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Best Racer


Best Racer  

  1. 1. Best Racer



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Put me down for Nash (and I've actually ridden all of the Racers listed, OMG).

 

Don't tell me they're 'Americanizing' (read: making suck now) Grand National! Just how long has it been running without any problems what-so-ever? Keep them away from Roller Coaster at all costs! I can't imagine RC with restraints or ugh...regular PTC trains.

 

Mag brakes on a woodie?? WTF???

 

-Don

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Put me down for Nash (and I've actually ridden all of the Racers listed, OMG).

 

Don't tell me they're 'Americanizing' (read: making suck now) Grand National! Just how long has it been running without any problems what-so-ever? Keep them away from Roller Coaster at all costs! I can't imagine RC with restraints or ugh...regular PTC trains.

 

Mag brakes on a woodie?? WTF???

 

-Don

Ultimately, blame our ever-so-lovely Health & Safety executive here in the UK. The people in charge of running things (not the ops, but the operations managers) themselves hate the changes they have to make. They genuinely love the rides as much as we do, including wanting them to run how they were meant to, i.e how the designers intended. The feeling is among them that new regulations etc. really are ruining their rides. But what can they do? - modify to suit or keep the same and be forced to get rid..?

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Nothing quite comes close to the Grand National for me. If you're new to it next year, give it a little leeway - the new cars are a little tight, and they've ofcrouse got the standard ratchetting bar & seatbelt combination PTC swear by now (and so do BPB operations managers literally, as they hate the belts, in their words the belts will be an "operational nightmare", but because PTC have got anal over safety and include the belts as a "required" restraint in their design now, BPB simply have to use them - it ran for five decades with no restraints at all before the old PTC trains were bought in 1980, and the only people to be injured were those who stood up on purpose!).

 

 

Really? Knoebel's Twister trains originally came with seatbelts. Knoebels ripped them right out within one week of operation! Phoenix's train originally came with seatbelts too, and Knoebels shoved them under the seat. After Knoebels casterized the seat belts from PTC's train, Knoebels and Tom Rebbie are still friends...

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Hey I know, and what a good time I had at Knoebels!

 

That does perplex me somewhat, but then some regulations and the way things are worked in this country, are actually tighter than in the US, despite how it may seem. Different states have different regulations afterall, whereas over here there's basically one "set", and a stupid set at that! (well, as far as I can tell.. I could be wrong regarding regulations, I'll admit I know little about them)

 

As I know a few PB managers reasonably well, I might try to urge them to talk to Knoebels.. I doubt anything would come of it though.

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I've been on 3 Racers/Twin Track coasters.

 

Grand National at Blackpool

The Racer at Kings Island

Gemini at Cedar Point

 

The winner is "Grand National" as you get "Ejector Airtime" going down the double downs and slammed into the sides round the corners. Make sure the Lapbar is set to the highest point, so you get a big gap between you and the bar..

 

I rode the "Racer" backwards, I did enjoy it but not as good as "Nash".

 

Gemini was fun esp the finishing part, but it went too slow round the corners and I thought it may stop.

 

There should be no brakes anywhere on a coaster until the finishing straight and station.

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Yea it's weird, here at Kennywood, they added magnetic braking to our Jack Rabbit rollercoaster. God knows why because the Racer and Thunderbolt still use the skid brakes.

 

With the skid brakes, two train operation on the Jack Rabbit was very time sensitive as they didn't want a train coming into the unload area while the other train was still in the loading area. If the warning bell went off that meant that the loading train needed to dispatch ASAP even if all of the riders hadn't finished buckling their seatbelts.

 

Now with the magnetic brakes they can wait and make sure everything is set before dispatching, even if the other train is in the unload area. I like the magnetic brakes as they are smooth and consistent compared to the typical fin brakes you see. The magnetic brakes don't wear out like the pinching fin brakes do as well. The brakes worked so well on the Wild Mouse at Idlewild that Kennywood has used them on the Jack Rabbit and Phantom's Revenge.

 

I believe the Racer is having magnetic brakes installed over the off season. It makes sense to do that one now as it has new trains. I'm sure Thunderbolt will see them soon enough.

 

Speaking of the Racer trains, they now have seatbelts as PTC will not ship new trains without them installed. I know that Knoebels doesn't use the seatbelts but any park that doesn't want to use them probably has to deal with their insurance company before they do so. The only concern I'd have for the Nash is that the seatbelts will simply slow down the operation as it did at Kennywood. I think the ride experience will be fine with the new trains and brakes. In another post it was questioned why BPB would do this and I think it's due to the fire damaging the other set of trains, right?

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  • 1 year later...

Lightning Racer hands down. Although, i think racing and hand-slapping is HIGHLY overater cause on lightning racers one side wins 90% of the time and same with the racer at KW. (Not sure about Gemini cause i don't pay attention and usually they're not racing) And the racer at Kings Island is only fun going backwards.

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