Alton Towers Discussion Thread

[AstroDan]

^ Is the 165 days the announcement or the opening?

Opening I hope I think they won't announce it on March 1st.

Wonder what's going to make it a world beating. This ride is going to be great.

 

I'm still wondering on the builder. Seeing the track is not from Gerstlaurer but more Premier or Maurer style, I would still say one of those above Gerstlaurer.

 

It is categorically being manufactured by Gerstlauer.

 

[3Mutts]

If this thing had more than 10 inversions, it would break the record as far as I'm concerned.

It needs more than 11 inversion to beat the record due to Journey to the Stars opening in China.

 

Link: http://www.rcdb.com/9821.htm

Edited October 1, 2012 by 3Mutts

[A.J.]

"Track style" is irrelevant here when it comes to figuring out a manufacturer.

 

Vekoma makes both inside-rail track and outside-rail track.

Intamin makes wide, traditional-style track as well as their usual multi-rail track.

[SoCalCoasters]

Has anyone checked the hash tag on the bottom of the 2013 site?

[RCT3Bross]

^^ I use it as a guideline to the builder.

The rumor says a Gerstlauer Eurofighter but most of them are build with the triangular shape track en the double tube track. Off coarse they could have a new track design (they could), but I don't expect them to build a full track out of it right away, I would say that they sooner make a combination of the double tube track and the new track in order to look at it. So I think it is a company that has a history of using the round backbone. I won't rule Gerstlauer out but I think the chance is small.

[coasterfreak101]

Has anyone checked the hash tag on the bottom of the 2013 site?

 

Just looking through the #getcorrected tweets, I came across a link to this coaster site from the UK:

 

http://www.coasterweek.co.uk/

 

Assuming the countdown is for the announcement, it's on October 27th at midnight, EST.

[SoCalCoasters]

Okay, I wasn't sure of there was anything besides that on it.

[Rollercoaster5000]

Just looking through the #getcorrected tweets, I came across a link to this coaster site from the UK:

 

http://www.coasterweek.co.uk/

 

Assuming the countdown is for the announcement, it's on October 27th at midnight, EST.

 

PS. The logo does imply multi-inversions. However, I find it hard to believe that this coaster would break Eejanaika's record of 14 inversions (although I am not a big fan of this particular record, since they in my opinion aren't real inversions)...

 

I never understood how they count the inversions for the 4D coasters - on X, for example, your body is upside down only twice. If this thing had more than 10 inversions, it would break the record as far as I'm concerned.

 

EDIT: At the same time, the official website has a countdown for 165 days from now, so in March 2013.

http://www.altontowers.com/2013/

 

 

Just to clear this up. What you posted is a link to our launch page for our new website, this is not in anyway part of SW7's marketing.

[coasterfreak101]

Ah, sorry about that. I saw that the page wasn't tied to Merlin/Alton Towers, but I just assumed for the countdown. Well then, back to guessing!

[AstroDan]

The ride is scheduled to open on March 16, 2013. This is indicated at www.altontowers.com/2013

 

[Dobba]

Well we have our first use of "world first rollercoaster" in relation to SW7 in the resort's marketing.

 

[andybarnes84]

So SW7 is going to be themed to some sort of asylum then? Which explains #getcorrected

[Thunderhead]

Very very cool! I look forward to following this!! Clever marketing, in my opinion

[RCT3Bross]

Looks like fun. But who els is having a Deja vu ? Didn't they had a fear theme for Sub-terra and failed horrible? So SW7 joins the list of the first of there kind in Alton Towers, wonder what its going to make him a world first.

[snoflake15]

Fully expect great marketing for SW7. Just hope the ride lives up to the hype this time.

[AstroDan]

Fully expect great marketing for SW7. Just hope the ride lives up to the hype this time.

 

Whilst I agree, I don't think there's risk involved with this ride.

 

Unlike Th13teen, this ride has a very solid layout and a number of inversions. They can't really go wrong with that, in the eyes of the public.

 

[TDR62]

From TowerTimes. It would appear that they have sources that suggest the ride (SW7) would be going for a 'most inversions' record. As the track layout is mostly known and shows 8, people supposed that there may be some in the building but it was unlikely given the space. It now seems that there may be a section where the track itself inverts/rotates (an unknown number of times) so as to give the feeling of a heartline twist style inversion.

