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Six Flags Great America (SFGAm) Discussion Thread


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The element is most definitely a dive loop not an immelman. Comparing the sequence of the ride layout to the height diagram you can see the ride will go up and stay at a high elevation before suddenly go back down. That is characteristic of a dive loop where the track goes up, then twists 180 degrees before diving back down under itself. It looks like it will also have a barrel roll or two. A dive loop isn't necessarily a high-G maneuver especially if RMC designs the ride to do an inline twist completely before diving back down. In that case you could imagine it looking something similar to the 153 on outlaw run but then curling down underneath itself instead of the pull out.

 

Assuming this ride uses topper-track and keeps its wooden coaster status... I was hoping it would take the record for most inversions on a wooden coaster but I think I can only make out 3 at the most. Maybe the two turn-arounds near the wilderness theater are extreme over-banked turns that could be considered inversions.

 

Given what see... what do you think will be the 3 records?

 

I thinking steepest drop on wooden coaster

Fastest wooden coaster

First Dive loop on a wooden coaster (although I was hoping for something like most inversions).

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Park president Hank Salemi did say tonight at the meeting that the ride will use polyurethane wheels.

 

^ That sounds like Intamin to me. RMC's whole argument on why Outlaw Run was a woodie was the steal wheels the train utilized.

 

NTAG and IRAT both have polyurethane wheels.

 

But Intamin said they were not going to do any inversions. I'm starting to wonder if this is going to be a I-Box track.

 

Edit: I wouldn't put it past Six Flags to claim it as a wooden roller coaster. This is their tidbit on the Texas Giant.

 

Sandor will build anything you ask for if you have cash in hand.

Edited by DJeXeL
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Sandor will build anything you ask for if you have cash in hand.

 

How about a reliable ride engineered properly from the start?

 

I kid... I kid... Intamin makes some amazing rides. I would like to see them do more wooden coasters here in the US... El Toro was a great ride. I wonder why more parks have not gone with them after the success of El Toro.

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^^Be careful what you ask for.

I wouldn't be surprised in the least if he read the forums.

 

^Agreed as El Toro is my #1 coaster. I for the life of me cant figure out why more parks haven't opted to use Intamin for wooden coasters.

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I have been boycotting Six Flags Great America (while living in Chicago) for a few years now. With a new wooden coaster in place, and not having ridden X flight yet I am thinking that next year I may give the park a day and see if it wins me back. I rode GateKeeper and Wild Eagle in the last two weeks and think Wild Eagle is head and shoulders above GateKeeper and I have heard from others that GateKeeper is much better than X Flight. I am hoping that this new wooden coaster is not much different from ThunderHead in Dollywood. That ride was unbelievable and gave the most fun ride than anything SFGA offers now (Raging Bull and Whizzer aside)

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Well...so much for thinking of heading to Chicago this fall and hitting up Great America for the first time. This news will make me postpone those plans until next year so I can ride this new wooden monster

 

Given Six Flags recent relationship with RMC I would say the odds are pretty good this will be a RMC creation as well but who knows maybe Intamin is seeing all these new wooden coasters with inversions and are saying "Hey we can do that too!!!!"

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There are numerous reasons, however the largest has to deal with the flash pass at the park. I know every park has them now and it is one of those necessary evils to keep parks running. But, I lack the discretionary income to throw an additional 70 dollars at skipping in line. My favorite two rides at SFGA, Whizzer and Raging Bull, seem to be the only ones that I even really want to ride. Superman is really uncomfortable for me and makes my legs cramp up (I have been told that it is a height thing.. I stand 6'1"). Iron Wolf is gone, Batman is a good ride but lasts for 12 seconds while you wait in line for an hour and a half. Eagle and Viper are both good rides, although Viper rides pretty rough these days. The Dark Knight coaster is garbage, and the Ragin Cajun is identical to DK however the spinning really helps the experience. Vertical Velocity is broken down half the time and when it is running, the line is ridiculous due to only one train.

 

I have just kind of decided that as time has gone on, I am better off saving my money and making a trip to another park and making a weekend out of it.

 

A few years back (when I had a season pass) I encountered a rude employee who strained my relations with the park even further when it came to a rule about leaving the park to get a sweatshirt after 7pm.

 

Another part of it may just have to do with already riding the rides so many times throughout my life that I just do not get a thrill out of them anymore.

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^^Be careful what you ask for.

I wouldn't be surprised in the least if he read the forums.

 

^Agreed as El Toro is my #1 coaster. I for the life of me cant figure out why more parks haven't opted to use Intamin for wooden coasters.

 

Price Tag! Intamin woodies are probably pricey (rumor had it that El toro costs close to what Kingda Ka cost) and would make sense for parks that actually make a lot of money in the chain like Great adventure, Great America, and Magic Mountain.... but the others... RMC seems to be more of an affordable... in terms of Iron Horse track conversions (don't know about the custom build topper track rides).

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^ El toro was only 12 million.

For perspective: Apocalypse @ SFMM was 10 million, Wodan @ Europa was just under 13.5 million. (Not sure if this includes themeing or not)

I've never been on Wodan but would venture to say El Toro is a much better ride experience which looks to be for a cheaper cost.

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Thanks to those that posted the pics. I was really glad to see that the coaster doesn't appear to have many inversions. Inversions are fine, but Great America already has plenty of inversions on other coasters. What they really needed was some ejector airtime, and at least from those plans it looks like this thing will have loads of it!! I was also really impressed with how well it seems they are going to make it fit in that area of the park. It's really amazing what the engineers can do with fairly small spaces in parks these days.

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Sandor will build anything you ask for if you have cash in hand.

 

How about a reliable ride engineered properly from the start?

 

I kid... I kid... Intamin makes some amazing rides. I would like to see them do more wooden coasters here in the US... El Toro was a great ride. I wonder why more parks have not gone with them after the success of El Toro.

