Intamin SLC

^Like doesn't B&M have the term "inverted" trademarked so no other manufacturer can use it?

Another thing: look at the seating mounts for both the vekoma SLC & the intamin SLC then compare them both to the B&M design.As I mentioned on another board recently the B&M's are rigidly attached to the chassis,where as the SLC's,both vekoma & intamin are not....granted the intamin doesn't have the dampers on either side of the seating coulmn that the vekomas do.

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super7* said:
Yep, Intamin's website says Suspended Looping Coaster...........SLC. Some self-proclaimed "experts" really aren't.

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No need for the hostility.

I was not aware that Intamin uses the same naming. The fact remains, however, that the ride most commonly known as the SLC is the Vekoma product.

Yea, but the term Intamin SLC is neither wrong nor difficult to understand so I don't see what the issue with using the letters SLC to denote Suspended Looping Coaster is.

On topic though, Intamin SLCs look to be sort of hit or miss. Tornado @ Parque de Atracciones de Madrid looks pretty totally average layout wise... not a whole lot there that's very action packed or interesting in my opinion. Tornado @ Särkänniemi on the other hand looks both quite intense and quite original. After that ride was built I guess I'm kind of surprised to see that more haven't popped up. RCDB doesn't list the price for either existing Intamin SLC, but if I had to guess, I'd imagine that they aren't much cheaper than the similar B&M product, and with B&M's inverted being the more proven, generally higher capacity product, there doesn't seem to be much of an advantage to buying an Intamin SLC over a B&M invert, which may explain it.

To my knowledge, also, B&M's patent for the inverted coaster specifically states that the seats are mounted rigidly to the chassis, which could explain both the naming of Intamin & Vekoma SLC products and the joints connecting the seats to the chassis.

Could someone more knowledged than myself explain the specific differences between Vekoma's & Intamin's trains compared with B&M's, and how they get around B&M's patent?

Part of the confusion comes from the fact that, MOST of the time, each manufacturer has their OWN specific term for each type of ride - even the same element may exist in several mfrs. arsenals under a wide variety of names.

For me, I think either parks have gone crazy asking for, or Intamin has gone overboard marketing...the "hi-tech launched attractions". More to my point, I love what Intamin does with layouts and intensity, esp. with regards to airtime. Seems a shame that almost all of the good "layouts' engineering" (aka Stengel's super-sweet slams) has gotten lost in the shuffle of split-second launch menhanisms....YMMV.