Cedar Point says Top Thrill Dragster is done, sort of

Firefan1000:

...a person at the front of the line started to get everybody down the queue to do the wave.

Speaking of the 80's.

Zamperla accidentally published and then unpublished their press release. Oops.

https://web.archive.org/web...-thrill-2/

Zamperla partners with Cedar Point on Top Thrill 2, the world’s tallest and fastest triple-launch roller coaster.
Our Roller Coaster Business Unit engineered and designed a new ride experience.
It combines the ride’s original and iconic top hat with a new 128 meter (420 ft) spike.

RE-IMAGINING THE GUEST EXPERIENCE

Top Thrill 2 is the world’s first reimagined strata coaster and the fastest and tallest LSM triple-launch coaster.

Thanks to the all-new linear synchronous motor (LSM) launch system, riders will experience three unique launches:

A forward launch at a speed of 119 km/h (74 mph), which leads into a new crowd favorite – the rollback
A second backward launch reaching a speed of 163 km/h (101 mph), climbing at a 90-degree angle on the new, 128 meter (420 foot)-tall vertical spike.
A third launch that clocks in at the ride’s top speed of 193 km/h (120 mph) and speeds over the 128 meter (420 foot) top hat before diving into a 270-degree spiral leading to the finish line.

Seems bout right.
Maybe.

I'm almost afraid to go over to Pointbuzz

I've been talking about the worst kept secret for at least eight months, and now will come the OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE IT posts over there.

Believe it or not, Brett, it's 98% positive.

I noticed a few comments about only 3 - 20 passenger trains and the potential capacity. People don’t realize the simplicity in the design of the lightning trains and how much more maneuverable they are versus the Intamin trains. Getting in/out is going to be so much easier/faster plus the safety check will be faster with the buckle to the overhead lowering lap restraint. TTD rarely ever achieved 1000 pph consistently, if TTD2 can achieve that or better already it’s a win.

On Dragster 2.0, you have to figure there will be a train occupying that launch side of the ride for somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-60 seconds. There are diminishing ride capacity returns on a 4th train.

I think the only two hanging questions for most (even on PBuzz), including myself, were 1) how tall would that spike actually be, and 2) will we get the new Lightning Trains (which seemed kind've obvious).

I'm impressed at the height of the spike. My favorite aspect of riding Wicked Twister was being in the front row on the full backwards thrust up the spike and looking down. It always felt so much higher than it actually was, and I'm excited to go twice as high in a train like the new Lightning.

Plus, there is still a lot to look forward to on Tuesday. The actual name, theme, colors, what the area will look like, who gets fired at Zamperla, etc.

Still excited for the announcement

I'm sure CP is up in flames about this...

They've been dangling this project so well with them slowly giving out clues and putting the little phrases all along the wall to get you excited. Then Zamperla just blew it 2 days before the official announcement. Not as bad as it could've been, but still pretty bad. I can't help but laugh at it.

Maybe Zamperla didn’t blow it and it is part of the PR plan to get the hype started before Tuesday? 🤔

Outside of the enthusiast community does anybody really know or care that it was potentially revealed early? I’m leaning heavily towards no.

Capacity is going to suck.

First.

Say what you want about Intamin but they wouldn't have blown the announcement.

Wasn't Gatekeeper leaked a day or two before it was supposed to be as well? And that was by the park or their website provider.

I think capacity will end up being very similar to the old Dragster and hopefully the reduced complexity and maintenance on three trains will yield better ROI for the park. The fact that Intamin used all of those extra trains, an unload station requiring extra staffing, etc for a 17 second ride and still could only launch a train once per minute was kind of laughable.

Not to mention, Dragster was only doing what it was doing capacity wise when it was actually open. In my experience, that was patchy ... even if this second version did something similar, the reliability that LSMs offer over the hydraulic madness will surely provide better daily / weekly / monthly / season ridership.

Time will tell with that. Different manufacturer, but I’ve heard that Pantheon is extremely unreliable. The switch track and all the LSMs add a ton of computational complexity.

Dear Chat GPT:
Please write me a “leaked” press release prior to Cedar Point’s announcement. Please make Zamperla the manufacturer. Wait, make it both Zamperla and Intamin. Hell, I don’t care. Call the project whatever you want, the most obviously unexpected name the better. Oh, and make a reverse spike tall but not *that* tall.
Thank you.

MDOmnis:

Wasn't Gatekeeper leaked a day or two before it was supposed to be as well? And that was by the park or their website provider.

I think every Cedar Fair attraction since like Maverick has been leaked early, if I recall.

PhantomTails:
Time will tell with that. Different manufacturer, but I’ve heard that Pantheon is extremely unreliable.

I wonder if it really comes down to the park/maintenance? It baffles me that you have rides like Taron, which are somewhat early gen LSM type attractions being rock-solid in terms of reliability... Likewise with Velocicoaster, which doesn't seem to have any issues in terms of LSM stuff at least. I wonder what causes newer models like Pantheon to be more trouble prone if true?

I would think by now, LSM technology is mature enough and should not be a reason for reliability problems relative to the system itself (not counting trains or other hardware influences).

Pantheon has a switch track though, like Hagrids, and I believe that has been the problematic feature.