 

long-time lurker, first time poster . . . .

but I am with you. This is up there with one of the all-time coaster mysteries: WHY hasn't any other north american park followed up on the success of El Toro over the past 7 years?

 

The ride has been a smash hit for a major park chain, Six Flags. It consistently tops the polls of enthusiasts, and, although i am not a regular visitor to SFGAd, I hear that the lines are consistently long and it's likely in the top 2 most popular rollercoasters at the park. So, on any conventional criteria, it's big a huge hit.

 

On cost factors, for a coaster that size, it was $12M in 2006, so we are probably looking at $15M-ish today, right in the cost neighborhood of a B&M type coaster like X-Flight. Maintenance-wise, the design probably requires very little maintenance compared to a conventional wooden coaster. So, from a cost standpoint, it's in the budget range for most newer coasters at major parks.

 

So, what gives? Why in the world wouldn't Cedar Faire, Six Flags or Busch Gardens think "this is a fairly cost-effective ride that the public loves?" Is it solely the perception that they think the public will only respond to what appears to be new technology (like a wing coaster) and the appearance of a wooden coaster is too old school / not sexy enough?

 

Genuinely perplexing, from my standpoint. I am REALLY hoping the new coaster as SFGAm is an Intamin El Toro-ish ride. Nothing against RMC, but El Toro is almost a perfect ride. I think you put that in any park and it is a smash hit.

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Voyage only cost $8.5 million and it is over 2000 feet longer and not all that much shorter with still decent capacity and plays just as well with the GP. Granted it does need a fair amount of track upkeep but doesn't have the reliability issues that Intamins entail.

 

Thing is, El Toro is plenty reliable. Not all Intamins are chock-full of downtime - that's mostly the hydraulic launches, because quite frankly no other company has invested itself in such an advanced piece of technology that's expected to run flawlessly hundreds of times a day.

 

But I digress. If Voyage cost $8 million when it was built but tears itself apart year after year, somehow I think that $8 million very well may have turned in to more than the $12 price tag for El Toro. Toro's getting its lift motor replaced right now, but aside from that I can't think of any prolonged work that's been done on it - I'm not even sure that they've done any trackwork on it in what, seven years?

 

Steer back on topic: RMC seems like it's going to prove to be the best of both worlds. You get the $10 million price tag, but you get a reliable ride (though I hear Outlaw Run has had its fair share of kinks, to be expected though) and you get a ride that doesn't need to be rebuilt every winter. RMC and GCI are the wooden Intamin and B&M, essentially. And I'm totally okay with that!

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Park president Hank Salemi did say tonight at the meeting that the ride will use polyurethane wheels.

 

^ That sounds like Intamin to me. RMC's whole argument on why Outlaw Run was a woodie was the steal wheels the train utilized.

 

NTAG and IRAT both have polyurethane wheels.

 

But Intamin said they were not going to do any inversions. I'm starting to wonder if this is going to be a I-Box track.

 

Edit: I wouldn't put it past Six Flags to claim it as a wooden roller coaster. This is their tidbit on the Texas Giant.

 

Sandor will build anything you ask for if you have cash in hand.

 

I know GCI has a woodie with polyurethane wheels, and RMC could very well put them on their train with topper track. If that's the case, it's a wooden coaster. But if this is a I-Box track and Six Flags is trying to claim it as a wooden coaster (which they've done with Texas Giant), then isn't a wooden coaster. I say that because neither NTAG or IRAT are voted as wooden coasters, but as steel coasters. Personally, I really don't care if it's wood or steel, as long as it's awesome. If the RMC rumors hold true, I'm going to ride my first two RMC's next year!

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But if this is a I-Box track and Six Flags is trying to claim it as a wooden coaster (which they've done with Texas Giant), then isn't a wooden coaster. I say that because neither NTAG or IRAT are voted as wooden coasters, but as steel coasters.

 

The best part about the blossoming success story that is RMC is that there ought not to be any questions regarding the classification of their rides, ever.

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Voyage only cost $8.5 million and it is over 2000 feet longer and not all that much shorter with still decent capacity and plays just as well with the GP. Granted it does need a fair amount of track upkeep but doesn't have the reliability issues that Intamins entail.

 

Thing is, El Toro is plenty reliable. Not all Intamins are chock-full of downtime - that's mostly the hydraulic launches, because quite frankly no other company has invested itself in such an advanced piece of technology that's expected to run flawlessly hundreds of times a day.

 

But I digress. If Voyage cost $8 million when it was built but tears itself apart year after year, somehow I think that $8 million very well may have turned in to more than the $12 price tag for El Toro. Toro's getting its lift motor replaced right now, but aside from that I can't think of any prolonged work that's been done on it - I'm not even sure that they've done any trackwork on it in what, seven years?

 

Steer back on topic: RMC seems like it's going to prove to be the best of both worlds. You get the $10 million price tag, but you get a reliable ride (though I hear Outlaw Run has had its fair share of kinks, to be expected though) and you get a ride that doesn't need to be rebuilt every winter. RMC and GCI are the wooden Intamin and B&M, essentially. And I'm totally okay with that!

 

yeah, I am not aware El Toro has any maintenance issues.

To-date, no one has been able to give a satisfying answer as to why no other Intamin pre-fab "woodie" has been ordered for a North American park. Very odd.

 

in terms of what is going in at SFGAM, as long as it has airtime hills, I would be thrilled with a RMC like Outlaw Run. I just "worry" that SFGam will go inversion mad, rather than focus on hills.

 

In terms of 2015 or beyond, a make-over to American Eagle ala Rattler or Texas Giant would be a perfect choice. Hopefully the freak accident on the Texas Giant doesn't scare parks away.

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