 

See TT for more; I don't want to detract from anything they have reported; I just thought to liven up the discussion I would add this.

[UrbanLegend]

Read that rumor on Screamscape. Just thinking about it makes me feel ill.

[theonetheonlyJT]

2013 - SW7 - Under Construction - (10/9/12) There is a very odd rumor about SW7 starting to float around the inter-webs that sounds crazy... and at the same time, sounds like something Alton Towers would try to do as well. It has come to light that SW7 may attempt to take the inversion record when it opens, but with the track layout already shown to have only eight clear inversions, this was a bit of a head scratcher until now. We know Alton Towers likes to have new gimicks, and that there seems to be an enclosed section of track between the station and the lift hill that has so far remained out of sight. Much of the building it travels through was labeled as a maintenance area, but what if there is more to it than that? What if Alton Towers has found a way to only only score the world record for inversions, but do it in such a way that they could evolve the ride over the years to keep the record, no matter what the competition was to do?

Picture this... what if before your coaster hit the first lift hill, you traveled into a special effects tunnel (imagine a Vortex Tunnel effect) on a very special piece of track that would essentially bring your car to a halt, but begin spinning around and upside down a few times before stopping and sending you out onto the lift hill? A typical Vortex Tunnel effect is enough to make most people stagger off balance when trying to walk through it, but imagine a Vortex Effect mixed with a ride car that would actually spin and rotate around the room in the opposite direction!

Certainly the crazy looking icon graphic they’ve been using the tease SW7 with lately seems to almost to hint that just such an element may be possible. But the genius part of this concept that that with a little reprograming, they can add on more inversions to the program for years to come to always keep SW7 as the coaster with the most inversions on the planet. Stay tuned!!

 

Sounds insane also the SW7 logo makes a lot of since with the idea.

[rollin_n_coastin]

Sounds interesting. A potentially perpetual JoJo roll....

 

Enjoy the marketing and teasers, especially knowing that Alton can go over the top. Maybe not as much as Thorpe but I've learned that you need to substantially discount claims of excitement, world's best, world's favorite, death, etc, etc.

 

Fun exaggerations of a life altering experience and potential death didn't take away from Thirteen for me. It was one of my favorite rides at the park for what it is. It's pretty solid.

[SoCalCoasters]

I really love the fact that Alton Towers seems to have the guts (aka money ) to try all these great new coaster concepts. While some may discount Th13een, there's one aspect of that ride's drop system that trumps the Zierer version.

 

That aspect being the timing. Alton got the timing perfectly down with Th13een. There's little pause between the fall and the launch backwards, so the ride keeps its flow...hopefully the same will apply to SW7...but the only thing I worry is that the piece of rotating track will kill capacity. An 8 person car on the rotating piece for the 30 seconds, plus the apron 15 seconds added for transferring makes the max capacity something like 1,000 PPH if you're hauling. With the popularity this ride is going to have...that'll majorly impact how many people get on this.

[coasterfreak101]

^I feel like I heard rumors that this would actually be the first Eurofighter to have three rows of four instead of just two. That could help capacity quite a bit.

 

Also, what are the chances that they could get two cars on the rotating track at the same time? Mack does that for their elevator lifts, so maybe that's an option here (or at least something that's been looked in to, I would imagine).

[RollerCoasterSmi]

Whilst it sounds like a cool & crazy idea I can't imagine that it would be repeated more than about three or four times (I wouldn't want it to either).

 

[coasterfreak101]

^Well there are eight definite inversions outdoors, and I wouldn't be surprised to see one or two of the small twisting hills in the one fan recreation video (based off of the layout submitted to the town) actually be rolls or corkscrews. If they are looking to take the inversion record, they'll need to hit 12. So that could be anywhere between 2-4 flips in the building.

[RollerCoasterSmi]

The vortex tunnel idea just sounds so vomit inducing & uncomfortable! I really do not like Submission (AT's Chance Inverter) due to the slow monotonous rotation so whilst the Vortex tunnel idea sounds ccol and crazy in theory, I'm not sure how much I'd enjoy it in practice (if the rumor is true).