I'll take that, that...and one of those please!

When a park contacts a company, how many restrictions do they usually put on the ride? For example: Lets say that Alton Towers calls up B&M and says that they want a new sit-down coaster. Would they include any other specs, like height, speeed, length, or number of inversions?

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Intelligence is a God given gift: Know how to use it.

No, they'd just say, "Surprise us."

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

lol......

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It was only a fantasy, the wall was too high, as you can see, no matter how he tried he could not break free, and the worms ate into his brain.- Pink Floyd "Hey You"

They'd may just say they want a hyper or inverted, and B&M would come out and scout the site, then design it. If the park wants anything specific, records broken, whatever, they could ask for, and if it's possible, B&M will do it.

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HuKeD oNN fonickS dusinT wOrK"[;.

Well, with Alton Towers being the example park, they would tell them that they are not allowed to build over the hieght of the trees, and that they need to burrow down, or just have a low hieght for the coaster.

"Now Thats Show Business!" - John Wardley "European Coaster Kings"

They call up the coaster manufacture, and the workers show up within minutes, then they just throw it all together and see what they get.

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FoF said:
They call up the coaster manufacture, and the workers show up within minutes, then they just throw it all together and see what they get.

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Disaster transport anyone

*** This post was edited by PKIEMPSOB on 6/20/2002. ***

Parks on a budget wait for the "Blue light special"

Buy one coaster, get the second of equal or lesser value absolutely free. :)

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""To be the man, WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!, You got to beat the man""!!!

HAHA, that would be awsome!

I wonder if any ride manufactures would be willing to do that with any park, that is a good idea !

I'm sure Park companies (CF in particular) negotiate with coaster companies (Intamin in particular) for some sort of special for multiple rides from that company in one year. Buy one get one 25% off.

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FoF said:
They call up the coaster manufacture, and the workers show up within minutes, then they just throw it all together and see what they get.

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Isn't that pretty much how X-Flight came about? SF and Vekoma, what a combo!

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Holiday World, it's impossible not to have a good time

Except X Flight and Batwing aren't down every day.

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Can we change the name of Top Gun to your mom so no one wants to ride your mom?

Generally speaking the park would tell the company what type of ride they are looking for (ie-inverted or floorless, etc...) and they would inform them of any zoning regulations such as noise and/or height. They may also inform them of what elements, speed, height, records broken, etc... They would also have to give them an idea of the terrain that the ride would be placed on (if the terrain is very hilly, then a site visit may occur or results of a topographical survey would be given to the coaster company). Once all of that is dealt with then the ride designer comes up with something and proposes it to the park...then the park can say "yay" or "nay" (if nay, the park may go to another designer and start the process over) or they may decide to collaborate and ask for some slight alterations. At this point it can become a lot of back and forth negotiating on many aspects (including price) until a final decision is made and the ride starts being built.

There may be a step or two that I missed in there, but that was an over-simplified version of the process that truly happens. Hope this helps.

Happy Coastering!

Sean

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"Have fun stormin' the castle!"

I was under the impression that the designers typically present more than one possible design for the space and the park picks which one (or none) it wants. Also, don't parks typically offer the project to multiple companies and see which comes back with the best but cheapest bid?

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A rollercoaster? What's that?

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ApolloAndy said:

I was under the impression that the designers typically present more than one possible design for the space and the park picks which one (or none) it wants. Also, don't parks typically offer the project to multiple companies and see which comes back with the best but cheapest bid?

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I think it is at the discretion of the park and designer how many possible designs that they would like. That may be one of the different stipulations that the park puts on the company. It is advantageous to the designer to offer multiple designs, but the R&D becomes costlier (and if the design isn't accepted, the designer may swallow the entire R&D costs)

Yes, sometimes they do offer it to multiple companies, but a lot of times they don't due to various reasons like the company already preferring one designer (For example: SF may ask B&M for a hyper because they already know that is the style ride they want for the given park, rather than the two-across style of Intamin, Morgan, and Arrow). Or they may be asking for an off-the-shelf type of coaster with modifications from Vekoma. Or they may have a pre-existing relationship with a certain designer. Like I said above, that is certainly not the only way it happens, but it is a dummied down version of what happens. The actual process could vary greatly depending on the circumstances.

Happy Coastering!

--member # 3,450 of the People With No Freakin' Clue Club--

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"Have fun stormin' the castle!"