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If Arrow coasters could get the B&M treatment...


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I've had this thought as well, although I always imagined Intamin would be a better fit for revamping old Arrow rides. Seems like the Intamin track design would just be a better fit to begin with. I loved the Arrow multi-loopers. I grew up riding Shockwave at SFGAm and love the intensity of those rides...those first three vertical loops were awesome!

 

Oddly enough, wasn't Drachen Fire originally designed by B&M along with Kumba, and handed off to Arrow so B&M could focus their efforts on the inverted coaster?

 

Now that you mention it, SROS style bunny hills on Desperado would totally kick ass!

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After I thought about this topic a bit, it made me think: people probably thought at one time that it would be crazy to essentially stick a steel I-beam on top of a wooden coaster. It would ruin the ride and then what would it be? Nobody would want it.

 

Often outside the box thinking comes up with some crazy ideas that end up being brilliant. I'm no engineer and not saying it would work, but with the price of steel these days and thinking outside of the box, It might be a lot cheaper to devise a way to attach a secondary track to the existing track that would reprofile the transitions and devise a train to work on these new tracks. Some genius engineer could come up with some variation of that to blow our minds - you never know.

 

So back to the original topic. I'd like to see some of these long arrows get that treatment and hang around for some time. Anaconda is one that comes to mind. It actually has a nice setting and a decent layout, if only it could transition smoother.

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I think Vortex at King's Island should be converted into a floorless coaster with B&M track. That would be really fun, and it would make the end of the Vortex much smoother as well!

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I think Vortex at King's Island should be converted into a floorless coaster with B&M track. That would be really fun, and it would make the end of the Vortex much smoother as well!

 

I don't see that happening. The only thing I could see Vortex realistically getting is maybe the new Vekoma trains. But that's wishful thinking as well.

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I think Arrow/Vekoma coasters should get the new Vekoma trains if the old Arrow/Vekoma trains don't run well (Exceptions for Loch Ness Monster & Tennessee Tornado, plus maybe a few others). If the coaster has a good enough layout (which most of them do, even if they are cookie-cutter style), than better/more comfortable trains should improve ride experience drastically. The idea isn't bad, though.

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Really doing a "B&M" on an Arrow would be a complete rebuild, but great improvements are possible. If you compare to something like the I305 curve rebuild, it could be done for a fraction of the steel budget, but the park would have to pay all of it and still not be able to expect a full coaster lifetime for the improvements. One aspect of RMC I think applies is having design information to work with. They have to be doing some good measuring of the existing ride, maybe with lasers and computers.

 

Maybe better would be a the "Premier Treatment", where they discerned that the best way to stop headbanging is remove the thing the head bangs against. Or at least the "Vekoma Treatment" (?) where at least the new trains are better looking and more and comfy. But then B&M could make some nicer trains for it too. More open would be good.

 

Example Anaconda, I think it would help to have a little trim at the last moment before the first loop, get a hangtime on the back row and less brutal as it goes. "The Spot" must be rebuilt of course. Needs a water-hugging banked curve.

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I actually really like the Arrow coasters that don't beat the stuff out of you, and I find that a lot of them really don't, at least not in the same way that people equate roughness to other rides. Arrow's 'roughness' comes from jarring transitions because they didn't know how to really connect elements (all their rides seem like they could be recreated nearly perfectly in roller coaster tycoon), but I don't find their roughness from washboarding or general horribleness like I find in some other rides. Viper at Magic Mountain and Vortex at King's Island I still find to be super fun rides.

 

Having said that, because of that I don't think that an upgrade of the track alone would solve it. On nearly every corkscrew Arrow ever made, you enter it by leaning toward the right, and then proceed through the corkscrews in a righthand manner. This means when the guide wheels kick in and start moving the train up and over, your head gets a jolt because the forces are being applies laterally to move the train. On B&M designs, this was actually a huge thing that they fixed - their designs put the pressure down on the wheels that run on top of the track, and therefore also your butt, instead of the side.

 

Compare:

 

Corkscrew @ MI Adventure: http://www.themeparkcritic.com/Uploads/6673/Corkscrew%20%28MA%29%20%284%29.jpg

 

Kumba corkscrews - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Kumbas_vertical_loop_3.jpg

 

You can see how on Corkscrew, you're already basically on your side before the ride sends you into the corkscrew. To fix that, you would need to overbank the turn, pull out of it putting some positive Gs on your butt, and then the motion would make it so that you would want the corkscrews to turn the other way entirely.

 

If things like that were fixed - you also have mid course break run 'snaps' where the ride is banked comfortably but snaps into horizontal position to brake it, Shockwave was perhaps the most notorious for this - I think the rides could be really awesome. I for one would love to see three forcefull loops back to back like the Mega Loopers had (is Viper the ONLY ride in the world to feature this now!?), and I miss some of the other sort of strange things Arrow did mostly due to their own design restrictions. Having Vortex with so many elements so far above the ground is really unique. I love the Corkscrews that feel like they are in the middle of no where. I'd love to see it.

