1st drop on Inverteds

I've always wondered why B/M inverteds never have a straight drop. The only ones that come close are Great Bear and Raptor. Is there a reason for this??

Um - Raptor has a 90-degree turn during its drop.

I have heard the reason has something to do with the cars coming too close together. Personally, I just think it's because a straight lift directly into a straight drop takes up too much room; and a curving drop also conserves more space, and materials, than a turn-and-drop.

Personally I love all curving drops, and Raptor is the best of them all.

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He let the contents of the bottle do the thinking; can't shake the devil's hand and say you're only kidding.

The outward "kick" on the inverted drops is a sensation you don't get on any of the other B&M models. I wouldn't want a straight drop!

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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"

The whole concept behind inverted is to have quick turns, tight layouts, and strong Gs. Big layouts with straight drops are kind of contradictory to this purpose. I tend to think a straight drop on an invert would be boring.

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Proud CB club member

I do believe that to conserve space is one of the main reasons that most of the drops are curved, but also like Jeff mentioned, you can't get that outward kick on any other type of coaster. Also, as Mark mentioned, the way they're designed is to be tight with lots of twists and turns. That post mentioning that there wouldn't be enough room (cars too close together)on the drop if it was straight down got my attention though, as now I'm in the mood to do some calculations and such to see if this is true, I believe that could be a major reason too. Still, look at the amount of space coasters like Batman and Raptor take up, not much at all, and then look at how much more space they'd take up if they had the lift and then drop layout (trying to make them as much the same as possible), there's a huge difference there in the amount of space it takes up. If you can make it just as good while using up much less space, why not?

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"You can't kill what's stronger than death" - Zakk Wylde

I believe it is also about the view. On a regular caoster, the track is under you. When you go down a straight drop, you can see everything. If there was a straight drop on an inverted, you'd have your vision scewed by the track above you. That probably is another reason.

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Women was god's second mistake.

Hey DLDude, are you just a little bitter? (referring to your sig).

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Oh but its so true.

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Joey Ciborek, Florida Coaster Club, Member
"WE RIDE ALL YEAR!!!" www.FloridaCoasterClub.com
"all the sea around the KRAKEN darkened"

If space was the only issue, then they could have just done the dip and turnaround thing like on Demon @ SFGAm. That would also take care of the 'car-bunching' thing; which BTW, I think is crap as Fire Dragon has a bunny hop that should have the same bunching problem, but doesnt. "in general", I prefer the straight drops to the curvedones, but I guess they are tolerable on inverts. Alpengeist's drop is particularly interesting as it is more of a sprial than a curve.
jeremy
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"Nobody writes about the planes that land." Steve Salerno Washington Times 7-10-01

Space isn't really the issue, sure if you have a compact inverted then it's gonna' be tight with curved drops, but there are quite a few inverteds that aren't tight and compact but still follow the curved drop. Top Gun, Katun, Montu, and Alpengeist are good examples. In fact, I don't know of any (full curcuit) inverteds that have a straight drop, and I can see why. Like Jeff mention, the curved drops takes advantage of an inverted coasters freedom and whip you outward with nothing below. A straight drop is not going to do any of that for you and it also would kind of screw up your sight since you can only look down where as the curved drops whip you outwards and the entire trains is not in the same direction at the same angle.

Top Gun at Carowinds sitting in the back left seat is insane. With that sharp turn to the right you get flung over and it provides so much fun. I think B&M inverts live for those drops.