Gwazi getting the RMC treatment.

Keep hearing stories of Busch Gardens giving up on Gwazi. Whether true or not, do you think they should entertain the idea of having RMC coming in and putting their magic on it? I personally don't mind the ride but I can see where people think it is on the rough side.

It has a cool dueling layout. I think it's worth saving if they came in and created a dueling hybrid.

Thinking outside the box maybe. :)

While I don't see it happening, that's an awesome idea. I enjoyed one side of Gwazi and detested the other, but the ride had such potential for greatness. If RMC could save Gwazi, it would be a beautiful thing.

The same could also be said for Twisted Twins at Kentucky Kingdom. They have it slated to re-open in 2016. They already had RMC refurbish Thunder Run but in the traditional wooden coaster sense. Maybe they are looking to RMC to do a hybrid on TT.

I wouldn't mind seeing something done to make the ride smoother or redesigned. I normally don't have a problem with a lot of coasters that are considered rough (Rolling Thunder and Scream Machine at Great Adventure as examples) and I hated Gwazi. Other than the pre-lift section and the lift, I don't remember the layout at all because I was just focusing on when the train would get to the brake run. I had a headache for an hour after that.

Aw, here, even though this isn't posted under News, I saw the title for this thread and thought this was a real thing. Turns out we're just speculating... Or hoping...

I may be the only one, but I've never found Gwazi to be that bad. I've ridden the ride when it was new-ish, old-ish, and before and after it's latest overhaul renovation. I usually visit the park on slow days, so I get to ride at least one side over and over if I want to and on my last visit I had multiple rides. I've never found it to be excessively rough, and I tend to be sensitive in that regard.

But I guess I fall into the camp that agrees that the RMC treatment could only be a good thing. It's a beautiful ride, has a great, confusing layout, and deserves to be saved. But I also think RMC could go to just about any ride anywhere with their techniques, be it a wooden or steel renovation, and improve the current experience.

Gwazi was wonderful, fantastic, terrific for the first few years...the it started getting rough (consider that after 5 years it had done 10 years worth of riding). The park never seemed to take "routine maintenance" too seriously. Someone died after riding in 2006 (I'm presuming Tiger) - and I think the handwriting was on the wall from that point. Busch went to GCII and got the track worked on...but there was no appreciable difference, even with the MFlyer trains installed.

The rumors seem to strongly point to a removal after the 2014 or 2015 season. RMC could fix the tracking, and I think the underlying structure is sound...but in NO way do I expect an RMC "fix" to happen. I think Busch gave up when the GCII fix didn't really take...and I can't say I blame them for that decision at this point.

I too read this and thought it was a real thing. How awesome would that be? Imagine the fly-bys being done with interlocking corkscrews, or zero-g rolls. I'm sure it could be amazing, but at the same time, perhaps a clean sheet design would be even better. I can't imagine the cost of a clean sheet design being more than 25% higher than a retrofit (ala NTG or Iron Rattler)

I'd like for someone to come along with a solution that would allow it to stay put, but I have to agree; after GCI themselves took an unsuccessful crack at, I don't know how receptive the decision makers would be to throwing more time and money at it. It's a shame, the layout is very capable of delivering- I've had plenty of great rides on it.

They are down to 1 train operation on this ride, so the future looks very grimm. It's a shame, because it was built to be an amazing, unique, high capacity experience. It is brutally rough now, which is not a characteristic of GCI coasters. The Florida humidity probably doesn't help any.

Florida parks need high capacity rides. It's a shame Busch has neglected this one so badly. RMC treatment and returning both sides operating would be much better than it sits now. RMC treatment seesm to be working for parks turning an existing ride into a new ride.

However, Busch Tampa has enough coasters with inversions. This ride definitely does not need inversions. Overbanks maybe.

One major issue with Gwazi is the fact it has a wood track and wood structure. The amount of maintenance required is massive (big reason why White Lightning at Fun Spot has a steel structure, lesson learned from Gwazi). The amount of work (and money) required to rebuild Gwazi in a RMC manner would be astronomical and I imagine it would be far easier to simply say farewell and build a brand new shiny and highly marketable ride in its place.

I guess it's as good a time as any to make another zombie thread, but have been seeing a lot of noise online about a 2020 RMC Gwazi redo. Thoughts?

Would love an RMC just up the road. Busch did confirm that something new will be coming to the Gwazi area in 2020, but didn't say what.

They are installing a Premier Sky Rocket next year as well. Neat ride, but wasn't anything to write home about, enjoyed Phobia Phear over Tempesto simply due to the lack of OTSR.

The use of the word "Rocky" when describing Gwazi in the press conference today was no accident. That's about as clear of an indication you are likely to get without actually announcing it.

The Busch rep stressed the words HYBRID and ROCKY when talking about Gwazi. I think it's a good bet that it's getting RMC'ed.

Nice, pretty much the ideal outcome for Gwazi! Curious to see whether they keep it as two separate coasters, or if they do what Kentucky Kingdom (or maybe even SFMM) did.

I’ve got a dollar, and I’m going to put it on one track, and considerably shorter.

Does anyone have a link to the announcement? I missed it.

Walk-Off HBP said:

Curious to see whether they keep it as two separate coasters, or if they do what Kentucky Kingdom (or maybe even SFMM) did.

My bet is they go mobius.

SVLFever said:

Does anyone have a link to the announcement?

Here you go!

https://www.tampabay.com/things-to-do/travel/florida/Busch-Gardens-...mplate=amp

eightdotthree said:

Here you go!

I supposed I deserved that, but I was reading this quickly at work....go forward to about 22:30 for the tease about Gwazi 2.0.

Not sure how I missed that one.