General Carowinds discussion
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By Thriller
#28490
You know car makers have shiping yards all throughout the US filled with cars waiting to be picked up by the haulers. You never know, the track could be off the B&M factory site (maybe for a few months now) and waiting on cargo trucks to load 'em up and deliver. Just a thought though b/c I have no idea how that works!
#28496
I have been obsessively, but shyly, following the fascinating developments everyone has been keeping "track" of here....then, strangely, I got a sudden urge to mud wrestle... :oops:
Must have been Wormy's photos.

Anyhow, the real reason I finally registered is to ask this: assuming the proposed layout is accurate, what would the actual track length potentially be, and how does that compare to other existing B&M hypers? Just curious.
#28497
^I had done some simple math calculations of the construction area a little while back and came to the conclusion that this ride will probably be in the 5,300ft. range, which is consistent with B&M hypers. The majority of those are between 5,000 and 5,400ft. long, with a few between about 4,000 and 5,000ft. long. With the way the layout of the construction area is, the estimate on length of track, and the fact that Cedar Fair has installed two of these things in the past two years makes for a pretty safe bet that we are getting a B&M hyper a la Diamondback or Behemoth. If we get anything else I would be REALLY surprised. Then again, I do like surprises...*thoughts of Jarvis in a speedo* :mrgreen:
User avatar
By Davidtmp
#28500
KDCOASTERFAN wrote:That & supports have started arriving,still no track yet but I'm sure that it should arrive within the next week or two. Carowinds could be looking at a floorless or B&M looper with the lift & station area starting in the parking lot however because if it were a hyper then I think we'd be seeing track or at the very least supports arriving by now.

This is really a funny post. Do all the markings going down the entire fenced in area not mean anything to you? You can come down and ride our hyper, don't worry.
The land clearing is going well from the pictures Wormy posted. I'm thinking we're about 2 weeks away from maybe seeing concrete trucks start to show up. We could start to see metal show up, but they may even try to hold off and make their big announcement first at Coaster Stock. I'm going to say in about 4 weeks for the metal. June 24-concrete trucks start showing up July 8- start to receive track pieces/supports July 27-new web cam goes live to follow the action so Wormy can take a break!
User avatar
By John43221
#28502
Well, if you go ahead and look at my spec, I'm guessing its around the 5200' range. (which i included again)

The height is going to be the tricky part. I'm only guessing where the lift will start, but then you have to consider if it's going to be steep or more gradual and then... what is the "Pullout" (no sexual reference there) going to be like? If you build that hill 230 feet and drop it 220... where does it go from there? There is going to be a point where it has to turn or raise and be built within a certain area. The train is obviously going to be going around the 75mph mark if thats the height, so if you raise it or curve it, it has to have a certain amount of feet so it doesn't hurt the riders.

So lets take my design, it's obviously an "L' shape and i came to that conclusion by the areas they have closed off. From how it looks, about 60% of this ride will go into the parking lot leaving the rest not only for the hill, station, transfer and ending, but the queue, plaza, shop, photo booth and any other aesthetics.

Now lets take this into consideration... Diamondback was theoretically $22 Million (but those numbers are usually off) so how much is too much to spend on this? Cedar Fair have had the money ready to go for some time, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were looking into penny-pinching. How would attendance differ between a $20 Million and a $25 Million ride? Probably wouldn't. If its a B&M hyper, its obviously unique to the area, so making it a little shorter wouldn't make any difference, since 95% of Carowinds guests have never heard of a B&M hyper.

I'm still thinking the ride will be around the 210 - 230' range and be around 5000-5200' long. It wont set any records except for the tallest and fastest in the park, but thats okay. It will be a fun, all-around solid ride.
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User avatar
By Wormy
#28506
Quick follow up from yesterday's post. It's clean this time - I won't be doing that anymore! Starting to sound like some kind of perv. Besides, I'm out of ideas.

flyer1965, the surveyor did indeed have blueprints spread out across his truck, but he had them refolded before I could get any closer.

Now slightly off topic for Dora fans:

Image
Last edited by Wormy on June 9th, 2009, 2:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
#28508
lily the walrus wrote:I have been obsessively, but shyly, following the fascinating developments everyone has been keeping "track" of here....then, strangely, I got a sudden urge to mud wrestle... :oops:
Must have been Wormy's photos.

Anyhow, the real reason I finally registered is to ask this: assuming the proposed layout is accurate, what would the actual track length potentially be, and how does that compare to other existing B&M hypers? Just curious.


I've heard it will be one of the top 10 longest roller coasters in the world.... and I wouldn't be surprised to see that when it's finished. That would make it the longest of the B&M hypers by a long shot (that would be about 5800-6000 ft of track)
By Capler
#28512
John43221 consider this. A $25 million dollar coaster today is not going to be worth $25 million in today's economy. Market pressures, including but not limited to, the price of steel have depreciated the actual value of the ride and it's construction. The question would be, who took the savings and who took the loss? My guess would be that B&M is not giving any money back but will add more to the ride to justify the set price. So it is not entirely out of the question that B&M could increase the height or extend the length in order to justify the original cost of the ride. This gives credence to the 'longest' rumor. Keep in mind that Fair is likely getting a price break for ordering more than one coaster from the company, hence leaving the Carowinds coaster at a lower set price to begin with. It would justified to assume that the actual price of the Carowinds coaster is a lot cheaper than the original Behemoth, even though Fair will announce it's price as being in the 20ish range along with the other two.
#28514
Davidtmp wrote:
KDCOASTERFAN wrote:That & supports have started arriving,still no track yet but I'm sure that it should arrive within the next week or two. Carowinds could be looking at a floorless or B&M looper with the lift & station area starting in the parking lot however because if it were a hyper then I think we'd be seeing track or at the very least supports arriving by now.

This is really a funny post. Do all the markings going down the entire fenced in area not mean anything to you? You can come down and ride our hyper, don't worry.
The land clearing is going well from the pictures Wormy posted. I'm thinking we're about 2 weeks away from maybe seeing concrete trucks start to show up. We could start to see metal show up, but they may even try to hold off and make their big announcement first at Coaster Stock. I'm going to say in about 4 weeks for the metal. June 24-concrete trucks start showing up July 8- start to receive track pieces/supports July 27-new web cam goes live to follow the action so Wormy can take a break!

oh its ok in fact you can come and ride our giga next year too!
I think we could be looking at a giga for KD and hyper for carowinds
kdcoasterfan i got ur back
User avatar
By Jonathan
#28515
Why are you Kings Dominion fanboys so dead set on Carowinds not getting anything significant next year? I am absolutely baffled by it. This isn't sports where we are competing for a trophy. Living only 6 hours from Carowinds, I would have thought that you would be excited about Carowinds getting something too, because there is a chance you could ride it. Bizarre...

Personally, I would love to see both parks get great new coasters (and clearly that is going to be the case).
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