 

Edit - Oh, and B&M did not design Drachen Fire and pass it off - if they had completed the design but then left it to focus on the invert concept, why wouldn't they have just had it fabricated and erected? The entire thing that B&M does is *design* rides, fabrication and construction are farmed out, and neither of those would have been impacted by it. Or at least so says some random guy on the internet (me)

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The closest thing to a B&M treatment on an arrow coaster I think you can get is Dragon Khan. In the original plans/models of Portaventura, Dragon Khan was originally going to be an Arrow looper with intertwining loops.

 

These pics were discovered by Willy on PA-Community.

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Someone here has already mentioned drachen fire and it really would be king of cool to see B&M doing something at least inspired by it as it was actually quite original with its corkscrew/drop thingy. It's just a shame that the ride was so rough, I would like to have ridden it.

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I would love to see B&M's take on the Loch Ness Monster at BGW. Not to replace it, because I love that ride, but to see what their "version" of it would be like would pretty awesome. Imagine two of those huge B&M vertical loops interlocking.

 

It would also be cool to see their take on some of the now gone Arrow Loopers like GASM.

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I would love to see B&M's take on the Loch Ness Monster at BGW. Not to replace it, because I love that ride, but to see what their "version" of it would be like would pretty awesome. Imagine two of those huge B&M vertical loops interlocking.

Why not replace it? Busch Gardens Williamsburg is already B&M Land.

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  • 6 months later...

Just a random note here. I just noticed that Alan Schilke (RMC) designed Tennessee Tornado.

 

Ron Toomer apparently designed Drachen Fire, but it really doesn't look anything like his normal design or Arrow's. That cobra roll looks nearly identical to the Kumba one. However, Tennessee Tornado is undoubtably an Arrow coaster and used the same type of support structure and similarly out of character elements. It could have just been an evolution for Arrow possibly inspired by B&M but of course the Drachen Fire legend will always live on.

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I actually believe that all Arrows should get the Phantom's Revenge treatment in the same way that many coasters are getting the RMC treatment.

 

Kennywood is ultimate hipster park. They have been modifying old rides into amazing ones since before it was cool.

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I wouldn't mind seeing Matterhorn Bobsleds getting a ride overhaul (it technically IS an Arrow coaster ). Give each side interlocking corkscrews, some Raging Bull restrains, plaster the Abominable Snowman's face on the trains, and have the splashdown shoot up walls of water like Diamondback. Maybe then, Disneyland can break the curse of "Sunken Safety Rails: The Ride".

 

But in all honesty, I think it would be awesome if Iron Dragon or Ninja got the B&M treatment. And since we're still dreaming, it'd be awesome if Chance Morgan hopped onto the refurbishing bandwagon and take a shot at Magnum XL and Excalibur; just imagine the crazy amounts of airtime they'd try to add in.

 

Ironically, I was gonna say every non-inverted "Boomerang" known to man, but they're all Vekoma. One can dream...

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Ironically, I was gonna say every non-inverted "Boomerang" known to man, but they're all Vekoma. One can dream...

Why not, they use Arrow's track design and trains, it is free game as far as I am concerned.

 

What I would like to see would be an Inverted Coaster that follows Arrow's classic elements. Instead of a diving drop a turn then a straight drop, a loop, then a sidewinder, then another loop that interlocks with the initial loop, then double corkscrews and a Batwing inversion (instead of the over used cobra roll).

 

Frankly, if Arrows were to be modified this is my dream set up. Having B&M floorless trains, having B&M handle the lift hill design, having Alan Schilke make design adjustments to remove harsh transfers and further intensify their already intense spots, have either S&S (if they still have the track design from Tennesse Tornado) or Chance Morgan designed track. I'd love to see them take another shot at Drachen Fire (only changes being using a Batwing inversion instead of a Cobra Roll and using both a left and right corkscrew).

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I've had this thought as well, although I always imagined Intamin would be a better fit for revamping old Arrow rides. Seems like the Intamin track design would just be a better fit to begin with. I loved the Arrow multi-loopers. I grew up riding Shockwave at SFGAm and love the intensity of those rides...those first three vertical loops were awesome!

 

Oddly enough, wasn't Drachen Fire originally designed by B&M along with Kumba, and handed off to Arrow so B&M could focus their efforts on the inverted coaster?

 

It would be awesome if B&M came back and made the "Drachen Fire" they were going to build in the first place in the old Drachen Fire area. Especially with some old school (ie. Kumba) styling and craziness. THAT WOULD BE SWEEEEEET!

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Gotta back up the Drachen Fire thing. That coaster had an incredible layout, and it could still be an amazing coaster today if it was build properly, just like Kumba is. That first drop would still be a legend.

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