BBC reports on Ferrari World and Formula Rossa

Tekwardo said:

So you are saying that you know what the designed specs are?

In so far as the ride was designed to complete the course, and it seems to be doing that with out any problems, yeah.

Sounds like a pretty lofty design goal for a coaster - complete the course:)

Anton (and several others) failed to achieve that goal quite often. :)

Everybody seems to agree that Formula Rossa looks boring, but how bout the other coasters at Ferrari World? Fiorano GT Challenge is a racing coaster with four launches on each track. There aren't very many hills but the turns have almost no banking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8oCAavJd_k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS7nXmzi2I8&feature=related

You can see an overhead view if you look closely.
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=24.483353,54.607072&spn=0.003192,0.002951&t=h&q=Ferrari+World+Abu+Dhabi@24.483353,54.607072

Exactly who is "everybody"? I certainly don't think it looks boring. The other ride does look good, too, though. I guess I'm just a sucker for rides I will never ride...

"Most everybody." My bad. Just seems to be the general consensus based upon watching the POV.

The other ride looks interesting from what I've seen of it, in part because it's basically a racing simulator first (launches on the straightaways, brake before the turns, low banking w/ lateral Gs, minimal hills), and a roller coaster second. Not sure how it'll sit with the coaster crowd, but it seems like a pretty perfect fit for the park.

Preview video here.

I thought the other coaster(s) look pretty fun for what they're intended to be. The trains are snazzy.

I am late to the party (which seems to be over), but I still have 2 cents:

I am totally on board with BBSpeed about the trims. Obviously it was designed with some trimming in mind, but the question (not that I'll ever ride it, but just for posterity) to me is whether the track was designed with a target speed higher than the current operational speed. The evidence I would present (which isn't proof, but I find fairly convincing) is the banking on the curves. Curves of that radius operating at the current speeds on comparable Intamin coasters are less banked for the vast majority. Basic physics tells us that if you want to reduce lateral forces through a turn of a certain radius (which, based on all of Intamin's other designs seems to be their goal) you increase banking with increased speed.

Again, this is all eyeball guesses from a POV shot before the coaster opened to the public and based on comparison to other Intamin rides, but I am totally convinced. Does it matter in the end in any meaningful way? Not a lick.

For what it's worth, a friend on another board actually did get to ride the thing this past week. I'll copy-paste the main points:

Bader said:
[Formula Rossa] was amazing!

Very extreme.. It was a clear day, so we didn't have to wear the glasses, only first row had to.. although I couldn't keep my eyes open at some points of the ride, just felt way too windy, and yes lots of air on those bunny hills. Unlike the YouTube video, there wasn't a dull moment at all! With all those bunny hills and near ground turns. I did feel very dizzy with a headache after the ride. Apparently not a healthy thing to do!

I didn't have the chance to ride it again, it wasn't operating the whole evening.

The other racing coaster was alot of fun too. Well, only one track was operating so technically it wasn't a race. It had several launches with lots of laterals and underbanked "unheartlined" turns that throw you all over the place! Fortunately, the seats are designed for those kinds of forces. Very unique sensation. I loved it.

They had many good rides as well, like Speed of Magic which was something totally new to me, it is a mix sequence of 4D ride and something like the Omnimover, and the transition between the two is brilliant.

The major attraction they have there is the Scuderia Challenge, where you get to sit in an actual Ferrari fixed on a moving platform surrounded by screens, and once the simulation starts with all the special effects, it instantly gets so REAL!

But you have to get a pricy timed ticket for that ride, in addition to the already pricy admission ticket for the park.

BBSpeed26 said:

Bader said:
Unlike the YouTube video, there wasn't a dull moment at all!

So does that mean something changed or does it mean that the video isn't indicative of the actual experience?

(for the record, I'm going to go with the idea that nothing changed, the video doesn't convey the experience well, the trims are still there and it's running just fine as intended while giving a pretty crazy ride :) )

I believe that means that in his completely subjective opinion, he found reality to be more exciting than youtube.

