Colossus @Thorpe Park -Insane or no?

After recently looking at pictures of the 10-inversion Intamin coaster and reading through some of the thoughts that people had about it in the archives, I would like to hear some first hand accounts of what this ride is like now that it has been in operation for more than a year.

This is a fairly compact coaster as well as short (under 100' tall), but packs a big punch with 10 inversions, five of which are consecutive heartline rolls. It looks pretty insane to me!

Here's a link to some pics at rcdb...

http://rcdb.com/installationgallery1412.htm

If you have ridden it please comment about it.
*** This post was edited by coasterfreaky 9/10/2003 9:08:35 PM ***

I got just one ride this past summer, and thought it was quite fun. The four consecutive twists are easily the best park of the ride seeing as how you're never in your seat the whole time! The ride was fairly smooth (a few bumps) but I was riding over the wheels. I wish I could have had a few more rides, but it was closed for all but the last hour the park was open (that's Intamin for ya ;)).

First coaster on the European Odyssey. It's a fantastic ride.

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--Greg, aka Oat Boy
My page
"What do you want, you moon-faced assassin of joy?" -- Londo Mollari, Babylon 5

I'm probably in a minority here, but I thought it was a bit slow through the 4 (3? I forgot...) heartlines... and the last heartline right before the station almost seemed like it was put there to simply break a record. Having said that, it was still a great coaster, just not outstanding.

-- Paul!!

(Who recently spent 2 years in Digby, Lincolnshire, England, and who also just came back from an Andrew WK show!)

wow... am I hearing here that those heartline twists at the end are actually fun?
Aren't they a pain to ride through?

It's an interesting phenomenon that coaster riders seem to enjoy being torn out of their seats.
I guess this is a ground for building new coaster designs... coasters that don't necessarily create only positive vertical G's.
If it's "jeez, I'm gonna fall out/fly out" sensations people want, why not go beyond the traditional "airtime on top of the hill"...

I think "Steel Stampede/Renegade/Stormrunner" at Hershey Park is going to be another step along those lines.
*** This post was edited by superman 9/11/2003 1:26:46 AM ***

I rode it on Sunday as I don't live far from the park. It's still a good coaster but I find it pretty uncomfortable. I am not particuarly big built and going through the barrel rolls is just not nice, I always find myself trying to push myself back from the restraint otherwise your whole body weight is on your collar bones. Not to mention that it has become a hell of a lot rougher this year.

You only really realise just how rough it is when you ride Inferno 100 meters away which is silky smooth.

It's still a nice ride though with some good themeing.

I just rode this coaster a couple of weeks ago and i thought it was fantastic. I thought it would be rough but was pleasently suprised that it was not at all. It did not go fast but seemed to run at a perfect speed to handle all the inversions perfectly.The last four barrel roles are great.I hope someone in the states builds one of these machines. Intamin rules!

I don't think it's as rough as people make out. It's a bit shakey here-and-there, with a whip in and out of the cobra roll, but I would hardly call it rough.

The park are trying out new restraints which keep your legs pushed down. If the bar is too tight, it can hurt your legs, but if comfortable, less of your weight is on your shoulders through the inlines.

The coaster has sped up a LOT this year. Even the last inversion has become pretty fast. Now that the greenery has grown up around the ride, there is a great head-chopper through the last roll, too.

Colossus always seems to get the better reaction from public at the park, probably due to the feeling of accomplishment people think they achieve by riding it.

I wouldn't call it insane, but it's a very original sensation.

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Comprehensive European ride and coaster reviews
http://www.ukrollercoasters.co.uk

The thing is, it doesn't really need a lot of speed to get the job done. You don't get "torn" out of your seat while going through the twists, you just sort of float through them.

The last turn and twist was taken very slow during my ride, but I guess that could be from not running all day.

I like Colossus, it's a good fun ride and looks great.
The ride spreads out across the lake as you enter Thorpe Park and you are almost magnetically drawn towards it. To get to the station you have to walk right under the ride and the queue line snakes past all the major elements of the ride giving a tantalising taste of what's in store. The theming and landscaping are nice in a not-too-outrageous manner. There's also a great theme song that blasts through out the queue line.
The ride itself is good. Despite the somewhat intimidating claim of being the world's first (and only) ten "looper", the ride isn't intense and for this reason still draws lines as long as it's kid brother Nemesis:Inferno.
Personally, my favourite parts of the ride are the verticle loop, a head-chopping bunny hop under the ride shop and the in-line twists.
Speaking of which, it's not great secret that the twists were added easily to snatch that world record. It might seem a bit lazy but having the world record has helped to put Thorpe Park on the theme park map, think back to BC (before Colossus), we weren't talking about Thorpe Park much on this forum were we???
Is the ride rough. No, not really, just a bit shaky in the way that any ride which throws you upside down ten times would be. IMO the ride is now recieving these accuastions of roughness this year because people are heading first to the brand new B&M Inverted Nemesis:Inferno and then riding Colossus. After riding a coaster as silky smooth as Nemesis:Inferno a ten looping Intamin is going to seem a little bit rougher. Looks like Nemesis:Inferno has set the bar too high!
If you can make the visit to Thorpe Park, it's a great day out with some super rides, detailed and imaginative theming and top-notch staff. The park's future plans should leave us locals with a world class theme park to be proud of!

