Wisco Woody

So now we have a confirmed RMC of Mean Streak at CP, reported sightings of Fred Grubb/RMC at both Silverwood and Kennywood, and potential future projects at Kings Dominion and Darien Lake. Does anyone else know of any potential future projects at specific parks by RMC, Gravity Group, or GCI?

^ Was this inspired by my Hyper GT-X revamp idea?

Tempers flare whenever that troll appears or is even mentioned. Fortunately he seems to have retreated. I believe the forums can coexist peacefully. About the last operating day, this season I have managed to ride every major coaster in the upper and eastern Midwest multiple times, with the exception of Whizzer and TDK only once each with my coaster bro on a BAFF day, so Nov 6th will hopefully allow me to rectify that.

I hope beyond hope that SFGAm management realizes that on top of missing a complete circuit launch coaster, we are missing one or more coasters that accomplish 3 things: 1. Another coaster longer than 5,000 ft long and longer than 1 minute from top of lift hill to brakes. 2. A 90+ mph coaster 3. A steel airtime machine with loads of floater air and/or several pops of ejector air in every seat. All 3 of these holes in the park's offering can be fixed by one coaster, an out and back giga coaster that starts from either along Yukon and Orleans to front of park and back, or potentially replacing American Eagle for their 2020/2021 coaster addition. Katy Enrique has talked about the lack of a 2nd launched coaster before, so it seems they will likely go with a Premier, Mack, etc launched coaster, but with the Park's increased revenues and popularity, they should have built up enough profit to build a $30 million giga for 2021 or 2022.

Fred Grubb, the founder of RMC, has always seemed awkward and disinterested when doing interviews, so it wouldn't surprise me if he has an inclination for being slightly cocky or even egotistical. We all know that Alan Schilke is a little off his rocker in terms of his ideas and modus operandi, but he seems like the kind who would want everyone to know about his insane creations ASAP.

At this point any park that is getting an RMC coaster next year is hurting their potential extra season pass and special product sales by not announcing, or maybe RMC is letting the fame get to their head and aren't allowing the parks make the announcements yet. Either way, at this time last year we knew the layouts and exact details of all 4 RMC coasters that opened this year, and this hubris in thinking they can delay announcing will only lead to a lower return on investment.

I think it's important that we consider with IAAPA and the industry in general, the big chains and most of the good sized parks talk amongst each other and the main coaster designers and builders. If a park has one of an RMC I box or topper track hybrid, Gravity Group woodie, or GCI woodie from after 2004 or so, then chances are they won't be looking for another modern woodie or steel/wooden hybrid. GCI, GG, and RMC thus know their potential buyers, so when looking for parks that are rumored to be getting one of these coasters, we can gauge the rumor based on if the park already has one of these coasters or not. In the cases of CP, KD, Kennywood, and Darien Lake, they each do not have one of these modern wooden-ish coasters, so it makes sense that they would be in the market for one. Does anyone else then know of any rumors as to parks suspected to be in the future receiving a coaster from RMC, GG, or GCI?

Perhaps you may have some information you would like to share, coasterbill.

STILL no official RMC announcements for 2017! robbalvey, do you have any leads you'd be willing to share? Besides Mean Streak, the only other hints are for Hurler at KD and potentially something at Kennywood. The company may be hurting financially somewhat after the difficulties with Lightning Rod.

It is still possible that they will remove the entire structure, but if they are doing an RMC conversion, which they either absolutely are or just hardcore trolling us, then it will open in 2017, otherwise they wouldn't need to close MS early. It will take 9 months or less to complete removal of the unnecessary supports and RMC construction even with the winter weather, and there would be no reason to let the structure sit for a year if they were doing the conversion. Twisted Colossus was a roughly equal sized project, and while in nicer weather, it was completed within 6 months.

I also love that airtime moment, so I only ride Demon in the back. I say just replace the OSTRs with lapbars, as the corkscrews are taken slowly enough that OSTRs or vests are both completely unnecessary.

I do love how the Demon has become progressively smoother in recent years, and I think that is a good reason to update the ride using half of the existing track. Either for of before the Park's and Demon's 45th anniversary in 2021, they could do the Chance GT-X remodel, or at the very least remove the unnecessary OSTRs and replace them with lap bars and possibly bring back the Turn of the Century airtime hills.

The goal would be for it to be the steel airtime machine that the park needs, and for it to have only a lap bar like Lightning Run. Thus they would replace the loops with the airtime hills on the original Turn of the Century, and not go too much faster through the corkscrews or just replace the corkscrews with airtime hills or the ski-slalom turns on LR at KK. Alternatively, the Demon could be removed entirely and a Chance GT-X built ground up in its place for only 7 or 8 million $.

Demon could be revamped into a Chance Hyper GT-X like Lightning Run. They could keep the station, lift hill + high turnaround, corkscrews, and helix finale, then the rest of the ride is all new track. The drop would be steeper, the loops ironically replaced by Turn of the Century style airtime hills, and then the rest of the space would be Lightning Run style banked turns and smaller ejector airtime hills. The corkscrews and helix could of course be replaced by small ejector air bunny hops, but I'd prefer the corkscrews be retained and retracked.

am1500, that is probably the best coaster revamp idea I have heard yet. If Chance/Morgan redo Viper it would put Goliath and any potential dive coaster to shame, especially if they kept and retracked one or more inversions, hopefully the large first loop and the batwing. I haven't been to California and Magic Mountain since 2012, but with TC and YOLO already new there, a smooth extended Viper would force me to instantly book a flight.

At this point with no RMC coasters for 2017 announced yet, and since we knew by this time last year of all 4, it's pretty much guaranteed that Mean Streak RMC will open in 2017. Twisted Colossus was a huge amount of work but completed in under 8 months, and Mean Streak will be more or less the same workload but with the colder climate it may delay opening until June.