Goudurix: The worst steel coaster in the world (?)

They showed park Asterix on worlds best and the showed that ride for like a brief moment. They actually made it look cool! *** Edited 12/24/2004 1:39:35 AM UTC by GIGAFORCE01***

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Mamoosh said:
Why not just tear Flashback down and build something new there to get the coaster count back up to 16? How about a spinning Wild Mouse?

It costs money to tear something down. Its much cheaper to leave it standing and barely run it.

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I'm sure many enthusiasts would happily do the job for free, Moosh ;)

I'm sure they would, but then again, why bother. It's much easier to just ignore it. ;)

I don't think Goudurix is as bad as it is made out to be, sure the Butterfly is hell, but the rest of the ride is okay. Didn't a lot of Acer's think that Tonnerre de Zeus was rough as well, hence why since 2002 it was no longer top of the wooden poll.

Grant,

Yes, I did think Tonnerre de Zeus was very rough. My first ride was in the front row. I was really surprised at all the shuffle the train was making.Until that point, I had never ridden a CCI that had that much trouble tracking. I did ride it again, in the second train and had a better ride, but from what I heard from those folks that have ridden it quite a lot, it wasn't running all that great the day we were there.

Where did you sit when you rode Goudurix? If I remember correctly, I was near the back. Perhaps that had something to do with it? I am not sure. All I know is I wasn't going to give it another try. Usually I will give everything a least a second ride but not that time. Parc spelled backwards is.......well, you get the point. =:^)

-Sean

Sean... you actually were able to ride a steel coaster worse than Typhoon at Santa's Villiage?

Sean, I road Goudurix in the front and back seats, not too many problems there, but I have had the unfortunate pleasure of riding some of Vekoma's other masterpieces in other seats so I can imagine what it was like.

As for TdZ, I've visited in 2002 and 2004, and in 2002 they were running 1 train (the blue train) and I thought the ride was awesome (esp in the back). This year I got to ride the red train as well and that wasn't so hot, I made a point after that of waiting for the blue train. So maybe it was the train. I know this year I had an awful ride on GhostRider's silver train, but the gold train was great!

As for bad tracking CCI's have you ridden Cheetah lately, and Hurricane Category 5 is pretty evil as well, but that's more to do with those awful G-trains I would imagine.

John,

Yep, believe it or not, I found Goudurix to be a worse ride than Typhoon at Satan's Village. I have even ridden one coaster in this country that is even less fun (IMO) than Typhoon. Super Flight at Rye.

Grant,

I haven't ridden Cheetah lately but I did ride it opening year and thought it tracked fairly well with the exception of the ending. I have been hearing reports that it shuffles like mad now. As far as Hurricane, I agree with you. I didn't find the trains as offensive as some of the track work. I could tell it was in dire need of repair.

-Sean

off all the looping coasters i've been on, i'm still amazed Tennessee Tornado is as smooth as it is. Makes me wonder what DW does right when it comes to maintenance.(sp?)

Tennessee Tornado is going to remain smooth. All the Arrows are realitively smooth rides, it's just the transitions that are the nightmares. TT has no rough transitions.

TT is betterly engineered using newer improved computer technology.

The only really bad Arrows were the larger ones built in the late 80's through early 90's when their "new" computer software wasen't up to par.

Rides like Dariens Viper which didn't use computer design software is much better in performance than say, PKI's Vortex which was one of the first ones to use it.

If you took the newer Arrow Design Technology and applied it to rides like Shockwave or Drachan Fire, there would have been a serious difference.

Ron Toomer (unfortunatly) was a blessing and a curse to Arrow, because he came up with an idea that worked and stuck with it, but that caused the rides to all essentially remain the same and he didn't want to go the next step.

Notice when he was forced into retirement the rides started getting more interesting? (different sized loops, new products)

I'd have to say my worst steel ride has been on Looping Star at Beech Bend.

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john peck said:

Ron Toomer (unfortunatly) was a blessing and a curse to Arrow, because he came up with an idea that worked and stuck with it...

Notice when he was forced into retirement the rides started getting more interesting? (different sized loops, new products)

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I'm sure it didn't help that he never rode any of his rides. I'm sure had he actually experienced the fury of his transitions he would have found a better way- computers or not.

Remember, we landed a man on the moon before Toomer started designing his loopers. You can't tell me that we didn't have enough computing power around to keep from smashing peoples heads on roller coasters.

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eightdotthree said:
Ha ha, look at the guy on the right in this photo, http://www.rcdb.com/ig753.htm?picture=3

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Are the running rails painted yellow in that picture, or is it rust?

*** Edited 12/26/2004 8:08:14 AM UTC by Michael Darling***

The running rails are painted yellow. Horrible colourscheme, because it does look like rust, and the white track just shows up all the grime thrown at it.

Goudurix is probably ONE of my worst coasters. I have a high tolerance to rough rides, yet the butterfly element in particular is brutal. That said, I haven't ridden it for a fair few years, and the same could have been said of Space Mountain at Disneyland Paris which was brutal three years ago when I rode, yet a pleasant surprise a few weeks ago.

I rode it and it's a fun ride !

It's a Vekoma and it's a very old design (mid 80's). It's quite normal that it's rough. LOL. Other than that, a fun ride, with a cool layout.

Much more painful are Space Mountain in Paris, most SLC's, Corkscrew at Alton Towers and alot of Boomerangs. *** Edited 12/26/2004 1:51:42 PM UTC by Belgian***

The butterfly element looks kind of unique -

http://www.rcdb.com/ig753.htm?picture=6

I wonder if it has been built in other rides at all. *** Edited 12/26/2004 1:51:31 PM UTC by superman***

Kamikaze, now Ninja, is the only one:

http://www.rcdb.com/m/id40.htm

While I haven't ridden Goudurix, SFoG's Ninja is a dreadful ride. So if THAT'S the company Goudurix keeps, I can only imagine.

Belgian - Ninja's butterfly element is not the same as Goudrix's butterfly element. And IIRC Tennessee Tornado also has a butterfly element [also not the same as Goudrix].

Isn't the butterfly just a batwing that twists you twice in the same direction rather than once each direction. It doesn't look like the sensation would be any different as there is significant straight track between the two inversions involved in both elements. Really the only difference is that you come out going the same direction you were going rather than back the way you came. That and it looks less cool.

Greg,

I may be in the minority here, but I honestly like Ninja. I didn't think it felt anything like Goudurix.

While Goudurix and Ninja both have the first same set of inversions, both are called different things. I always thought the correct term for those inversions was a Kamikazie.

Belgian,

While I found Space Mountain to be very painful, I still think Goudurix takes the cake. No SLC even came close to what I felt on Goudurix. I don't know what it was. It just felt like the train was trying to physically rip off the tracks. I have never felt a ride do that before. Perhaps it had something to do with the hot weather in Paris that day? It was just too hot to enjoy much.

-Sean