Ok kiddies we are getting crazy here. So lets speculate about something that might be a little more plausible.
Consider this……
*Carowinds is building something based on site prep and now a hint, -that’s a given.
*Fair CEO said with the purchase of Paramount that he would add steel, which apparently he’s doing with Behemoth and DB.
*It has been long rumored in the blogger-sphere that Fair entered into a 3 coaster deal with Fair, which also appears to be true. The main question would be, what type of coaster would No. 3 be?
*A basic B&M hyper costs roughly 20 million, and that was likely the going rate when the original contact was signed several years ago. Since that time the economy has tanked and the price of steel plummeted. It would be interesting to know if B&M passed that steel savings on to companies they are doing business with. My answer would be no, based on how business is done. But sometimes instead of the reimbursement of funds a vendor will provide more services at the original contract price. Diamondback’s splash down could be compensation to Fair for the decline in steel prices. Lets face it, except for the funky seats, B&M has never added special features to hypers, and they have built like 10 or so.
* Now this brings us to the 3rd coaster in the contract. Since that time the economy has gotten worst and steel prices has hit a decades low. Assuming the 3rd coaster is going to be a hyper, you will have to wonder what extras B&M will provide to compensate. Judging from pictures of the Carowinds site prep, you have to wonder if they are going above and beyond. The simplest construction method would have been to flatten the flume site and put in a basic Behemoth type hyper or flatten everything and add a splash down pool. Apparently they are not doing either one but are doing something else. Latest reports from the park is that the flume hill is rising. Could it be that maybe, just maybe B&M is upping it’s new 230ft standard to 250ft as compensation to Fair for weak steel prices? Normally the price increase is fairly substantial when a coaster’s height is increased above a certain limit, therefore they could be putting in a 20ft mound to accomplish this. With that said I predict that Carowinds will be home to the tallest B&M on the planet, 250ft of glorious steel. And it is not because the park is that special either but is related to pure economics. Hopefully it will have the spash down too as a cool visual.
