" being that it pulls strong laterals that can be jarring, but all of the elements on the ride are unique and just a lot of "fun". Steel Hawg layout is actually pretty simple. The ride has a very fast lift hill, and you reach the top in just seconds, even when allowing for the fact that it is only 96 feet tall. The first drop is cool, although in my opinion the first drop on Maverick is much better. After the drop, you climb back up into a sharp turn to the left, which brings you to the block brake. It takes off a little speed, before you go around the outside banked turn, and into what I'm guessing is the 90 degrees "wall" turn into a dive loop, which delivers a lot of hangtime at the top. After that there's another climb and turn to the right then a downward heartline roll then an overbanked turn then brakes. It is very similar to Mystery Mine with a beyond-vertical drop, small cars, and two inversions but not quite as good due to the lack of theming. It's very different from Maverick, but yet it has a G-Force at Drayton Manor feeling, it is a different layout. All of the inversions are very different from the average loop. It is worth riding, even if the wait is 60 minutes. One highlight is actually the outside banked turn, you really feel like you're going to be thrown from the car. As for the issue of headbanging, the track is actually pretty smooth, and yes the laterals on the turns are powerful, but they're not nearly as bad as Flashback's hairpin dives were, and like I said, it feels like an evolved Wild Mouse. Just brace for the first two turns and you'll be fine. Have any of you ridden Mystery Mine? Because it's not really much worse than that. I’d say it’s a solid 8 out of 10 attraction. Don't expect to see it rate as high as staple coasters like the Beast and Storm Runner, but it's still perfectly enjoyable.

I once saw this educational video. I can't remember too many details about it, but there was one part of it that stood out in my mind: This plant expert guy was holding parts of a Poison Sumac plant in his gloved hands (for protection) while pointing out the various distinguishable features the plant had, such as its leaf pattern, the appearance of the flowers it has during the summer, etc. Basically a part of the video that showed you how to tell which plant to avoid. But the interesting thing is, at one point the reporter asked, "Can I find this in Jackson, New Jersey?" and he said "Oh my goodness, yes." Jackson NJ, as we all know, is where SFGAdv is located! I checked a Poison Sumac map, and it is indeed marked as being present throuhgout almost all of New Jersey. But I wouldn't worry if you're going there this summer. I mean, I doubt that Mark Shaprio would say "Hey, let's plant lots of poisonous flowers all over SFGAdv! It'd be useful against the vandals that try to pick the park's flowers without permission!" Super "But don't touch any plants when you go there just in case" Dasher

Layout is complete!!! WOW, they sure got it built fast!!!! It looks pretty different from the one in the video, though, I only see one turn banked on the outside, which I believe is the Tip-out. Also, they said it would have three inversions, but I only count two in those pictures (a Dive Loop and a Heartline Roll). I guess the first drop is the third inversion, even though it doesn't really send riders upside-down. It's an opposite-banked 90 degree curve, like an airtime hill sideways. -James "Was mentioned in the press release" Dillaman Really? I know Wall Turn was mentioned in the press release, but I don't remember reading an explanation of what it was. I know which turn you're talking about from the video, but it does not appear to be there in the photos. So either it's one of the other vertical curves...or maybe it was removed because the Gs would've been too intense, like Maverick's heartline. The layout from those photos looks much less painful than the one in the video did, though, I'll say that much!

One more thing worth mentioning...I've heard some reports of an element featured in this ride called a "Wall Turn". I'm guessing it'll be a 90-degree banked turn or something, but it's very hard to tell at this time with the lack of photos... My first thought was that it would be like this: http://www.rcdb.com/ig2472.htm?picture=8 but I could be wrong.

