oakmozart

Yikes, tough crowd. You're right: I was wrong about Silver Star...my bad. To clarify, I only got to work on one project in my internship, and Silver Star wasn't it. Haven't even ridden it yet. And I did preface my original post with "Unless things have changed..." Who's to say B&M won't build a bigger hyper than Silver Star? But since we're throwing around the 7-year figure here, in my eyes, I should think it would have been done by now...especially with CF having built 2 big bad B&M's recently. (A person earlier asked what rumors I've heard? Here's one: Diamondback and Behemoth were intended to be 250+ feet, but B&M said no. So they settled on the magic 230'. True? I honestly don't know and that's the bottom line. I'm sure a lot has changed since my internship.) Great interview, btw...done after my time. Sorry to have hijacked the thread. Back on topic.

A quick follow-up to my earlier post... Unless they've changed their policy, B&M won't build coasters taller than 230 feet, due to the supports they use, among other reasons. I've been told this by numerous Cedar Fair, Busch, and Six Flags managerial-types over the past 7 years. (I've been told that CF wanted Behemoth and Diamondback to be taller than they are.) The fact that the biggest B&M's out there are only 230' substantiates this claim. The biggest thing to remember is that B&M is a VERY small company, who fiercely prides themselves in the products they provide. What you see is what you get, and you won't find more reliable coasters out there besides wood (B&M Flyers being a little more finnicky). This is a big reason why they command such premium prices on their rides. You pay for the B&M brand, but also the quality. They'll customize their rides to a certain level, but essentially if you want something beyond their "niche," they will politely send you to another company. Don't believe me? Ask yourself this: how many launched coasters have B&M done? The Hulk at IOA, and they simply built the ride. The launch portion was designed by another company, of which B&M didn't support. I worked as an Intern for B&M sometime back. I loved every (INTENSE) minute of it, but sadly went without a full-time job designing coasters like I wanted, and I tried EVERY company out there. I got close to getting a job with S&S designing woodies, but it didn't work out. I also worked at KD under Paramount (PKD) for 5 years, starting out as a ride-op and moving up to a year in mid-level management before quitting to my current career outside the industry. Now I just ride for fun. I can assure you based on my past experience that Busch has an exclusivity contract with B&M, and that as company policy, B&M keeps the details of those contracts quiet, including duration of time and how exclusive (ie, the mileage of the "no-build" area around a park.) Companies inquiring about building B&M models under exclusivity contracts with rivals are simply told that B&M is unable to sell them specific models at that time. KD falls under the area of exclusivity for BGE, and I believe Six Flags America does as well. So again, Busch builds a B&M ride under the agreement that B&M won't build a similar model within a certain distance from (X) park for a certain number of years. Busch pays a high premium for this exclusivity, and they're the only company I know of who does such a thing. You can confirm such a contract by talking to B&M personnel at IAPPA (Claude goes most often, or used to anyway), or even easier by talking to mid and upper-level management at BGE and KD. KD loves to tell people that they can't build B&M's. I'm probably opening myself up to flame attacks by posting this, so please don't think I'm bragging, talking out of my ass, or being a know-it-all. I know how passionate we enthusiasts are about coasters and the industry in general, and just thought I'd mention a couple of fun details. I don't know specific details on the 2010 KD coaster, just rumors I get told by KD employees...some of them old friends I used to work with who are still there and have moved up in the company.

CF is building this monster for several reasons, and the first is that CF can't build B&M's due to the fact that Busch has an exclusivity contract with B&M. I don't know all the exact specifics of it, but KD couldn't go to B&M for a unique new Hyper/Dive Machine/Inverted/Flyer because Busch has those tied up. The only reason they got Dominator is because it was a translant (as was correctly mentioned earlier in this thread). Second, KD needs a crazy monster like this to draw in better crowds. If you compare the crowds of KD to BGE, KD is often much quieter. This will easily top Apollo/Griffin at BGE, and (hopefully) bring in larger attendance numbers. I applaud CF for this move and hope they make it a wonderful airtime machine, while skipping their usual gimmicks, though I HAVE heard that there may be inversions on this ride, making it the tallest/fastest inverting coaster on the planet (just a fun wild rumor...no merit to it yet). As for this "Jersey Devil" concept at SFGAdv (what is it, anyway?), I don't believe it. Marc Shapiro just said in a public interview that the days of Six Flags Mega-coasters are done, as he wants to build new attractions at all the parks every year. Six Flags has now become family parks, and I stongly suspect any future coasters we see will be Tony Hawk/Dark Knight/GCI Woodie types. Dear God, PLEASE let me be wrong!!!