What coaster should get the next Rocky Mountain treatment?

[Yamez]

^ I personally love Lightning Racer the way it is, no reason to change something that fun and not really all that rough (compared to say Mean Streak).

 

I'd love to see Mean Streak get reprofiled and refinished into a powerhouse of a ride.

I'd also love to see Hurler (and clones) get the treatment, they'd probably be fine with just the topper track.

[Airtime&Gravity]

American Eagle would be great with the track topper, although, even just placing it in the helices, especially the end of the first one, would be an improvement. American Eagle is always being retracked it seems, so this would be very cost effective in the long run.

 

Shivering Timbers was aggressive, but reridable, like American Eagle, but I can still see where the track topper would also help. The ride is can be great, but it can still be bad(although only 1 out of like 5 of my rides on it would qualify as bad), so it would be an improvement if it meant all rides were great. Plus, the ending helix needed some work.

 

Voyage - I know the Timberliners are supposed to help, but if they don't, Voyage would be another great candidate for the track topper. I've heard it can be aggressive, plus maybe I just rode it on a bad day, but Voyage ranks as one of, if not the roughest coaster I've ridden. It was just not fun to ride, and with each ride(I rode twice), I couldn't wait to get off.

 

Boss would also be great with it. It has a great layout, but unless you sit in the front, it is a very rough ride. I think a whole Texas Giant makeover would be necessary to fix it, as a retracking, even with the track topper, doesn't seem like it would be enough IMO. If the ride is able to run at its full potential, I believe that it could be a top 20, maybe even top 10, coaster in Mitch's poll.

 

Edit: V I forgot about that.

Edited November 28, 2010 by Airtime&Gravity

[Guy T. Koepp]

^Do remember, if it gets the RM treatment. It will then be moved over to the steel list. There are a lot of steel coasters in comparison to the wood. A lot of amazing steel coasters.

[ElToroExtreme]

Rolling Thunder! not really! I think mean streak!

[rcdude]

My opinion may change in the future (especially if I ride Texas Giant), but I don't think there are a lot of wooden coasters that would benefit hugely from this. Regardless of what a park may claim, replacing all the track with steel makes it a steel coaster. It is no longer comparable to wood coasters because it will give a different ride. Even if you compare only similar designs, how many steel out-and-backs feel the same as a wood out-and-back?

 

The only rides that I think could benefit from this are rides that were once great but are now either so rough that they are unrideable or have been trimmed to death to keep from tearing themselves apart. A ride like Mean Streak, which has never ranked in the top 25 in a poll such as the Mitch Hawker poll, is probably a bad choice because it was never too highly rated compared to wooden coasters and likely won't fare as well agains steel rides. GhostRider, which is a name that seems to appear a lot in this thread, at one point ranked among the top ten wooden coasters in the world. This means it is a good ride that has deteriorated and could likely be revived with this conversion. In fact, this is my short list of rides that could probably benefit from this (based mostly on what I have heard, as I haven't been on many of these. The ones I have been on are marked with an asterisk). The more pressing the need is, the further down the list it is:

 

The Beast at Kings Island

GhostRider at Knott's Berry Farm*

Wild One at Six Flags America

Wildcat at Hersheypark

Blue Streak at Cedar Point*

The Grizzly & Hurler at Kings Dominion*

Georgia Cyclone at Six Flags Over Georgia

Cheetah at Wild Adventures

Stampida at PortAventura

Timber Wolf at Worlds of Fun

[MayTheGForceBeWithYou]

Most of the Summers/Dinn coasters need the retracking. Pretty much everyone here seems to agree.

[DOCTOR DOOM!!!]

I would like to see one of these built from the ground up personally!

[Gigalyte]

Is colossus projected by some historical landmark or ACE coaster what ever it is they do preserve old coasters I believe, could the profile be changed?

 

Anyways I was thinking of Colossus having the treatment done to it with some major layout changes.