I'm often thinking about coasters when I jam out to my iPod, so I'd probably just listen to the kind of music I normally listen to...assuming I'm stupid enough to bring something I'm so strongly attached to on a ride and risk losing it. That said, I have a pretty good collection of video game music on my iPod that would be suitable, as quite a bit of it is short length, about the same as a coaster ride. Here would be a few video game songs that I'd listen to depending on the coaster I'm riding: Gerstlauer Eurofighter/Maverick/Fahrenheit: Colossuem Leader battle music from Pokemon Battle Revolution Hyper/Giga Coaster: Mysterial battle from Pokemon Battle Revolution Steel Hawg: Crashes to Ashes from Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex Flying Coaster: Secret Slide from Super Mario 64 Spinning Coaster: Green Hill Zone from Sonic The Hedgehog Wood coaster: Multi-Man Melee from Super Smash Bros. Melee B&M Invert: Samus' Theme Remix Indoor Coaster: Team Galactic Battle Remix from Super Smash Bros. Brawl SLC: Fever music from Dr. Mario Launched coaster: Mute City from F-Zero Boomerang: Break the Targets from Super Smash Bros. Melee Booster Bike: Mach Rider Remix from Super Smash Bros. Melee (GREAT MATCH WITH THEME HERE!) In fact, you really can't go wrong with any of the remixes from the Super Smash Bros. series. And there's Final Countdown, too.

That would be like saying Hollywood Dream looks like it might even be better than Expedition GeForce.

What was the song used in Weekend Airtime?

Gerstlauer (Tony Hawks Big Spin, Pandemonium, Spinning Dragons) VS Maurer Sohne (Spider, Spinball Whizzer, Dragon's Fury, Crush's Coaster) Which manufacturer of spinning coaster do you guys think is better? IMO, the Maurer Sohne spinning coasters are vastly superior. Their layout is much more intense, they have this little vertical curve that I really like, and I greatly prefer the outwards-facing seating to the face-off seating on the Gerstlauer spinners. The THBSs, the only Gerstlauer spinners I've tried, are average coasters at best, IMO.

I just read this article on MSN that listed the worst places to take a woman while on a date, and one of them was THEME PARKS! Here's what the article says: Funny thing is, most of the girls that I've known, have said they liked theme parks when I mentioned I was a coaster fan.

Yeah, and if it isn't open by Spring Conference (this coming weekend), they're gonna have a lot of angry ACEers on their hands...

I’ve heard a rumor that many coaster enthusiasts like collecting coaster parts such as wheels, bearings, wood, etc. I’m sure most of us all remember the Vekoma Wheel at Knott’s Solace a few years back… How exactly do you obtain those? S&S has an official web site with a list of people to E-Mail for sales of parts and rides, but I doubt they would give you a wheel just for asking, unless they really thought you might be a park representative and not just an ACEer looking for coaster souvenirs. It’s been reported that some ACEers have stolen parts of coasters in storage, but I don’t want to risk jail by trying to do that myself. I can just imagine the E-Mails these companies get every day: Dear Mr. Vekoma Sales Manager, Sorry to bother you, but our boomerang needs a wheel change in row 4. Yours truly, ACEer Joe Even inside my head the words sound stupid…

Yeah it looks very similar to Maverick with a beyond-vertical drop and a similar train design. The 95-degree drop, the launch, and the airtime hills on Maverick were top notch, but sadly those are the only parts of the ride that were. The problem is the overhead shoulder portion of the restraints - there are some pretty severe changes of direction in the track, and riders necks are thrown sideways into the hard and unforgiving bars. The end result is painful and seriously limits rerideability of what might otherwise have been a top ten coaster. Fahrenheit has to have those restraints for safety reasons, hopefully this'll be less of an issue here.

Well to me, this is no great loss, really. It's just a Mack Wild Mouse in a box, isn't it?

I once had a dream where I was at an ERT session at King's Island. The ride ops were holding several "challenges" on the various coasters. On Firehawk ERT, they gave all of the riders a bottle of water before dispatch. The challenge was to see if you were able to ride Firehawk while drinking all that water, and then hold the bottle (and the water inside you). If you were able to present the empty water bottle to the ride op, without having thrown up along the way, you suceeded in the challenge. Some of my group were able to do it, but many were not able to drink all of the water while going up the lift hill, and thus dropped the bottle trying to drink while in the flying position. The person sitting next to me drank the whole bottle without stopping, then choked and turned purple and right as we were going through the horseshoe, he spit all the water all over the queue line below and I heard someone below scream "Eww! Someone spit on me!" Kinda reminds me of the time the water dummies on Tatsu "peed" on Elissa during the egg turn...

The Screamin' Squirrel goes much slower, but yeah, this looks like it's either going to be really good or really bad. The layout looks to be really intense, of the type that will work beautifully if and only if the cars traverse the track perfectly. If the cars bounce around at all it'll be without question a once-is-enough experience.

Here's a video where you can hear the spiel repeat "arms down" over and over again: