Carowinds announces Carolina Cobra

^^Having more than one train would certainly make it a more interesting ride. ;)

^Your right, Head Spin was supposed to get painted the same year Texas Twister did. TT got painted but HS never did.

Those of you who are complaining about the ride being rough...did you ever ride it at Geauga Lake? Honestly, it was one of the best-running Boomerangs I've ever ridden. And it has always had a different sort of train on it, so someone's suggestion of them sending the old train to Knott's or Worlds of Fun is actually a pretty good one.

I did think it interesting that at Geauga Lake, the first sign you saw when you came down the exit stairs was the one pointing you to the First Aid station, though.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I am soooooo happy we are getting this ride and The Villan went to the scrap pile. Wait no I'm not.

I still think it should have been named White Lightnin' 2, Lightnin' does strike twice.

I feel like CF's marketing with regards to names of the rides and ride artwork is getting better and better. No more [Insert element]-hawk or the crap like Flight Deck, but rather you get neat names/themes like Prowler, Diamondback, Carolina Cobra, Voodoo. I mean we always knew they could come up with good names for CP's rides, but thank goodness they're getting more creative and imaginative with the names.

Jeff said:
I wonder why they sent Thunderhawk to MiA and the Boomerang to Carowinds. I would've most certainly expected the opposite.

Bwahahahahahaha!!! You DO realize that Carowinds has a B&M inverted right? Obviously not or you wouldn't have made that comment.

Ah, yes, "Afterburn".

I wondered if I should have taken a Prilosec before riding it.

Anyway, at least they got the Boomerang. I had heard they were getting Geauga Lake's Spider, which, I guess has been spotted at Kings Dominion.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
(Carowinds: I want my ride back. Send the operators, too. :) )

Yay the first coaster I ever operated lives on! That was one of the best boomerangs, so if one was to get hyped up, I'm glad it's this one!

iWoF said:
Bwahahahahahaha!!! You DO realize that Carowinds has a B&M inverted right? Obviously not or you wouldn't have made that comment.

I'm glad I amuse you, but yeah, I do realize that. So what? Cedar Point has two wood coasters and essentially three mine trains of various sizes. What's your point? Mine was simply that an SLC seems like too much ride for a park like MiA.

^If CF bought Thunderhawk brand new, they probably wouldn't have placed it at MIA.

With a relocated coaster, its cheaper, and might boost attendance.

I don't see how that makes any difference. If you've got a bigger ride with higher capacity, put it at a park where it's best utilized. The coasters get to be walk-ons at MiA on the strength of the water park.

Count me as shocked that it's getting a new train. Do we know that it is indeed "new" or is it "slightly used"? Come to think of it, wouldn't the train be the most expensive part of the entire ride?

Cost of moving the ride, painting it, and a new train < A brand new boomerang?

^ Maybe that SLC will be just a right fit with MiA's Long-Term Goal. Haven't they had a modest but steady growth the last few years?

Of course, Valley Fair would have been a good home for the SLC as well, I think they and KI are the only large CF parks left without a full-circut one.

How many parks have two or more inverteds? (Not including shuttles or family inverts like Runaway Reptar.)

Parks with mutiple inverted/suspended coasters

SFMM, BGE, Cedar Point, Canada's Wonderland, Hersheypark

probably a few more

As for parks with a Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster AND an inverted coaster like B&M, or Intamin I can't think of any.

I doubt any of the general public at Cedar Point would consider Cedar Creek Mine, Gemini and Magnum 3 of the same thing wether Arrow does or not.

^Smith was specifically talking about inverteds and said not counting Shuttles so Cedar Point would be out. All they have is Raptor. Iron Dragon is a Suspended and Wicked Twister is a Shuttle.

Who cares? Why does it matter for one genre of coaster and not another? Holiday World has three wood coasters, so is that stupid?

No need to get defensive. I was just curious. It was an innocent question.

And no, I can't see why a park couldn't have two inverts.

Ensign Smith said:How many parks have two or more inverteds? (Not including shuttles or family inverts like Runaway Reptar.)

I thought that was quite a valid point. It certainly makes more sense to me to have a variety of rides, and I sure wouldn't recommend sending an (inferior?) SLC to a park that already has a B&M invert. Despite what john13601 said, eliminating the "family-oriented" suspendeds (and the similarly *tame* FSS) from the mix takes that number down to....zero! IMO, wooden coaster ARE different, since they're not so easily categorized...the old-style designations of twister vs. O-n-B) have become obsolete. Kinda like Boomerangs - yesterday's news. ;)

I think your distinctions are totally arbitrary. Other than being a little taller, what's the difference between Legend and Raven? Aside from being taller still and out-and-back, how is Voyage different?

What's funny too is that enthusiast have notoriously differentiated between SLC's and B&M inverts for years. Now they're the same?

Totally arbitrary.

To clarify, I don't think there's anything wrong with with a park having two inverts -- provided they're at least moderately different. And that's where rollergator's point comes in: inverts tend to be a lot, well, alike. You've got the same basic retinue of six or seven elements you can incorporate, and the way in which most inverts tend to differ is the order in which these elements are included.

When I get to a new park, I'm not generally all that excited about riding the invert, if it has one. Sure, I'll ride it because I love all coasters and all coasters are fun in one aspect or another, but there is increasingly an attitude of 'been there, done that'.

And I know it's somewhat of a cliche, but as roller said, woodies are different. The same argument about inverts could be made about woodies, that they tend to include the same bunch of elements: hill, drop, airtime hill, curve up, curve down. helix, etc. But somehow with woodies the experience just feels so much more different. Take two woodies from my neck of the 'woods': Cedar Point's Blue Streak and Geauga Lake's Big Dipper. They're both classic out-and-backs, close to the same height, close to the same number of drops. Yet the experience of riding each one is as different as night and day.

I still stand by my admission that there's no reason a park couldn't have two true inverts (not counting suspendeds, shuttles, blah blah blah). But ideally you would want to have them be at least as different in experience as BS and BD. Can it be done? Guess so. I imagine if Serial Thriller, er Thunderhawk, were dropped into Cedar Point, it would provide at least somewhat of a different experience than Raptor: different manufacturer, tighter layout, two across seating versus four across seating.

It seems to me the design of inverts is due for another renaissance. There's probably some whole other class of elements that nobody's ever thought up that would make the rides unique and (more) fun again. Count me first in line.