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Battle of the top coaster designers  

1,050 members have voted

  1. 1. Battle of the top coaster designers

    • Intamin
      514
    • B&M
      536


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The great thing about B&Ms is how well they hold up over time; all the original inverts (Batman) still are reliable and haven't turned into headbangers. I doubt the Intamin launched coasters are going to get more reliable, but maybe we'll have to take this poll again in ten years.

 

In terms of quality of design, manufacture and engineering, the nod has to go to B&M.

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Also, Beemers age a LOT better.

 

Raging Bull - 7 years old. It's still as smooth as opening day

 

Batman The Ride (SFGAm) - 13 YEARS OLD! Keeps its steam until the very end. No headbanging what-so-ever.

 

 

 

Colossus (Intamin Throne coaster): From what i've heard, it's rough.

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B&M - Reliable rides. Current installments have really been pretty hit and miss as far as ride quality.

 

Intamin - Constant down time during opening. Occassional serious accidents have occured because of a malfunction or design flaw in thier product. Generally have good moments of air time and mind blowing rides.

 

Winner? Tie! I cherrish each as well, and I'd like there be as many intamins as thier are B&Ms in a park.

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Both have their upsides and downsides.

 

B&M- Good: smooth (for the most part), high-capacity, reliable, cool elements. Bad: newer designs "forceless", same old rides again and again, need more elements to make coasters more unique, some use trim brakes too much (Raging Bull, Montu).

 

Intamin- Good: smooth (newer coasters), products other than coasters, forceful, intense rides, cool elements, unique, not afraid of new technology. Bad: downtime, some small flaws in design, "intamin rattle" (which I've yet to experience), moving too fast in terms of technology?

 

If I'd have to pick, I'd pick B&M.

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Well, that's a quit good poll, cause i'm totally adicted to Intamin!

 

Let's start out with B&M. I live in Europe, so we don't have that much B&M's around here. Luckly enough i went to Florida this spring, so i did all B&M's there. Well, B&M is good, really good! I like verry intense coasters so i loved Batman @ Movie World Madrid. Also Kumba was pretty intense. The problem with B&M is, atleast i think: They build a coaster to perfect. The flows of the coaster are perfect designed an fully natural so that to feeling of riding that coaster is so smooth, even normal guest would feel that!

 

Here's why i love Intamin... Intamin just makes mind cracking coasters! Look at Expedition G-Force. It's just not designed for fully smoothness but hey, it is! And what looks tame on the ground, is a great monster while riding it. Intamin just dares to build something new... the point were B&M just stays save.

 

Conclusion: I love riding B&M's ... I love there Zero-G's ... but cause of there "savezone" , and there pretty much always the same layout stuff, i don't like them! That's why Intamin wins. Intamin just dare to build something new and crazy! Look at Goliath (Walibi World), TTD, MF, EGF! There just great!

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"They are both the best and they could rule the world if they collaborated MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA"

 

 

Nah, they've all changed over the years. I like B&M better, though, since there's more B&Ms in California than Intamin, I can't make a fair comparison. don't get how there's no mega coaster in the west that doesn't have problems (like Goliath).

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  • 8 months later...

I'm going to have to say B&M is the better overall company. Their coasters are usually smother and are defiantly more reliable. Intamin rides tend to be more forceful but are not reliable. To me, I would rather have a fun and reliable ride than a better coaster that isn't reliable.

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I like how most people say "B&M this" and "B&M that" but haven't ridden an Intamin, or have only ridden something like California Screamin'. I think the majority of people here are West Coasters, so they don't have rides like Superman SFNE, El Toro, Millennium Force, Kingda Ka, Top Thrill Dragster, Storm Runner, etc. Given the demographic and the way people vote when they don't know what they're talking about, ofcourse B&M will rank highest.

 

I've been fortunate enough to get a great sample of many B&M coasters and Intamin coasters, including some of the best from each company, and I can definately say that as far as thrill, Intamin generally owns B&M. B&Ms are ridiculously reliable, but don't most of you go to parks for thrills? I go to SFA all the time, and I don't think I've been there one day where I wasn't able to ride Superman because of downtime, and I'm sure most of the other non-launched Intamins are the same. A lot of people act like Intamin only makes Rocket Coasters, and they assume every Intamin ride has the same decent to bad reliability, which simply isnt' the case.

 

If you go to a park to have some fun with some good, but ultimately unfulfilling rides, then B&M is for you. I've been on Apollo's Chariot, Raptor, Alpengeist, Nitro, Batman, and other standout B&Ms, and they're really excellent, but not all B&Ms are like that. Medusa is fun but not overly thrilling, and I'm sure the other loopers with similar designs (aka 2/3 of B&M loopers) are almost the same.

