Kings Dominion announces Intimidator 305

They updated the stats page, it now states :

Vehicles:
Four passenger open
design trains with
overhead lap bar with
shoulder straps

http://www.intimidator305.com/public/ride/statistics.cfm

Thats funny, I never went to KD when I living in DC because I knew I was only about one hour away from BGW.

You'll probobly see these cars on everything now, so they don't have to worry about size and weight, don't you think?

Touchdown said:
Thats funny, I never went to KD when I living in DC because I knew I was only about one hour away from BGW.

DC 1 hour away from BGW? How many speeding tickets did you accumulate on 95 and 64?

I drive between Williamsburg and DC at least 4 times a month and I have yet to do it under 2.5h.

DC is 2.5 hours away from BGW, but KD is one hour away from BGW, why would I stop so close to go to another park?

I didnt question your destination stops.. Your original post read to me as DC was 1h from BGW..

I almost asked if I could carpool with you on my trips ;)

I take back what I said before about the lapbars.

The corrected page totally confirms the shoulder straps.

Wow KD... bad decision.

That will totally ruin the feeling of speed which was going to be this coaster's draw!

That's funny, because Maverick seems awfully fast with the same restraints at one-third the height.

You won't know until you ride.

HighSpeedThrillCoaster said:
They updated the stats page, it now states :

Vehicles:
Four passenger open
design trains with
overhead lap bar with
shoulder straps

http://www.intimidator305.com/public/ride/statistics.cfm

I saw this change earlier today too. Now, here is how "I" feel about it...

Personally as a guy who is not huge, but not a skinny runt has a rougher time in older Intamin harnesses. I have been able to get on every ride anywhere so far, but I have not been back to Cedar Point since they modified M. Force a few years back, so I don't know if I could still ride it or not. I can get on El Toro at Great Ad, which I hear is similar in fit to M. Force.

Anyway, Intamin has had bad designs for harnesses in the past, many complained about the harnesses on the Superman rides and M. Force. I will say for me, the new style trains and harnesses from Intamin are VERY comfortable. I have enjoyed the trains on Stormrunner, King Da Ka and so on. They allow for many more people to be accomodated.

I do wonder because the ride is 85 degrees steep if they felt better with a shoulder strap system? Its only 5 degrees off of Griffon, and 205 feet in the air on Griffon and Shekira I feel much better with a shoulder harness on.

I know some of you will complain about the harnesses, but I for one am very happy to see them on this and excpect to be able to ride comfortable and safely.

I understand the reasons for the restraints, but lets not forget, Cedar Fair came in and put seat belts on Anaconda!?! That move never really made sense to me, but ok... whatever gets you a lower premium.

The more and more I follow this ride its seems that its not just the coaster community that is displeased. Looking at many comments on youtube videos it seems a lot of people are dissapointed. Are we really that brainwashed by the coaster wars that something needs to be a record breaker or have multiple launches, etc to be exciting? I for one am glad for I-305, even if it just means shorter lines for Volcano.

Are we sure the youtube comments arent from those in the coaster community as well? Not to mention what defines those that do and dont belong to a 'coaster community'.

I just find it hard to believe that someone who has no bases of coaster elements would comment off the bat negatively.

ex: My neighbor is not even remotely interested in coasters and I doubt hes even searching out intimidator on youtube, let alone commenting.

I am bummed about the harnesses. Not looking forward to having my neck slammed into them during those quick changes in direction.

You gotta remeber: It's engineers who design these things, not the crazed coaster junkies like us.

We know from riding dozens of different rides with dozens of different body types what's comfotable and what's not.

Then again 90% of the public won't give a hoot. :)

Intamin's over the head restraints are awful. I always get my neck slammed into them. People that can't fit into a ride like MF shouldn't complain. I'm 6'4" and 260lbs and I have no trouble fitting into MF. It's a shame they ruin rides because people can't fit when those people can fix that themselves. Even my girl friend who is an average size has her ears slammed into the restraints and complains on every ride.

