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Busch Gardens Williamsburg has announced Pantheon, a ride they're billing as the "fastest multi-launch coaster in North America." The ride is reportedly being built by Intamin and will reach speeds of 72 mph, with a 95-degree drop, including forward and backward acceleration.
Visit the official Busch Gardens Williamsburg site.
From my observation, it seems to initially launch from "Minerva" into the first inversion before making its way to the forward-backward-forward launch sequence over the "Jupiter" top-hat. So, 4 launches, correct?
It looks to be a fun, moderate-thrill ride which will fit into the park well. Can anyone speak to the reliability of these newish Intamin multi-launch coasters?
cmwein said:
Can anyone speak to the reliability of these newish Intamin multi-launch coasters?
https://www.clickorlando.com/theme-parks/universal-s-hagrid-coaster-delayed-24-hours-after-debut
Soaring With Dragons in China runs like clockwork, so no issues with the LSM multi launches. Seems like the issue with Hagrid is the high speed track switch.
The Busch ride has a high speed switch as the forward backward is in the middle of the ride. The one in China has the forward backward at the beginning and the track switches before the launch starts. This ride is probably going to have issues unfortunately
I've also heard that Hagrid has been running with way less trains than it's supposed to, but I'm not 100% sure how many. That sounds like typical Intamin sensor/computer problems to me.
Can't wait for the on-ride videos where the coaster dork in the front seat gives a play-by-play.
"Here's the launch...wooow! We're running messages to the gods on Mercury's wings! Rising up on Neptune's trident...woooo! Here we go over the crescendo of Jupiter, king of all Roman gods...whoooa! And now we're entering the inversions...whoooo...ooooaaa--of Pluto's twisted underworld! We've just been immortalized in the garden of the gods!"
Ugh.
The most thrilling aspect of the ride appears to be “will the quick switch track work properly?”... Seems pretty ballsy that if it doesn’t work right, things could go very very bad. And yes I’m aware they will have brakes set up in case of failure.
But then again, what do I know?
LSM's make the system pretty un-risky. If there is no power to the LSM's they act as braking magnets, so it's rather simple to just make sure there is a power disconnect to the LSM's while the switch track is not in place.
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