 

If you go to a park to get on a ride, laugh and scream the whole way through with a giant smile on your face, and end the ride clapping along with everyone else in the train (I've never seen people as pumped up, happy, and excited after a B&M ride like they are after SROS SFNE, El Toro, Kingda Ka, and TTD) then go ride some Intamins!

 

With that said, I think all parks that can afford it should definately have a B&M, since they're well liked by many demographics. They're sometimes more of 'satisfiers' at parks, whereas Intamins will attract and keep guests excited. Definately a good choice to have both, rather than just several B&Ms and no Intamins, or vice versa.

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I went to SFA...3-4 times last year, and every day but one Superman was down for at least a 2-3 hour period. Same with the year before last, but I went 10-15 times and the ride was closed probably 5 of those times.

 

B&Ms do have better reliability, I've never witnessed downtime on their coasters, whereas on Intamins I've seen Superman, TTD, KK, and even a little on El Toro (but that was a brand new system so I'll give it a break).

 

It's a tough choice though, my top two coasters are SheiKra and El Toro. I think I would go with B&M overall, but I'm not sure...

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I think a really under-rated company is Premier. I mean, they have Speed: The Ride in Vegas, Mr. Freeze at SFOT and Poltergeist at SFFT. Three REALLY good coasters, especially without the OTSR's.

 

Throw in the Mummy rides and soon the Italian Job coasters and I think they are a solid #3

.

 

i'm beginning to want to vote premier

but thats not in this poll

 

Intamin coasters for me include TTd, MF, WT and steel venom. That's a good variety of coasters. TTD was the biggest adrenaline rush i've ever had. MF was fast, smooth but truly boring. WT and SV were quite boring as well, but different.

 

BnMs i've been on are all the ones in FL, GA, ohio, Riddler, scream/medusa, chang and Top Gun @ caro - maybe more i forgot. I have NEVER gotten off of a BnM and say that it was boring or sucked. The 1 kind of coaster that really makes this company better are the inverts. no explanation needed. The 1 element that makes this company better is the 0g roll = amazazing.

 

I, however, cannot wait to ride El Toro and S Ros and get a GOOD whip of Indiaman airtime but i don't know if iit'llbe enough.

 

I don't know what else to say....BnM wins!

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For me, it is definitely Intamin! I love most of the Intamin coasters I have ridden (Expedition Ge-Force and Xcelerator being my #1 and #2) while I find I am not much of a fan of B&M. I find that usually I skip the B&M coaster in the park if I haven't already gotten the credit because they are just inversion after inversion. Not only that but they can get vibratey and just not fun. Also, judging from Goliath in SFOG, their hyper coasters are not great either. There just was very little airtime and nothing that made me want to ride it again. Intamin gets my vote!

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Apollo's Chariot back row has some amazing airtime, especially on 4 of the drops... First is some of the most abrupt and sustained air, and is perfect floater... you don't touch either the harness or the seat until the pullout, it's amazing. The drop also seems a lot larger than it is. The third drop has a twist just after the apex, so backrow riders (already floating in the air) feel as if they're going to float out of the train. The MCBR drop is very unexpected and has a nice pop of ejector/floater, with a quick pullout increasing intensity. The final drop is huge for it's placement in the ride, and has amazing airtime, once again until the pullout. Nitro is probably more like Goliath, with good but less surprising airtime, and nothing stronger than some very slight ejector.

 

Still, AC doesn't come close to the intensity of Intamins like El Toro and Superman SFNE. Those rides are SERIOUS. Both definately have the ability to change peoples' minds about which company is better, but as I said, it seems that the demographic is such that most haven't ridden them or other great Intamins like EGF, Goliath, and most of the rockets.

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Arrow Dynamics!

 

But seriously, I think B&M is the better of the two. I've ridden a number of B&M and Intamins. Both offer great rides, however, B&Ms are very reliable.

 

A great coaster does not need to go 300 ft or even 400ft. It does not need to go extremely fast (90+ mph). To me, a good coaster only needs a decent layout and some nice thrills.

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Coasterlover, you say that as if there aren't only 3 300'+ 90mph+ intamins, and 50+ under that height lol. Did you forget such gems as EGF, SROS, El Toro, Goliath, Balder, Storm Runner, Colossos, Superman Escape, that random mini-hyper being built, etc.

 

The first 3 of those can't be touched by any B&M in thrills, not even close, and the rest you could make a good case for being better than any remotely similar B&M. All of those are under 210 feet tall, significantly shorter than the 3 entire rides that you cited.

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