[Cephas]

Carowinds should get a woodie twister/racer like Gwazi/Lightning Racer. Those are so much fun. Oh and make both tracks really different like like the Lion and Tiger tracks on Gwazi.

Just anything from GCI (Great Coasters International), I really like their coasters.

[coasterbruh]

Ah, the original "wish list" thread. It's interesting looking back that even though the park has grown tremendously, only a few of what people suggested actually showed up at the park.

[cwgator]

Carowinds should get a woodie twister/racer like Gwazi/Lightning Racer. Those are so much fun. Oh and make both tracks really different like like the Lion and Tiger tracks on Gwazi.

Just anything from GCI (Great Coasters International), I really like their coasters.

15 years later we get confirmation that Gwazi will get RMC'd...lol

[Coasterphreak]

To be fair, most of GCI's early rides have not aged well, on top of the fact that parks don't like spending the money to maintain wooden coasters.

[Carowindsman]

We need a flying launched winged rmc arrow dualing 4d strata coaster

[Lit]

I wish they’d add a GRAVITRON but I’m afraid they would cut ride-times to handle extra volume on busy days. I’ve ridden some that seemed to go on forever (Myrtle Beach) but I’ve been on a couple in busier places that started slowing down as soon as everyone slid up (EDC Las Vegas).

[pproteinc]

^ i.e: Zephyr, Rock N Roller, Electro Spin, Carousel and most likely Mountain Glider will be cut shorter than it was as Woodstock Gliders.

[tarheel1231]

I didn't want to double post in the wishlist thread again, so I revived a relatively dead thread so I could make this.

My concept for what I think should replace Nighthawk is a B&M Dive Coaster named "Vulture".



Heavily inspired by Banshee at Kings Island, the theme for Vulture is this:

At the center of the Carowinds lies a decrepit chapel, surrounded by the graves of past attractions. The Nighthawk has fallen, and a new bird has come to feast on its remains. However, this buzzard is no ordinary scavenger.

Perched at 223 feet, Vulture plunges riders 24 stories straight down and into the tomb of the Nighthawk, emerging from beneath the ground at speeds in excess of 80 miles per hour. Midway through the ride. Vulture gives its victims a brief reprieve before heading into the world's first wingover-drop on a dive coaster, and into a second half full of demented twists and turns.

Take the plunge on the world's tallest, fastest, and longest dive coaster.

Guests enter the queue line through a cemetery, much like the "Haunted Hill" entrance for Banshee.



Vulture makes use of Nighthawk's old queue line, but it is lined with tombstones of past attractions and easter eggs for fans.



The station is an old chapel. It makes use of the structure of Nighthawk's old station, but with a different facade and a double-load station. The station is also connected to the ride's storage area:





The lift hill and drop is similar to Yukon Striker, a 223 foot height with a 245 foot drop into a tunnel.



Just above the tunnel entrance is a giant tombstone dedicated to Nighthawk.



At night, it glows bright red:





It follows the dive coaster formula with a giant immelmann:



Next, it heads into a wingover drop right above the queue for Skytower:



The next element is a zero-g roll directly beneath the second drop:



It rises up into an airtime hill above the lake:



Vulture circles around the entry plaza like its namesake bird does above its prey:



The final element is a heartline roll which positions riders directly above the lake:





The ride would be positioned like this:

2019-12-16 (20).png (1.73 MiB) Viewed 18972 times

Imgur Link

Here's a video of the ride, including an off-ride POV, and a day and night POV:



Thoughts?

[coasterbruh]

Thoughts? It was too #BasicBitch for me. The smaller dive coasters tend to have a much more tighter layout and you can never replace one of the drops with a winged coaster element. I think I'd rather have Nighthawk . . .

[BelowThePeak]

I like the color scheme. I think the theme would be a little too dark, especially for a front of the park ride.

The layout looks okay. Nothing special, but it'd still be in the park's top 5. I think I preferred the other dive coaster concept you posted a while back (the one in the Dinosaurs Alive plot). I remember liking the water features and rockwork on that one (plus I thought the layout was more creative).

[tarheel1231]

I like the color scheme. I think the theme would be a little too dark, especially for a front of the park ride.