I'd pretty much agree with everything there, mfanzine. Inferno is a really, really good coaster, and I'd agree that with regards to smoothness it has set a new benchmark in the park.

I love the fact that Thorpe Park now has two similar dimension coasters (in size), yet they're so different.

Inferno offers quite a familiar ride I think, and Colossus is a more 'challenging' ride to the average visitor.

Colossus always seems to have the longer queues in the park - I think most visitors probably only ride each coaster once and re-ride their favourite which means Colossus will get a lot more re-riders.

I think Colossus is a bit rougher this year, but then the ride is a lot faster this season. I love Colossus because it isn't a ride you just sit back and are passively taken through each element (like Inferno does - not that this is a bad thing). It feels like it's taking you for a real ride, and for the inline twists I love the way you almost have to 'get into position' to enjoy them at their best. Adopting riding positions like this reminds me of Blackpool's Wild Mouse.

As enthusiasts it's easy to critisise the ride for using the four inline twists as a cheap way of getting the record (well - duh), but the ride was built to put Thorpe Park on the map, and I think it most certainly has done.

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Comprehensive European ride and coaster reviews
http://www.ukrollercoasters.co.uk

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superman said:
wow... am I hearing here that those heartline twists at the end are actually fun?
Aren't they a pain to ride through?

It's an interesting phenomenon that coaster riders seem to enjoy being torn out of their seats.
I guess this is a ground for building new coaster designs... coasters that don't necessarily create only positive vertical G's.
If it's "jeez, I'm gonna fall out/fly out" sensations people want, why not go beyond the traditional "airtime on top of the hill"...

I think "Steel Stampede/Renegade/Stormrunner" at Hershey Park is going to be another step along those lines.
*** This post was edited by superman 9/11/2003 1:26:46 AM ***

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Uhh...The in-line twists are very fun. I love the hangtime that the inline twists give. I havent been on colossus, But volcano has a few of those and i'm pretty sure they feel about the same with the hangtime. I love hanging upside down with nothing pushing you into your seat. Its somthing different from the traditional inversions where you get pushed up into your seat.

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-Dennis
www.Drinkduff.com

So for people who've ridden both, did you enjoy the extra inversions of Colossus or the extra speed and maybe variety of a B&M looper? I've never ridden Colossus, but I think I'd take a bigger, faster, and more varied B&M at the sacrifice of a few inversions.

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CP 2K3: 17
"What are you, a dentist? Or a hippie? Or some kind of hippie dentist?" -strong bad

That's the thing, though, mantis man. I prefer Colossus as it has BOTH the conventional loops of a B&M looper (corkscrews, vertical loop, cobra roll) and ADDS the inline twists.

Basically, Colossus is a ride of two halves - first half is like a normal multi-looper with a drop into a loop, bunny hop down into the cobra roll and then a double corkscrew.

Then there are the four inline twists which I think work together to form a single 'element' as it were, each working well together.

A final turn takes you into the last surprise roll which is great as you see the back of the train in front upside-down.

So I take the Intamin one really, just because it's so original, but also offering the more conventional elements, too.

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Comprehensive European ride and coaster reviews
http://www.ukrollercoasters.co.uk

Colossus is a good fun ride and was the best thing that could have happened to the UK Industry, and in particular, Thorpe Park.

However, I would say that it has deteriorated. This is obviously emphasized by the B&M Smoothness of N:Inferno, but it has got a lot rougher since when it opened in April of last year. Also the trains had a number of modifications, which didn't help.

But, despite it lacking the quality of a B&M, Colossus is a good ride. Its not mind-blowingly awesome, but its just a good little fun coaster. The airtime hill after the loop is lovely, and the first half of the ride is a tad rough, but quite fun.

However, the inline twists do make the ride. Ok, they are obviously added on for the record, but they are totally unique- I mean nowhere else can you spin four times in a row of an inline twists! They're really mad and weird, but are totally cool. And finally, one of the best bits of the ride, the final twist puts you sooo close to the ground its amazing.

Overall, Colossus is a solid sort of 8/10 ride. Well worth a ride, but not essential, in the sense that the US is missing out (e.g. like us UK folk are missing out on Intamin Mega, Impulse and Rocket coasters...). It suffers a bit from roughness, but, I think that Colossus's true purpose was that it opened the window. By 2008, Thorpe hope to have a large woodie and a rocket coaster... this would never have happened without Colossus opening the window for Thorpe... so good on it!

I rode it earlier this year and it was a great ride !
One of the most impressive designs ever in my opinion...there are so many weird turns and elements, but the trains go silky smooth through all of them.

It also has alot of headchoppers and an insane speed throughout the whole circuit. Some airtime, some hangtime, fun moments, nauseating moments, ... this ride has it all !

Definately the power of ten ! And not that compact actually, it's a fairly big coaster with a very nice setting.

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Roarrrr...

as it is my home park i should have alot to say lol, but coz i'v got a virus, all i will say is that i totally agree with marcus sheen

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