 

First the lift should be steepened to like 45* top out at maybe 135 feet giving it plenty of room for a 65* to 70* first drop and even room for a double up into a severely banked turn around like on TG. After that bring back that glorious bunny hop the ejector hill the lady flew out on due to inadequate restrains for a person of her size. in fact include two of them before the double up into the second crazy banked turnaround.

 

Now heres my biggest change the second turn around should be completely rebuild and moved out a few feet far enough that they could add a MCBR while still keeping the famous double down, after the rise into the structure instead of going into that straight line of bunnyhills it should drop down do a crazy racing figure 8 in the middle of the structure then hit the bunny hills back to the station. maybe adding a racing flying carpet instead of just the straight line of bunnyhops

[jedimaster1227]

I'm a firm believer that if Texas Giant is successful (and I believe it will be), that the Rocky Mountain treatment could take Son of Beast back from lame to insane. Looking at how much has been accomplished with the steel track on the Giant, I can only imagine what kind of things could be done to Son of Beast, possibly making it even longer or, dare I say it, bringing back the loop (something I can only assume would be far more feasible with an entirely steel track).

[BeemerBoy]

I suppose I should just plead ignorance up front, because I haven't followed this real close. With that said, is Rocky Mountain essentially putting all their eggs in one basket here? And should this not go over well, are they "one and done," and basically SOL? Are there more unspoken of potential projects in the works, or is the whole industry in a "wait and see" stance? I'll admit, this has become fairly interesting.

[MayTheGForceBeWithYou]

^They're working on one of the woodies at Silverwood with the Topper Track. If the IBox doesn't work, we'll have to wait and see if the Topper Track does.

[Hydraglow]

Ghostrider for sure.

 

It would be quite amazing after the treatment.

[MayTheGForceBeWithYou]

GhostRider was amazing when it first opened. I still like it even though it beats the crap out of you. It's still worth it for that ejector air off the midcourse!

[A.J.]

GhostRider definitely.

[ArizonaGuy]

Rattler for sure!!! First drop back to what it used to be....or pretty close......MAJOR modifications to the helix and possibly add to the coaster.

 

Those are my thoughts

[jynx242]

I "sparked up" when I read Elissa's suggestion of Hades. Although the tunnel is still apocalyptic, the rest was truly, truly BRUTAL! Unfortunately, Mount Olympus would never spend the money to do this. I doubt they would even spend the cash on Timberliners.

 

Robb mentioned in another thread that the SFoG Cyclone would be a good candidate. You wouldn't even need to re-profile it. It was AMAZING and still delivers just insane airtime. It just makes your ears bleed and your ribs puncture vital organs.

 

David

[coasterbear30]

^Agreed! I used to really love the GA Cyclone and then about 5 years ago it got to the point that it is unrideable. I really could see the RM treatment to this one. It would make it insane and I would actually ride it again. If they are not going to do anything to it I wish they would just tear it down. It is such a waste of space as it sits now. I will take a GCI in its place any day!

[Pirouettes907]

I would say Mean Streak for sure, since I've ridden it and the entire time, it just felt like I was getting punched in the back repeatedly. Its size certainly enables plenty of creativity in playing with the track layout.

 

Based on what I have read, others' testimonies and pictures, it sounds like Rattler and SOB would be the top two candidates for the RM treatment: Rattler to restore its first drop to what looked like and sounded like an absolutely incredible experience; SOB to perhaps restore the loop and essentially, do something constructive with what has otherwise seemed a poor investment to at least make it something worth riding. Granted, I haven't ridden either of them, but the general consensus seems to indicate these two coasters might benefit greatly from this treatment.

 

As for the "wooden coaster purists" out there, I say I would rather have incredible wood-turned-steel coasters instead of piles of rough, unrideable crap just for the sake of keeping a coaster's original wood classification "pure."

 

I cannot wait to see how Texas Giant turns out!