Shocker ;)

I find the "not that I'll ever ride it" comments so sad. Does nobody round here travel?!

You have to understand, Rich, that travel is approached differently in the states. You can cross Europe and still not cover the same distance as we would going cross country. London to Abu Dhabi is like Seattle to Orlando (and I can tell you that flight sucks). International travel is just less of a priority when you can barely get around your own country. Plus we work too much and vacation too little. And frankly, Americans aren't exactly viewed as a favorite people in some places in the world. It's just a different culture. You can take a tunnel and be in France. We take one and we're "only" in Canada, eh?

I understand that, I just can't think of anything better than travelling the world and meeting new people. I've been living in Australia for 4 months now, for instance. You can imagine what that flight was like!

But yes, I understand. Although, at the same time, I know how easy it is for me to travel to the States. And if someone was to do that in reverse, as you said - Europe is your oyster. (and what an AMAZING continent it is!).

I have friends who I grew up with in the U.S. who have moved across the pond. I also have a few friends who moved to the U.S. They are the exception to what is normal here.

Plus, to add to Jeff's awesome post, the U.S. has so much to see and do just within it's boarders. I think that a lot of people who live here would just assume go visit the Grand Canyon or The Smokey Mountains before visiting tourist destinations in Mexico or Canada.

Rick - There's nothing I love more than traveling the world. I spent a semester in Europe and managed to hit cities and sights in ten different countries while I was over there.

That said, Abu Dhabi is way, way far down on the list of places I'd like to visit, and no roller coaster is going to change that. Not that I have anything against the area, but without even thinking I can come up with ten places/events/sights I want to see before anything in Abu Dhabi/Dubai/UAE.

Maybe this makes me a bad coaster enthusiast, but when I travel the world, my priority is actually seeing the world and experiencing the culture of wherever it is that I go. Adding a couple rides to my track record isn't really a top priority. And to sort of expand on what LK said, even if I were to travel to ride a roller coaster, I'd rather spend the ~$200-300 bucks it'd cost me to get from PA to Holiday World (incl. lodging, gas, admission, food), than the nearly $2000 it would cost to get me from PA to Abu Dhabi and back.

I'm with you there. While international travel is not a priority for me right now (aside from perhaps Vancouver, BC), there aren't many places in the Middle East that I would consider going to outside of Jerusalem and perhaps the ancient parts of Egypt. Although that reveals part of my travel preference right there... it's natural places that I prefer (mountains, tropical islands and such) over historic places. The US barely has any history, relative to most of the world, but we sure do have some diverse geology.

A relative of mine came over from Scotland to visit us years back. He was here for about a week and wanted to see the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, and go to the beach, and thought we could just hop in a car to get coast to coast. Many people don't get just how expansive the country is and how diverse the sights.

Not to mention the lack of high speed rail that many of those countries have. (not that that would make it so much less travel time, but people in other countries are spoiled)

Very true. I picked up a Eurail pass while I was there and after the initial investment, it was effectively free and completely painless to just hop on a train, close my eyes, and wake up in another country. A story I like to tell about how easy it is to travel there is this: One Monday morning I realized that my Eurail pass expired that Wednesday, and I still had one travel day on it. Not wanting to let it go to waste, I went to my morning class and promptly walked to the train station. 6 hours later I returned from a small town in the Swiss Alps, my backpack loaded down with good beer. I literally went on an international beer run because I'd remembered a shop at a town in Switzerland having a better-than-usual selection. Passed amazing scenery (uh. the alps.) in both directions, and the net cost to me that day, minus the beer, was zero dollars. Incredible.

At home in Pittsburgh I could theoretically take the train to another country by... walking half an hour to the nearest light rail, taking it downtown, walking to the Amtrack station, Amtracking it to NYC (at last check, the only train leaves around 4am), and then hoping there's a Canada-bound line from there. The level of convenience afforded by Europe's train system just doesn't exist in the US. You're getting a car or you're not getting anywhere.