Busch Gardens Europe announces Griffon for 2007

The two immelmans is a good idea.

I can't believe its only going to be 10 feet taller than Alpengeist.

http://www.buschgardensnews.com/060822_Griffon_Web/images/prevs/prev7.jpg

Good to see they worked so hard on Alpengeist there in the background.

Alpie does look pretty ridiculous in the background. Also, I'd hate to think that they're ripping out all those trees such that you have steel on top of steel like that. Part of the main attraction of BGW for me is that the coasters and rides are nestled in trees and forest. Makes it more enchanting.

Alpie just, you know, reaches into the sky like a big long white curved line LOL. With no supports or structure.

- J

I can't believe its only going to be 10 feet taller than Alpengeist.

What were you expecting? A 300 footer?

If you live near BGE and haven't ridden Sheikra down in Florida, you are in for a treat. These are fun coasters and it looks like this one will have a couple extra things to it that Sheikra doesn't have.

"Good to see they worked so hard on Alpengeist there in the background."

Yeah with no lift hill supports.:)

Anyone find any full course renderings yet? It's hard to see how the second half of the ride plays out after the MCBR. But the drop underneath the bridge (a new one I suppose) is definitely worthy.

Ten wide though? Seems like a loading nightmare (riders per hour) unless they enforce full seated trains. How does Sheirka run?

Not sure if that is a mid-course brake or not before the second dive, but if it is, that's kind of disappointing that they had to kill the momentum of a relatively short ride. Nonetheless, the ride still looks like it will be really fun.

It's definitely the mid-course. It'll probably slow the train down to under 1 mph like it does on SheiKra. Too bad the crappy animation left out the chain and brakes.

I'm very excited about Griffon. It's much closer to home even though it's about an eight hour drive from Cleveland.

I first thought that the Royal Palace amphiteather would be sacrificed to make way for the first Immelman but I see it's still there in the renderings.

Is Acquitaine going to get a slight makeover as well?

Not saying the rendering is accurate, but perhaps it's not as inaccurate as you think:

http://www.rcdb.com/ig277.htm?picture=12

I'd have to see the video to know how lazy they were.

http://www.buschgardens.com/bgw/ar_rides.aspx

Videos. In my opinion, you can trust the trackwork on the renderings (that was the case with SheiKra which was rendered in the same fashion/by the same people), but take the surroundings with a grain of salt. It's BG(W)E... I don't think they'll skimp on the trees if they can help it. Looks pretty damn good in my opinion, like SheiKra with another couple tricks added.

Also no one's commented on the best feature of the ride yet... 10-across, FLOORLESS dive machine trains. Outside seats, front row... can you say exposed?*** This post was edited by BBSpeed26 8/23/2006 7:22:12 PM ***

The video is pretty impressive.

I'm enchanted by the concept of a floorless dive machine. As you say, BBSpeed26 - truly!

What a rush!

- J

"Late Spring 2007"

What's with parks no longer opening the rides along with the park each season? Trying to double dip with those who want to go first thing in the season, then again when the ride opens?

Looks cool

Hey, maybe they'll get this open before June. ;)

ApolloAndy, did you look at the pic I linked to? Alpie's lift is a long, curved piece of track with no supports to speak of and the video is the same.

I normally wouldn't say anything at all but that just screams "WE DIDN'T FINISH THIS." I mean it's not like they didn't notice or something before they released it like it was some sort of accident.

The only thing that a floorless coaster does for me is its added comfort. For some reason, I feel much more comfortable on floorless trains than I do on Hulk or Wildfire. It's not like floorless will make it much more thrilling or anything. Although I realize the coaster manufacturers will have to stop at some point in height and descent angle and such, but why doesn't Griffon go a little bit 'past' 90 degrees? Yes, we already have the Eurofighters that do that, but why isn't B&M hopping on that train (no pun intended)?
*** This post was edited by coasterMNguy... 8/23/2006 9:34:37 PM ***

Sheikra had no loading problems when I was at BGA last year. They have employees there to count off riders, as well as a single rider line (but not anymore, apparently).

The station itself was capable of holding multiple trains for load/unload at the same time.

^Thanks. Happy to hear that lines won't be terrible. But with Alpe just a short hike, it seems it'll be reride material in all seats for a while (not that it didn't have the reputation already).

Yeah, I'm definitely stoked most about the ten wide seats. Apollo on the far right during the third, curved drop to the helix always has me hangin off the side.