[PKI Jizzman]

I'd have to say return the Beast to its former glory. And add some airtime.

[Guy T. Koepp]

Just out of curiosity. Did any one from RM discuss any original plans for a coaster with the I-Beam tracking? Robb? Anything at all?

[ginzo]

I disagree that SOB should get the Rocky Mountain "treatment". Even if SOB ran smoothly, it still has a boring layout with just some helices and no airtime. The conversion would likely be very expensive because much structural work would be required. It's well known that SOB was constructed very poorly.

 

In short, the money required to rehabilitate SOB in this way would be far better spent on a new Intamin or B&M. How about an Intamin woodie?

[A.J.]

It makes me wonder -

 

Would Psyclone have benefitted from this treatment if it were still around today?

[texcoaster]

I think it's important when posting to this thread whether you're saying that the coaster would be fitted with topper track or iron horse track and keep its current layout, or whether you're saying it should get a whole new layout like Giant is getting.

 

Beast could stay the same as it is now, but the new low-maintenance track could allow the trims to be removed. Trust me, there is no need to reprofile that helix into an "overbanked helix of death" if it's allowed to go full speed.

 

Son of Beast needs a whole new profile. KI has plenty of loops already and since the coaster would be classified as a steelie, there's no reason to put the loop back on it IMHO. The novelty was having a loop on a woodie, not just having a loop. There's enough height and speed potential with that structure to do some amazing things.

 

Ghost Rider, GaCyclone, Hades, Hurlers, Thunder Run could all use some topper track love. The layouts are fine as they are.

 

Mean Streak needs a whole new makeover. Why spend money to return it to its former dullness?

 

Rattler could stay the same as it was on opening day... up through the helix. The first and second drops on it were amazing that first season, but the helix was always crap. I'd like to see the top layer of the helix removed so the train crests the hill and then dives down into it a little. Two layers of speedy goodness are better than three layers of meh. Taking the trims out (ok, using them as a block brake only) makes that drop into the tunnel INSANE and the final helix becomes good again, too.

[metrock]

I've seen a lot of comments saying that Ghostrider should be the next coaster to receive this treatment. And while I agree that the ride is not as smooth as it once was, after a ride on it last week, I'm starting to think it's more of a train problem than it is a track problem.

 

I rode the coaster twice that day. Both times in the very back. The first ride was on the gold train (or maybe it was the bronze one?), and it was the smoothest ride I've had in 8 or 9 years. The ride wasn't back to 100%, but I still thought it was very decent. The ride just got out of rehab not too long ago, so I figured this was the reason it was running so well. You could see a lot of new wood along the ride.

 

Later in the day I came back and got the Silver train. The ride, while not as horrible as I've had in the past (didn't come off with a hurt back), it was very rough throughout the entire ride.

 

So, yeah, perhaps it is a train problem? While it's still yet to be seen how the new track on Texas Giant rides (or the topper track on Tremors) rides, I'd hate to see Ghostrider go away from the traditional wooden coaster that it is today.

 

If I was to have a vote on a coaster to get this treatment, it would be Colossus at Magic Mountain. Being that the park already has a fantastic wooden coaster with Terminator, even if Colossus doesn't feel like a wooden coaster after the treatment, they wouldn't be out a wooden coaster like Knott's would if they did Ghostrider. There is no doubt that whatever they did to Colossus would be a vast improvement over the current incarnation. As others have stated, I hope they would be able to go back to something similar to the original profiling. Give me back that airtime hill after the second drop as well as that killer looking double up following it.

[John Knotts]

^ I 100 percent agree with you. The last thing I would want is a bunch of "use to be wood, now we're steel" coasters. This should be the rare exception, not an easy fix everytime a wooden coaster gets rough.

 

I like the idea of the mega-threesome (Texas Giant, Mean Streak, Rattler) getting the treatment, and perhaps even Colossus. But most other "wooden" coasters? Um...no.