Article in Popular Mechanics

I was looking through the latest Popular Mechanics issue and I came across an article about Dodopna being the fastest coaster in the world now. Did anybody else see this? This coaster looks awesome and I would love to ride it.

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I can't think of a good signature.

Yeah that looks awesome. 107mph over a 170ft tall hill. Thats gotta have awesome airtime.

But it says it reached speeds of 120 mph during testing. I don't get how because i thought if the trains had people (or more weight) that it would make a coaster go faster cuz it has more weight to push against wind resistance and friction. Unless they tested it with extra heavy sand bags ir somethin.

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Millennium Force......It has its ups and downs.

www.helpmeineedtorideacoastercauseithasbeentoolongsinceihaveriddenoneandiam goingtogocrazyoneverybodyreadingmysignaturerightnow.com
I have 32 coasters in my track record.....I'm so proud of myself.

It did reach speeds approaching 120 during testing,. However, that was an empty train launched with maximum thrust.

I have seen Dodonpa in person, and it is an amazing, beautiful coaster!

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- Peabody

Wow, 120 MPH!! That is fast. Like RllrCstrDude187 said, MAJOR AIRTIME!!

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I can't think of a good signature.

It doesn't run with people at that speed, though. It's 106.7 mph

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- Peabody

Still, 106.7 is extremely fast, it would still give you major airtime on that small of a hill.

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I can't think of a good signature.

Yes it does, but a lot of speed is lost before that hill. It's more than halfway through the ride. The crest is wide and taken slowly. It doesn't have the airtime that Hypersonic does.

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- Peabody

Does anybody have a picture of this coaster?

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Ride Raging Bull, De javu, V2, or Batman. Decisions Decisions.

I highly recommend these pictures ;) http://www.coastergallery.com/japant/FH.html

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- Peabody

I saw it as well, has anybody ridden both Thrust Air and Rockn' Rollercoaster because I got to say that on the launch for Rockn' Rollercoaster of 0-60 in 2.8 seconds knocked the wind out of me, I don't know how well I would handle 0-107 in less than 2 secs or 1-80 in less than 2 secs, is it in anyway painful because I honestly couldn't breathe during that launch, I swear I felt all my organs hit the back of my body.

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Milwaukee Wisconsin, we bring you beer, brats and cheese. But don't be fooled, "Milwaukee truly is a special secret getaway that I will be sure to tell my friends about!" Erin Brockevich, not to mention that we are an hour from SFGAm........

WOW Jeff you get around, how do you afford all those coaster trips?

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Milwaukee Wisconsin, we bring you beer, brats and cheese. But don't be fooled, "Milwaukee truly is a special secret getaway that I will be sure to tell my friends about!" Erin Brockevich, not to mention that we are an hour from SFGAm........

Very simple, they're not coaster trips. My job/life takes me to all kinds of neat places and always make sure that I can stop at as many local parks as possible. When I found out I had to go to Japan, all I could think was "FREE COASTER TRIP!"

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- Peabody

Wow, what job/life would take you all the way out to Japan?

SFGAM_DIE_HARD --- interested in your business!

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Milwaukee Wisconsin, we bring you beer, brats and cheese. But don't be fooled, "Milwaukee truly is a special secret getaway that I will be sure to tell my friends about!" Erin Brockevich, not to mention that we are an hour from SFGAm........

Which issue was this article in (month/week)???

SFGAMDie HARD said:

Wow, what job/life would take you all the way out to Japan?
Music-it's tough, demanding, and pretty much impossible to "make it", but very rewarding if you do. I've seen more of the world than I've ever dreamed!
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- Peabody

SFGAMDie HARD said:

Wow, what job/life would take you all the way out to Japan?
SFGAM_DIE_HARD --- interested in your business!
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Milwaukee Wisconsin, we bring you beer, brats and cheese. But don't be fooled, "Milwaukee truly is a special secret getaway that I will be sure to tell my friends about!" Erin Brockevich, not to mention that we are an hour from SFGAm........

That's how Peabody, the two guys on coaster gallery and myself go to Japan, JOBS!

About the pictures, the best site to go to is none other than:

Dodonpa Net

Here are to shots of the entire ride:

Shot 1

Shot 2 (that uplift has to be the greatest moment of airtime ever)

Peabody said:

Vertigo said:

That's how Peabody, the two guys on coaster gallery and myself go to Japan, JOBS!
Wait, you're still in high school, right? How do you have a job that can take you around the world?
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- Peabody

When your dad runs the Treasury at Stanford University, represents the college at many meeting and conventions, is given job offers across country, and then provides funding to many different project(grant it the money isn't his but somebody has to sign those papers) it's kind of manditory that he takes buisness trips. Lucky for me, Stanford usually paid for the whole family to go. Unfortunately, after 14 job offer trips, he suddenly gave into one. Now he is Vice President of Harvard Medical Advancement. That means higher pay check for him, but no more buisness trips for me. As big as some of the job titles sound above, they are not

Interesting. Lucky you! I'm jealous!! I wish my dad would have had to take those kind of trips.

When's the last time you went to Japan? I missed the opening of Dodonpa What Japanese parks have you visited?

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- Peabody

*** This post was edited by Peabody on 4/16/2002. ***

(I thought Boston was the worst place to travel. You'd do better on foot in Osaka and Tokyo)

Expoland

Spaceworld

Nagashima Spaland

Tama Tech/Suzuka Circuitland(aren't they the same park?)

Fujikyu Highland

Mitsui Greenland

I went in 1996 and late 2000

I did get to ride Regina as well, but forgot where exactly it was.

Getting back to the question of how fast it goes...
For a traditional roller coaster, heavier trains don't slow down as much as lighter ones, so you wouldn't expect an empty test train to go any faster than a fully-loaded trainload of riders. We've covered this lots of times in Roller Coaster Physics 101, right?

Well, it turns out that the rules are a little different when you are dealing with a launched coaster, and Dodonpa happens to be a launched coaster. While gravity scales quite nicely with mass, other forces do not...particularly forces applied off of a pneumatic launching cylinder. Given a particular launch force (expressed in pounds or Newtons), the amount of acceleration you get is going to be related to the mass of the train. So a lighter train will have higher acceleration than a heavy one on a launched ride. This also means that the lighter train will reach a higher top speed.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.