Olympia Looping from Hamburg, Summer 2010

[simon8899]

I've ridden over 50 looping cvoasters so far but the Olympia-Looping by Schwarzkopf is still the best - high Gs and intense banked cruves with declining radius - and of course FIVE loops. Just love looking sideways seeing the earth revolving around me. The only thing that could make this looper even better would be new floorless trains with only hydraulic lapbars like on the Teststrecke, a Schwarzkopf Double-Loop also on the german circuit....

 

[robbalvey]

I would totally agree... one of the best in the world!

[Sidra]

I love it so, I miss living in Germany *sigh*

[Noxegon]

The only thing that could make this looper even better would be new floorless trains with only hydraulic lapbars like on the Teststrecke, a Schwarzkopf Double-Loop also on the german circuit....

 

Oh god no, those trains are hideous!

 

Olympia Looping is a superb ride that deserves far better. Lap bars would be great, but keep the Schwarzkopf rolling stock thanks.

[mightbeawannabe]

^Do you have a picture? I'm intrigued as to what they look like-

 

But, yes, Olympia Looping looks amazing! It's the uber-Schwarz portable coaster. Looks like it surpasses all others.

[ILoveRides]

I can't really think of a coaster that I want to ride more than this one. I just hope it's still there whenever I make it to Oktoberfest! Thanks for posting pics.

[ParkTrips]

Nothing beats a Schwarzkopf looper, thanks for the pics, its like porn for me

[Noxegon]

Sure -

 

 

Visually the train isn't bad, but the new restraint design is nothing like as comfortable as the old Schwarzkopf lap bars. I'd love to see Olympia Looping run with those...

[ILoveRides]

BTW, I always refer to this coaster as Olympia Loopon after seeing the video of Piers riding it.

[simon8899]

Here is one pic of the new Teststrecke trains from their Facebook profile:

 

www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=193331517363463&set=a.165099683519980.38582.165091500187465&type=1

 

The new trains have in my opinion two advancements:

 

1. You have your arms free - for looping only coasters you don't need shoulder restraints as lateral Gs are quite small. Of course you could also get that if Barth could aquire and refurbish some Loopingracer trains. And even for other coasters there is a nice trend away from shoulder restraints - Maurer Söhne builds all its Skywheels and launched costers with hydraulic lapbars and Recaro-like racing-car seats only.

 

2. I've a friend who is 2,06 meters tall and he can't ride in the Schwarzkopf trains as his legs simply don't fit. Poeple get taller and in that respect the original trains are just oudated - I'm 1,95 meters and I'm glad im not taller as its a tight fit.

[Noxegon]

I'm all in favour of lap bars, but I don't find the ones on Teststrecke to be anything like as comfortable as those in Schwarzkopf cars.

[CorkscrewFoley]

The ones on Teststrecke look familiar to the trains and restraints used on the Boomerang at Wiener Prater. Same company perhaps? As for lapbars on an Anton looper...isn't that part of the appeal, aside from what can only be great rides?

[Henry M]

I have a question about Olympia looping, and that is, why sometimes does it have 5 trains and other times has 7? I have seen images and videos of bother versions, but I just don't understand how the whole coaster can work with both train styles. Where to the other carriages go as well when not in use? Finally, do they also change the size of the station to fit with the train size?

7 carriages

5 carriages

[djcoastermark]

And another question on 5 car vs 7 car trains. How does it affect the ride experience ?

[Henry M]

And another question on 5 car vs 7 car trains. How does it affect the ride experience ?

I know right! It must have been designed to work a certain way. I know no other coasters which do this.

[SFOG1991]

And another question on 5 car vs 7 car trains. How does it affect the ride experience ?

I know right! It must have been designed to work a certain way. I know no other coasters which do this.

I assume with the longer trains the experience is more intense, especially towards the back.

 

I know Conneaut Lake Park goes between three and four cars on their three bench car trains and riding in the fourth car is much more insane than when it is running with just three cars. Not sure how exactly this effects pacing and of course it is much different than Olympia Looping.

 

Since Olympia Looping has block sections that probably helps regulate the difference, but I'm sure the drops are more intense in the back with 7 cars.

[robbalvey]

I have actually ridden both the 5 and 7 car version, and while yes, the ride is a bit more intense in the back of the 7 car train, I actually don't think it's THAT much more intense than the 5 car. It's already an AMAZING ride with the 5 cars so much so that we had almost an entire group of people not make it past a few rides of an hour of ERT with the 5 car train once!

[djcoastermark]

^ Interesting. Thank you for the response from someone who has done both. As always, Robb , the opinion I trust.

[Henry M]

^^ thanks for that! It cleared a few things up. It is as if there are two Olympia looping coasters, but there are not. I really hope this is coming to Winter Wonderland!

[SFOG1991]

Thanks for the insight Robb. That's pretty much what I imagined.

 

 

This coaster is probably near the very top of my bucket list at this point.

[john_phillips235]

Olympia Looping was originally designed to run seven-car trains, but only ever does so at Munich Oktoberfest, as it's the only fair that gets busy enough to justify it. I believe the rest of the year the extra care, and extra pieces of the station building stays at Barth's yard in Munich (they have 2 yards, 1 in Munich, 1 in Bonn).

 

One aspect of Olympia that rarely gets mentioned is that it is not only designed to run 5 trains at once (meaning a capacity of 140 riders at a time!), but the whole ride is designed to duel with itself when running all 5 trains, with several turns designed to send trains past each other at high speed. It really is amazing to ride it on 5-train operation, both because of the near-misses, and because of the amazing loading speeds.

[Henry M]

^ I have only ever been on one other ride from this manufacturer, lisebergbananen, and the dispatch time was stunning. Is is that good on ALL of their rides?

[SFOG1991]

^Of all the Schwarzkopf designs I've been on, the systems are very simple and reliable and the restraints are usually just a basic lap bar that is easy to use and check, so yes for the most part the ops are super fast and even at parks that have slow ops, they are faster on Schwarzkopfs than other rides in the park.

 

Most only have two trains or even one though, so really it depends on that as well, but the process in the station seems very quick.

[john_phillips235]

^ I have only ever been on one other ride from this manufacturer, lisebergbananen, and the dispatch time was stunning. Is is that good on ALL of their rides?

 

Not all, but most Schwarzkopf coasters are capable of very high throughput. I once times Olympia Looping's trains as being stationary for 16 seconds before leaving the station again, and another train immediately arriving at the loading platform. In a geeky way, it's a joy to watch. The real reason for this is that most fairs have relatively short periods of being mega-busy (except Oktoberfest, where it's ALWAYS busy). As such, the ride needs massive throughput so that during those periods, they can keep the queue moving, and keep selling tickets.

[Henry M]

Hmmm. Looked on the Olympia Looping website, and saw this. I do not know how reliable this is exactly, but it is up to date (2016) and called olympialooping.com . If true, then Winter Wonderland does not have the five (metaphorically) gold rings coaster after all.

No winter wonderland.