Is It me or coasters getting.....shorter....?

I think that all the new rides are just becoming more high tech vut not longer. Like the new flying coaster Superman and X 4 an example. Why is it that?

Um, X is 3656 feet. I concider that long.

Its just you. A lot of these prototypes are going to be short by nature just because they are so extreme. I doubt that flying coasters will ever get very long just because having all of your weight agaisnt the restraints like that is going to get a lot more uncomfortable the longer the ride goes on.

As for X, have you ridden it? It really is perfect. The whole thing is so wild and giggle inducing, I wouldn't want it to be an inch longer. If you look at it though, think of all the really long coasters that have been built in the past 2 years. I'm thinking along the lines of Nitro, The Legend, The Boss, Mill Force, BKF is a very nice length, S:KC and there are probably plenty I am forgetting.

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Idle hands were orient to her.

Also keep in mind that a lot of the larger parks are getting into double digits with coasters and starting to hit the upper teens. The main key is space, parks are slowly running out of room.
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Daniel Haverlock
magnum count :2166
www.spiritofthepoint.com

A ride does not have to be long to be good.Look at Kennywoods coasters
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You will never forget the name........GOLDUST

coaster chaser said:
A ride does not have to be long to be good.Look at Kennywoods coasters
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You will never forget the name........GOLDUST

Heck Yea! Kennywood dosent have one long coaster, but they all are great fun.

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Fear the Wrath of the Phantom! Phantoms Revenge, Kennywood park, West Mifflin Pennsylvania.

Kennywood Smennywood...heck, Monty at Knott's is only, what? 1,000 feet long? That sucker is *WAY* fun. Not to flame the original poster but perhaps realizing great height, length, and speed does NOT always make a good coaster is something that comes with age and experience.

Guys, guys, read the original post. IN NO WAY did he say that coasters had to be long to be good. He was just asking a simple question.
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Idle hands were orient to her.

no, its just that some parks dont have enough money for a MF length coasters, or a Goliath, or a appollos chariot.
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The Scream Site
http://www.screamsite.cjb.net

Ravenguy98 - you're right...my apologies to #1 CF.

I think that a ride's length should be determined by the forces needed to maneuver the coarse naturally. MF length is PERFECT. It maintains speed without adsjustment and navigates its course wonderfully. Any LIM type coaster...what more do you need in length? Goliath is Waaaaaay to short for the train to complete the circuit without speed adjustment. This is a ride that NEEDS to be lengthened (& was somewhat {{see Titan}}) to be GREAT. Other rides might just be too long for their own good. MeanStreak is somewhat longer than it really should be. Understandable that it may have taken better advantage of its length prior to all the trim placement, and really was built to hold the record first, and be a well-engineered ride second.

A very interesting ride is Speed:TR in Vegas. You are launched via LSM out of a building, into a diving overbanked turn and through a vertical loop, then comes the unexpected. You hit another block of LSM's that catapult you even faster, then staight up a vertical spike. On the return to the station, the train is slowed nicely through the same block that propelled you, and you navigate the backwards loop, and reverse diving overbanked turn nicely, coming to a comfortable stop inside. Quite a well-designed (though short) ride. As a bonus, they give you 2 laps for each ride. Of course, part of its' intrigue is the (unexpected) mid-couse LSM's, and I just gave it away : ) .

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My other car is a Giovanola!

...maybe you're just getting bigger, and the coasters just SEEM smaller...LOL!

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Florida needs an Intamin and/or CCI soon...PLEASE!
Son of Drop Zone - PKI CoasterCamp I Champions!!!

R'gator - ROFL! I nearly spit my Aquafina at my monitor when I read that...and I'm at work! Don't think IT would appreciate that at all...LOL!

'moosh, WILL be seeing you at CC XXV...look for the only geeked-out hippie ACEr working HARD getting the whole train riled up for the wooden coasters!!!
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Florida needs an Intamin and/or CCI soon...PLEASE!
Son of Drop Zone - PKI CoasterCamp I Champions!!!

You thought that was funny Mamoosh?
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The Scream Site
http://www.screamsite.cjb.net

R'gator - actually you probably won't see me much at CCXXV. I'm not gonna take a week off for parks I can visit any time. However I might register and just go to the ERT at night.

IntaminAG1 - yes, I thought it was funny. It was a parody of a line from "Sunset Blvd" [I think].

Actually, for the speed Millennium Force is still going by the end of the ride, I thought it should have been a little longer with some bunny hops or something. So much speed just wasted down the toilet. Well, I guess that's what CP wanted. Thank goodness for whoever worked on the design for Superman NE. Really a masterpiece of a steel coaster, IMO. :)

I do agree with the statements about the many prototypes lately which are usually made shorter to satisfy several different factors.

Like ravenguy said, the past couple of years have brought us a lot of really long coasters. Most notably all three SROS, MF, SOB, EGF, Nitro, and California Screamin'. I wouldn't call X, Titan, or Goliath short by any standards either.

I was going to mention California Screamin' here, since it is actually one of the longest steel coasters in the world. And a darn good ride as well. :)
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Xcelerator-
0-82 in 2.3 seconds! =Wow!

Koaster King, My point well taken, thx.

Its not that the rides are so short, its more that they are completeing their courses at a faster speed because of their height. Look at most full circuit caosters and they are usually 3000-4000 ft in length. Many people refer to MF as a "short" ride, when in fact it is the 7th logest rollercoaster in the world, over 500 feet longer than the six-train California Screamin. The difference? CaliScrmn tops out at 55mph (launched), whereas MF hits 93 (nearly twice as fast). The result? MF finishes 6000 feet of track in half the time CaliScrmn does, thus giving it the "illusion" of being a "short" ride.

When we refer to "short", do we mean that the length of the track doesnt meet up to our standards, or that the experience is over rather "shortly"?

As stated in my previous post, my personal opinion answers both questions. If a ride can navigate it course without needed trim adjustments, then it is "just right". If it needs more track to navigate naturally, then it is too "short". MF needs no trims and breezes though its course nicely, thus, it is "just right" (not that I wouldnt LIKE it to be longer :) ). Goliath has a horribly inappropriate trim right in the middle of the ride,thus, it is ((WAY)) "too short".

Titan (5020ft) was INTENDED to be a clone of Goliath (4500ft). Everybody involved agreed that the mid-course brakes were too heavy and added 520ft of upward helix track to the design in an effort to better take advantage of the energy generated by the Giovanola rolling stock and track. I have not had the opportunity to ride Titan and make an accurate comparison or theorize that 520ft was enough of an addition to fix the problem, but I can assume that it helped greatly. If anyone has ridden BOTH, I'd love to hear your opinion.

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My other car is a Giovanola!

Mr. G., I've not ridden both (actually, I've ridden neither) but I can tell from the video @ Lone Star Thrills that Titan too comes to a near dead stop on the midcourse. I think more designers need to think like John Wardley and elimidate (purposely misspelled) block section during the "runaway" portion of the ride. Yeah, I know that capacity will be a direct casualty, but I just like it more with no midcourse. Gives a more frantic "out of control" feeling.
jeremy
--that's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it!