The layout looks okay. Nothing special, but it'd still be in the park's top 5. I think I preferred the other dive coaster concept you posted a while back (the one in the Dinosaurs Alive plot). I remember liking the water features and rockwork on that one (plus I thought the layout was more creative).

The theme is pretty dark, but I feel that it would be comparable to Valravn in terms of the overall theme/aesthetic, which is also close to the front of its park. Plus, Nighthawk has pretty dark signage as it is, so I feel like it would be more of a lateral move than a complete departure from what is currently there.

As far as the layout is concerned, I actually just copied the one I used for Peregrine Plunge, with the only real difference being that I used a heartline roll at the end instead of a splashdown. However, I do like that theme better. I feel like it would be out of Cedar Fair’s budget, but if they were willing to build a mountain with waterfalls in the middle of the park, it would make for a better first impression.

[BelowThePeak]

I like the color scheme. I think the theme would be a little too dark, especially for a front of the park ride.

The layout looks okay. Nothing special, but it'd still be in the park's top 5. I think I preferred the other dive coaster concept you posted a while back (the one in the Dinosaurs Alive plot). I remember liking the water features and rockwork on that one (plus I thought the layout was more creative).

The theme is pretty dark, but I feel that it would be comparable to Valravn in terms of the overall theme/aesthetic, which is also close to the front of its park. Plus, Nighthawk has pretty dark signage as it is, so I feel like it would be more of a lateral move than a complete departure from what is currently there.

As far as the layout is concerned, I actually just copied the one I used for Peregrine Plunge, with the only real difference being that I used a heartline roll at the end instead of a splashdown. However, I do like that theme better. I feel like it would be out of Cedar Fair’s budget, but if they were willing to build a mountain with waterfalls in the middle of the park, it would make for a better first impression.

The layouts are the same? I guess that does kind of illustrate what I was talking about. Good theming can turn a pretty good ride into a great one. I feel like if Carowinds is going to build a dive coaster, I'd want them to go all-out on the theming, especially if it is a front of the park ride. I don't know what would be realistic budget-wise, but if you don't include Fury (since it's not actually inside the park), Carowinds doesn't have too much of an entrance statement after taking foot inside the park, so a well-themed dive coaster could be a worthy investment.

I really can't see Carowinds going with a graveyard theme for a front of the park coaster, though, especially since it would be one of the first impressions you get walking in. It'd probably be a little too unsettling for families, particularly when you consider that the Nighthawk plot of land is on the way to Camp Snoopy.

[Rabidfrog]

I think for a centrally located coaster like this your theme could be Carolinas... and have it be the park/states in miniature.

Have the mountains and the piedmont, the swamp, the ocean, lowlands, etc all represented during the ride.
Especially if you add in vortex spot you would literally be on the border with the ride. Super themed - this could be an anchor for the park.

[tarheel1231]

I think for a centrally located coaster like this your theme could be Carolinas... and have it be the park/states in miniature.

Have the mountains and the piedmont, the swamp, the ocean, lowlands, etc all represented during the ride.
Especially if you add in vortex spot you would literally be on the border with the ride. Super themed - this could be an anchor for the park.

I don’t know if they’d remove Vortex, but I like your idea for the theme and wanted to just add onto it:

The ride is themed to a travel agency/commercial sightseeing plane, and a flight that goes wrong. As far as theming, think the “See the Carolinas” postcard tagline on Goldrusher, or the queue line from Verbolten. The queue line is themed with billboards advertising different regions in the Carolinas, and the station is themed airport. The ride passes by a flight tower on its way out of the station, and the near-miss elements could be blasting through billboards like The Swarm at Thorpe Park. There’s rock work and sand and other elements to show you passing through different regions in the Carolinas.

I don’t have a name in mind for this, but it would fit better with the overall section of the park with rides like Kiddy Hawk, Windseeker, and Ripcord as sort of a “flight section”. While the plane theme would be a bit overdone, I think they could make it distinct from Afterburn and Flying Cobras with the overall back story. I’ll try to edit the ride in Planet Coaster later.

[EDIT] Cedar Fair still has yet to use their “The Ledge” trademark, so I think that name would be perfect for a dive coaster. Maybe one of the billboards has “See THE LEDGE” as a selling point, and that could be the ride’s entrance sign.

[yawetag]

Adding to that, make it more historical. The Wright Brothers were able to master flight, and we're flying along in their airplane.