Intimidator 305 Media Day

Maybe they used a non-caloric silicon-based kitchen lubricant.

500 times slipperier than any cooking oil. :)

SFoGswim said:
Greasing the rails wouldn't really have any effect on the coaster since there is never a sliding motion between the wheels and the rails.

Tell that to B&M.

Hey guys, me and a group of five friends went to KD yesterday and rode Intimidator. After our first go around on the ride 4 of the 6 people in our group would not ride the ride again due to the headbanging they experienced. The girls in our group were the perfect height to have their ears smashed. My friend and I on the other hand rode it two more times and it wasn't until we rode in the very back seat that he felt the grey out, I experienced it in three different rows throughout the ride.

In my opinion the back is so much more intense than the middle sections. The front of the line was much to long to wait when the ride was a virtual walk-on all day. One last thing the ride opened an hour late with one train but by midday their were two cars on the track. Overall I think it's the most intense coaster I've been on but still like MF better.

B&M grease their rails?

I don't know that I'd call it grease, but to my surprise, yes, they apply lubricant typically at valley points and let the wheels carry it around.

Exactly. I remember when we had this discussion the last time Raptor vallied. At that time someone (Dave maybe?) confirmed that yes, B&M rails do get lubed.

So do Arrow/Morgan/Kumbak hybrids.

We just arrived at the Comfort Inn ruther glen 30 minutes ago..We'll get our platinum passes processed and run to Intimidater for our first lap. I'm excited! I know how much I love MF & Maverick. I am an Intamin fan. Will post a trip report for sure. Anyone else going to be there tomorrow?

I was skeptical about the B&M lube action back in the day, so I just asked CF's VP of maintenance and construction. I didn't expect that he'd confirm it.

Re: How much does greasing of the wheels matter.
At the bottom of the first drop, it's probably negligible. It's only after a lot of running time (like the end of the run) that those forces start to add up.

Dave has an article on his site that demonstrates how hard it is to increase the top speed of a coaster (from back when people were saying MF hit 100MPH). On top of that, I can't believe anyone can judge the difference between 95MPH and 100MPH without tools.

@kpjb What is the Kumbak part of your hybrid? Are you even talking about your particular hybrid?

^Google is your friend.

On a side note, how much of a roller coaster is from just the designer? Do Intamin, Premier, etc do all the launches as well, or do they contract that out?

ApolloAndy said:
On top of that, I can't believe anyone can judge the difference between 95MPH and 100MPH without tools.

Someone hasn't been on TTD and or KK very much :) They range in speeds from 120-122 and 128-130. I have felt the difference( really just referring to KK personally) before after a number of rides. I'm not saying that I believe that MF ever went 100mph or that I-305 has gone 96 mph. I also find those hard to believe.

I wonder if security would even let you bring a radar gun into the park?

All I know is that I305 goes really fast.

I've ridden TTD and KK my fair share of times and I'd sure like to know how you knew how fast you were going.

TTD tells your speed, or atleast it did in 2003 when I was last there. As for KK, there was one time I rode it back in 2008 when I was certain it was the fastest ride I had ever had on it. I knew this by the end of the launch. It was confirmed when the airtime over the top was almost painfully intense. There is no way that wasn't atleast 130 mph.

Please, if there wasn't a speedometer in my car, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between 60 and 65.

With all due respect I completely disagree Jeff. Sure if all I based my speed upon was visuals then your car analogy would work, but that's not even the tip of the iceberg. If you rolled down the windows and then put your hand outside the window at 60 mph, and then increased the car to 65 mph you would probably feel the difference. I don't know the physics equation behind it, but I do know that if you did the same thing at 80 mph and 85 mph that the change in force of the wind would be greater than the change was from 60 to 65 mph.

In the car that I drive now, it starts to rattle once I exceed 75 mph. In fact, generally that's how I first find out that i'm going to fast! If a blind fold was put on me, I still think I could tell when the car exceeds 75 mph just from the shaking the wind causes at that speed.

The human body is incapable of sensing velocity. If we were we would feel like we were in constant motion due to the fact that earth is always moving in space. We only are able to sense acceleration.