40belowbeef

Just in case anyone missed it yesterday, CNN Money did a pretty good article on Premier Rides. http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/17/smallbusiness/masters_of_disaster.fsb/index.htm

^^^^Since when did thrill rides become non-family friendly. My 60 year old mother, 60 year old father, 28 year old brother, 35 year old sister..and 10 year old niece etc.etc, all love roller coasters and thrill rides, and often go to parks together to ride them...as a family. Are family-oriented parks only supposed to build rides for kids 6 and under?

As far as theming...looks like there is an 'underwater' backdrop going up in the background today if you check out the webcam.

Spongebob webcam is back up...at first glance it didnt look like they'd done anything...however, looks like the lift and part of the drop are up.

Not sure how this is a prototype...??? Vekome first debuted this concept 8 years ago. I would probably call it a 2nd generation flying dutchman. Looks pretty awesome to me. Sort of reminds me of a conceptual flying dutchman that Keith McVeen did years ago after Stealth debuted with a vertical lift and a pretty crazy layout. I think he has since taken it off of the badnitrus website. I've always thought a vertical lift on these would be great...more along the lines of climbing a drop tower instead of staring into the sun. With the shorter trains they can be a little more inventive with the elements...such as the flying outside loop thing, since the train doesnt need the extra speed to get the last 3-4 cars thru the element, which can reduce the positive g's into the restraints. As far as capacity...with the proper blocking and multiple trains these could have decent capacity. I would chalk that one up to the park, not Vekoma. Anyway, overall it looks like Vekoma has made some major improvements to the design. I think this looks pretty awesome. Yea for Vekoma!

My guess would be that the debut of the pipeline came right around the time that B&M was developing the inverted coaster and designing rides around the heartline of the riders. By rotating the track around the heartline of the riders, they demonstrated that the concept of the pipeline was unnecessary, and the same result could be accomplished in keeping with the 'traditional' track and trains with a different design approach, eliminating the problems caused by the excessive oversized track and heavy trains. See Storm Runner, Colossos at Thorpe, Hydra, Speed Monster just to name a few of which incorporate elements from the Pipeline with traditional track and trains. Just my guess - Dave

I was always confused with this park from the beginning, as in...why build a theme parked themed to California in...California??? Its like building one of those indoor fake ski resorts in Aspen.

Not sure which picture you are looking at but as far as I can tell there is no zero car on any of the trains in those pictures. The only Intamin with a 'zero car' that I know of is TTD.

I am defintely going to be there on Sunday...probably not by 930 but I will keep an eye out.

If it is the actual design of the heartline, and the fact that it is taken at high speed, I'm wondering if this will have any effect on the similar element on Furius Baco. I would think it would actually be accentuated on that ride, being that the riders wont be heartlined. which could produce an even worse situation. I'm thinking/hoping that this may be a fabrication issue.

Well...most parks wont guarantee anything when it comes to rides being open, on any certain day, let alone a new ride on opening day. I have my fingers crossed though. It looks like they are making pretty good progress on Renegade. New construction update: http://www.valleyfair.com/public/information/photo_galleries/index.cfm

Great pic! I'm guessing that was taken yesterday afternoon. I've been in need of some stuff to put on the walls. That may end up with a frame around it! Lucked out this winter is an understatement...until now at least. The HIGH's over the next few days are going to be below zero here. Woo hoo!

The use of the two-rail, tri-rail would also depend on the spacing of the supports as well...not just the force the vehicle applies. If you look at the tri-rail portions of the track, the supports are spaced further apart...two-rail, supports are closer together, etc. Hope that helps.

I dont get it...who is really going to care if Shiekra or Griffon are the 'first floorless' or whatever, other than a few coaster geeks on a message board? And if anything, Griffon is stealing the thunder from Shiekra which was supposed to be the first floorless anyway. So whats with all the whining...its a win-win. Its not like people arent going to ride one or the other because, 'Well, Shiekra is floorless too, so its really not worth riding Griffon'...or vice versa.

Actually, the track should be lined up already. They did remove parts of the support structure, which would allow them to add new supports/modify existing for airtime hills.

Actually, looking at those pics a little bit closer, you can see yellow flags at some of the connection points going about halfway down some of the support structure where the rolls were, as well as supports on the ground along with the track. I'd guess that would suggest a re-profile to some extent, with new supports to accommodate.

Woohoo! Its about time. I knew there was a reason I moved to Minneapolis. Renegade in 2007 at Valleyfair and now this. Exciting. Go buy shoes, ride euro-fighter, dinner at Tucchi Benuch...now thats a way to finish off a day after work in the winter. It actually does say that it will be in the 'old Camp Snoopy' area. Not in part of the new construction. The phase 2 construction is not supposed to be done until 2010. From Pioneer Press: 'Mall officials said they would invest $25 million into new rides and attractions at the Park at MOA over the next 18 months. Construction is expected to begin next year on a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter roller coaster. Gerstlauer is a German designer and manufacturer of amusement rides. The roller coaster is expected to debut in 2008.'

Just a thought on the launch vs lift debate. In my opinion, if the train is traveling at a constant speed up the lift, then it is a lift, regardless of the means it uses to get to the top - chain, cable, lsm's. If the train is accelerating up the lift hil, then it is a launch. IE - Maverick has one lifthill and one launch.

From the video it looks like they took alot of the bounce out of the seats, which is a good thing, and possibly the jerky rotation too. The shorter train seems to just fly around the course as well. I really hope this ride does well - I would love to see another version in the states. I'm a big fan of X...and would love to see a new and improved version pop up somewhere! Bravo!

Actually Jarmor, I think a few people did actually catch onto that...myself included - if you are referring to the back-flip at the top of the raven. Pretty sure it was mentioned somewhere in this thread when we were all discussing the odd shape of the raven. Regardless - it looks awesome!

I agree Racerbret. After looking at that pic of the footers to the right of the lift hill, however, I believe it will be inverted coming out of the first raven...contrary to what i stated earlier...then go into a full-full or some full flip element. Then into an inverted wide swooping luge turn around the station...with an ending very similar to x's into a second smaller raven turn and back into the station...and there's my two cents.

Howdy...new here...I am totally looking forward to this ride and thought I would post a few thoughts. I'm just going to attach a sketch that i did with the pics posted and let that sort of explain my idea about what is going to happen. I dont think that any of the lift-hill has been constructed yet, and what has been constructed is a modified raven with a new trick at the top and exit. I'm guessing it will exit this element much like an immelman, in that the track will flip over and join with the two A-supports on the way down... As far as the lift hill...I'm guessing a vertical drop pulling out at the bottom of the raven turn element... Its a little dark, but hopefully gets the point across.