Edgewater park in Detroit.

Wow.

Great footage.....thanks

^Hehe, some of the cool kids have started a swampfoxer fan club. :)

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Mamoosh said:
Great Turbo footage. Man I wish some manufacturer would resurrect that ride...it was wilder -- and better! -- than the Zipper!

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I agree Moosh. When I was in college units of the Gooding Amusement Co. that came through the area carried Turbos. Insane rides, but they took forever and a day to load. That factor alone was enough to guarentee their doom. That, and like a lot of early Chance rides they were HEAVY! They gave a whole new meaning to the term "pig iron".

I rode Gooding's Turbo many times myself, it was a staple at the Ohio State Fair late 60s, early 70s. I remember about the long loading time- on really busy days they would put an extra man on and load both wheels simultaneously, which cut it down some.

Conneaut had an old beat up rusty one on a truck the last time I was there, and I was told their intention was to rehab and run it. Ah well. I wonder where it is now.

The last one I saw operating was at Old Indiana. They ran it wrong, though, with the sweeps turning the opposite direction, causing the "pause" to be at the bottom instead of the top, if that makes sense. It completely altered the ride forces with virtually no upside-down time. And get this- they would unload the entire ride at the end of each cycle then fill it back up again! OMG, talk about a slow turnover! The line was insanely long, so we passed.

Thanks for the clip, Swampfoxer. I've hadn't seen many images of that coaster before. It looks like it was a lot of fun.

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RCMAC said:
The last one I saw operating was at Old Indiana. They ran it wrong, though, with the sweeps turning the opposite direction, causing the "pause" to be at the bottom instead of the top, if that makes sense.

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That's interesting. I have only seen a few Turbo's in operation and the sweeps ran opposite of each other. Are you saying you have seen one that ran them both forward? I wonder if that had to reconfigure the drive shaft to do that? The Edgewater Turbo ran opposite from what I can tell in the short clip.

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RCMAC said:
Thanks for the clip, Swampfoxer. I've hadn't seen many images of that coaster before. It looks like it was a lot of fun.

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You are welcome. I want to add Dandelion Park next. Anyone remember the Tail Spin wooden coaster?

SwampFoxer - Much like a properly-operated Zipper, all of my Turbo rides featured two directions of rotation. I'm not completely sure if it was the entire unit that switched directions or just the sweeps.

Mamoosh, I wish you hadn't mentioned the Zipper. I have so many fond memories of that ride dating back to the early 70's (my very first "scary" ride as a kid)....but at least you got to ride a Turbo. I have only had the pleasure of seeing one operate from the parking lot of Old Indiana. Long story.....

RCMC, I'd love to know what happened to the one racked at Conneaut Lake. I am sure it's not good though. These photos were from 2002:
http://members.aol.com/classicwoodies/turbo_racked.jpg
http://members.aol.com/classicwoodies/turbo_racked2.jpg *** Edited 4/18/2008 1:43:22 AM UTC by swampfoxer***

swampfoxer- I'm not sure my description was clear, and it's hard to explain. Let me try this- If you look at the clip the sweeps, or wheels, are turning in a clockwise direction while the central column is moving right to left as you view it. This would be the standard movement for a Turbo, and it caused the riders to move fast past the ground (often face-to-the-pavement as the car spun) and "pause" slightly at the top, sometimes causing the car to turn upside down. I think the physicists (which I am not) call this cycloidal movement. At Old Indiana the column turned the same direction, but the wheels went counter clockwise, or what I believe is anti-cycloidal, like a Scrambler. It totally altered the ride forces and experience, and there was no upside down time, or flipping at all.

This is possible, I believe, because the wheels operated independently of each other, each with their own motor. I remember that the control boxes were small, had long cords, and were worn on the operators belt.They had several buttons to control the wheel's motion. This allowed him to rotate the wheel while at the same time remain close enough to open and close the car doors. He could turn the wheel either direction to load and unload. So, for some reason, (at least the day I was there) Old Indiana ran the wheels the "wrong" direction completely sucking the fun out of the ride. I remember my friend Jeff waited in that long long long line for his first and only Turbo ride, but the rest of us passed.

And yeah, if Conneaut's ride wound up anywhere at all, I'd be very afraid. That poor thing was a P.O.S., wasn't it? Do we know if any Turbos exist anywhere at all?

And thanks, folks, for allowing us to hijack this thread into Turbo land.

OK, that explains it better. I didn't realize the wheels operated separate from each other.

According to this site:
http://www.ride-extravaganza.com/rides/turbo/

Australia has 2 operating Turbos.

To bring this thread back on topic, does anyone know where the Edgewater Turbo ended up?

Kind of funny but I was just watching an old episode of cops, and they were driving past a fair that had a turbo ride set up.

I think it was in texas. *** Edited 4/20/2008 6:47:54 PM UTC by crazy horse***