They take away from the ride too. Riding TTD with lap bars and KK with over the head restraints are very different experiences with TTD being better. A ride with no inversions should never have over the head restraints. Just another reason B&M is better than Intamin. I guess Apollos Chariot will still be the best steal coaster in that area.

Or Diamondback. :)

I like the over the head lap bar concept, they are more forgiving of the larger rider, load time is quicker, and on rides like Stormrunner, Fahrenheit, and Maverick they make sense, as they have inversions. While that neck-banging you mention can be a problem, especially on quick transition rides like Maverick- the plus side is the straps are away from your body and you dont have that heavy pressure feeling that OTSRs can give. (especially to bigger guys like me)

At any rate, I think we've seen the end to the style of train you find on MF, TTD, and Bizarro, and these new trains will become the standard for new Intamin rides everywhere. Haven't the last 4 installations had them with this being the 5th? They are the latest thing, it's what they are currently manufacturing, and they sold em to KD, I'm sure, without a hitch or second thought. I'd bet, for whatever reason, they are considered "safer", too.

These restraints are only an issue if you have quick direction changes (Maverick ending) or weird inversions (Storm Runner). If the rolls in this ride are more gradual, I think they'll be a non-issue.

BDesvignes said:
Intamin's over the head restraints are awful. I always get my neck slammed into them. People that can't fit into a ride like MF shouldn't complain. I'm 6'4" and 260lbs and I have no trouble fitting into MF. It's a shame they ruin rides because people can't fit when those people can fix that themselves. Even my girl friend who is an average size has her ears slammed into the restraints and complains on every ride.

They take away from the ride too. Riding TTD with lap bars and KK with over the head restraints are very different experiences with TTD being better. A ride with no inversions should never have over the head restraints. Just another reason B&M is better than Intamin. I guess Apollos Chariot will still be the best steal coaster in that area.

Well, just about everything you said is simply your opinion. I am fine with that, but it seems you are presenting things as "fact".

I think Kind Da Ka is a MUCH better ride that TTD.

I think Intamins over the head restraints are wonderful and I never bang my head. I LOVE the leg room it provides with no T-bar in the bottom of the car.

B&M Vs Intamin, depends on the coaster. As far as reliability, B&M, as far as intensity, Intamin.

Apollo's Chariot is not the best ride in this area now, I doubt it will be next year...

Of course, these are "my" opinions, not fact.

Well, its a 'fact' that my head gets banged around on Maverick also. Its doesn't completely ruin the ride, but riding it once is about all I can take. But Dragster or MF, I can ride those all day.

Jeff said:If the rolls in this ride are more gradual, I think they'll be a non-issue.

It looks like this has a few very fast changes in direction from left to right just like Maverick which destroys my neck. Hoping for smooth transitions here.

Bad move, Kings Dominion and Intamin.

Overhead lap bar as originally described is a fantastic design, solves most of the problems with conventional lap bars, works beautifully, accommodates a wide range of people, etc etc etc. What I particularly like about it is that if you push against it, the lap bar actually closes instead of being pushed open.

Put the @#$! shoulder bar on it, and you take a beautiful design and turn it to crap. I don't like 'em on Storm Runner, and I can't stand them on Maverick. The shoulder bar makes it so that I can't get the lap bar down into my lap where it belongs, so the thing is typically squeezing my chest while I bounce up and down in the seat. I always get off of Maverick with sore shoulders, ringing ears and a sore neck, wondering why I rode the damn thing again. Oh, yeah, because it is a cool ride. But it sure is painful to ride!

What the hell are they thinking? They are going to take that first curve at over 90 MPH. Something tells me they are not going to keep the force running vertically. Experience indicates that Intamin doesn't work that way. It is going to be the inverse of Maverick coming out of the tunnel: it's going to twist *while* going through the curve, meaning a nice hard whack to the head at both ends of the curve.

We'll see if I am right about this one...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.