The "perfect" roller coaster

[boldikus]

As much as I love it, this thread needs to be renamed to the official maverick circle-jerk.

[Ape]

Lightning Rod

 

It's wood and steel, It is a launched coaster but also has a nice drop to it. Crazy air time with lots of speed and excellent pacing throughout.

[coasterbill]

When I call Phoenix the perfect coaster I don't mean that it's the best coaster in the world, it's up there but there are better ones for sure. I just consider it to be perfect because it's managed to stay at the top of the charts for such an incredible amount of time despite the dramatic changes and incredible innovation in the industry.

 

Coasters come and go from the top coaster lists all the time, they open to a ton of hype and then eventually fall down the charts either because of lack of maintenance or because bigger and better coasters come in and beat them at their own game. Phoenix is really the one coaster that has managed to maintain it's status as an elite ride consistently over such an impressive period of time.

 

For example. if you look at the last Mitch Hawker wood coaster poll, the top 10 consists of El Toro, T Express, Outlaw Run, Boulder Dash, Ravine Flyer, Balder and a bunch other modern coasters with Phoenix being the lone exception right in the middle of that group, Mitch even made a note on the poll and stated that:

 

Phoenix" continues to defy time. It finished #4 in 1994, when only three of the 2013 top 48 were yet built!

 

So I don't consider it the perfect coaster because it's the best coaster in the world today, but when a coaster has managed to stay in the top 5 or 10 wood coasters in the world for almost 70 years while every other coaster that's been ranked up there has since fallen off in favor of a modern coaster that will likely do the same, it's hard not to consider it a perfect coaster. It's longevity is amazing.

[Bedholm]

My perfect coaster would be intamin's take on Voyage (El Toyage). A 6000+ foot long terrain version of El Toro with the best night rides and a more diverse layout would be perfect to me.

[A.J.]

Here you go, here's something I did for one of my park projects that never materialized. I don't usually even finish a NoLimits coaster anymore, but this one has made me happy every time I've opened it since. I'm honestly flabbergasted that I drew up such a "good" coaster.

 

It's pretty much a Mega Lite. 30-ish meters tall, 750-ish meters long. However, the difference is that all of the intense, low-to-the-ground curves are replaced with high sweeping over-banked curves. Without getting into the technical stuff it means that it has the awesome airtime of a "typical" Mega Lite but without the intensity.

 

This makes it my perfect roller coaster because, like Phoenix, I'd be able to ride it over and over without getting headaches or motion sickness.

[Schrecken]

My perfect coaster would be a variation on Skyrush (which is quite close to perfect IMO). The first thing I'd do would be to make it longer, and I'd also keep all of the current awesome features like the airtime heavy first drop and multiple hills. But what I would do with the extra length is to add in some less ferocious negative G elements to give occasional breaks between the intense stuff, simply to make it more re-rideable. No helix, no major positive G features, just a few relatively more gentle airtime hills and turns interspersed with the breath-taking negative G elements.

And finally, I would change the restraints to make them more comfortable for riders while still keeping people from being ripped out of their seats. Not sure how I'd do that, though, but I'm sure there's a way. Possibly a different shaped part of the restraint that would come down over the rider's thighs to be more ergonomic, not unlike the B&M clamshell lap restraint.

 

So this would be a coaster that would be comfortable to ride for most everyone, and would still feature mind-blowing negative G's but would also have decent re-rideability. That would be perfection, IMO.