I-305 major change?

THAT'S IT, Dave! I like layouts that feel like you are going somewhere. I never really realized how to describe that. :)

To quote Gonch, "it just goes back and forth."

Twisty...

Wait never mind.

Ya but a lot of coasters have nothing below it or very little landscape. I have never been on I305 but judging by what everyone is saying I can not wait to ride this ride. I LOVE Volcano and Dominator!
I will be there in 5 weeks !

Tekwardo said:
Twisty...

Wait never mind.

I love me a twisty ride... weeee! lol

The new turn looks like what I would do in RCT2 to fix my intensity rating. Too bad I-305 also lacks excitement rating. Love the first drop but after that I spend the rest of the ride wishing they had just cloned Millennium Force or something...

Lord Gonchar said:
Dumbest layout ever.

jonnytips said:
Looking at the layout of it, I always thought it looked like they basically took the layout for one of the Mega-lites and scaled it bigger... taking out a few elevation changes, replaced with at-ground movement

So we agree?

LostKause said:
When I-305's layout was revealed, I thought that same, Gonch. I'm still willing to give it a chance though.

I was just the opposite. I thought it looked pretty cool. I was expecting the MF/Maverick mashup, but somehow in my mind I was thinking it'd be the best parts of each, not the worst.

Acoustic Viscosity said:
To quote Gonch, "it just goes back and forth."

Exactly. :)

---

And with all of that said, let me clarify that I don't think it's a bad ride by any stretch. I just don't think it's anything special. I'm in no hurry to get back to Virginia to sample it again, but if I were in that neck of the woods, I'd gladly give it another go.

The question I've always had is: who decides this stuff? Does the park go to Intamin and request a giga coaster with a really low, tight layout? Or do they just say they want a coaster and Intamin comes back with one of their designs? There had to be, at some point, one single person (who is perhaps the head of a committee) that decided, "Yes, this is the coaster we want." He's the one that decided to go this direction rather than getting something more Millennium Force-like (if that was even an option).

I'd say they asked Intamin for something extremely fast and forceful in which case Intamin gave them almost too much of what they wanted. I love the low to the ground twisty layout that keeps the speed and forces extremely high throughout, others might prefer a bit more airtime. i305 is the only ride that gets me a little bit wary every time I ride it because I know it's about to show me who's boss.

EDIT: It should also be noted that the very small 3rd hill (before twists) has some of the craziest ejector air I've ever felt as it throws you up and to the side into that forceful turn.... so much fun.

I remember when Hershey contracted Fahrenheit, they just said "Here's a plot of land. Put something awesome in it that has X capacity, Y intensity, yadda yadda." They got 4 proposals from 4 different companies, 2 of which didn't even fit the criteria, and of the remaining 2, Intamin was the one they went with. I'm sure after they agreed to work together, they added their own creative input. I assume most projects come about in that way, though parks like Holiday World may go straight to a certain designer from the get-go.

If only more parks went to that certain designer from the get go!

It's probably different with each ride. I know I've heard somewhere about some ride that park officials gave design ideas to whoever was building the ride. I can't remember who or what though.

Budget is also probably a very big part of criteria, I would imagine. I have always wondered this same thing.

It most likely heavily depends on the park... The #1 limitation is space available, and of course, cost. I am sure the park will describe what they expect, and given the land and budget the company will design something to fit (rough draft, per say). This probably goes back and forth until a final design is approved, and the company can go to work on all the more detailed analysis, design and manufacturing.

Some parks are probably more "hands-on" with the manufacturer, others probably let the manufacturer do what they want (with approval).

In the case of Hershey and Storm Runner, they allowed various manufacturers to bid on the project, but they chose what best fit them. Not all parks do this though, and usually will have a manufacturer in mind.

I can't find the video but I seem to remember someone from Intamin being at KD on opening day. When he was interviewed and asked "What are your thoughts after riding?" he responded with a mischievous smile and something like "they wanted something fast and forceful, they got it."

I think that smile might have had something to do with him thinking "oh man... we pushed the limit a little too far on this one."

Those wacky Intamin scamps!

Sometimes i think that this ride was the response to everyone calling MF "Millenniumforcless". I never understood how a ride that caused grayouts could be forceless, but it's like Intamin and CF took it personally and the result was that their next giga coaster was the most intense roller coaster in the world when it opened not inside a mall. :)

Lord Gonchar said:
Those wacky Intamin scamps!

A phrase never previously uttered, I'm pretty sure.

Has anyone around here ridden Mindbender in Edmonton? At one point they claimed the highest positive G's at around 6.5 if im correct (It may be different since they modified the trains after the accident). Anyone get grey/black/red outs on that ride? Then again those forces may be sustained for a significantly smaller amount of time compared to I-305.

Part of me also says it's because of sustained forces on I-305. Perhaps the diameter has to be more gigantic than it already is to operate over 90 mph comfortably. Maybe I-305 should have been I-250 with the same elements following the first drop and turn?

AJFelice said:
Maybe I-305 should have been I-250 with the same elements following the first drop and turn?

Posted one year ago to the day:

Lord Gonchar said a year ahead of conversation that's still taking place:
If the coaster is going too fast and needs trimmed, then it's too tall for it's layout or poorly designed for it's height. ;)

There's more there if you follow the link. We also talked about it a bit more six weeks later:

Lord Gonchar said (in summary):

I don't think the ride is being neutered as much as it's being corrected.

To bring it full circle, the ride was poorly designed.

It's not a matter of what you're missing, but a matter of what never should have been.

Everything there still applies. There were issues. It's poor design on some level.

Who cares if it's a little too far past the normal level of intensity? Almost everyone hits that brake run clapping, smiling, or recovering from a grey out :p. (I only partially kid...)

It's an amazing coaster. The speed, forces, and ejector airtime coupled with that first drop, turn, hill combo are pretty close to perfect. Maybe 20 feet off the height would have put it in a more tolerable range but I figured as coaster enthusiasts maybe we would collectively appreciate the world's most intense ride experience? I guess I was incorrect.

At least please hold off on your criticisms / opinions until you've ridden the most recent version of the ride with the new restraints, no hill trims, and reduced midcourse trims. It's a very different ride than i305 v2.0 or even i305 v1.0 which we can all agree were broken to some degree.

I thought the layout would be dumb at first as well but after riding the full speed / force version of this monster it's pretty hard to say that it isn't a great time. Maybe I'm in the minority.