Kings Dominion's 2010 Coaster

Kings Dominion 2010: Intamin Hyper (clause with BGE due to Apollo's Chariot doesn't permit B&M Hyper being built at KD)

Carowinds 2010: B&M Hyper

Really? A clause with BGE? Like the 3 B&M clause at CP? Or the 4 Intamin clause?

It's been 10 years since Apollo was built and there have been 7 or 8 other B&M speed coasters built in that time.

If you were talking about the dive coasters, I might be more inclined to believe it.

While I would believe that KD is building and Intamin to be different than Busch Gardens with the B&M, I highly doubt there's any clause that forbids B&M from building a hyper at KD. I mean really, exactly how much would BGW have had to pay B&M for them to turn down business up the interstate for this long a period of time. If there is a no compete clause for the dive machine, and there probably is, I doubt it's for more than a few seasons.

I can believe a clause that prevents a "nearby" park from receiving a ride of the same general description for a certain time-frame from the same manufacturer....it's a specific kind of exclusivity agreement that certainly isn't unheard of in the industry. Apollo isn't exactly brand-new at this point (in terms of a possible length of contracted exclusivity period)...although, I really vastly prefer Intamin hypers.

Except when they kill people...or crash....or go down for long periods of time. :-P

Or have short seatbelts.

Or the cable snaps or the lift carrage breaks....etc...etc.

Just thinking out loud - Ka, MForce, and Pilgrims Plunge (with no apostrophe) were all down for parts in about the same period year...but all got parts with greatly-improved timeliness from what experience had taught me to expect. So the breakdowns may still occur, but the downtime seems to be reduced. At least the "service" aspect of Intamin/Intaride seems to be on the upswing...

P.S. Edited to add StormRunner... ;)

^From what I've heard, those quick repairs had more to do with the parks themselves than Intamin...

Intamin has some fun rides, but when it comes to reliability...B&M takes the prize.

Not too often do you hear of mantis, raptor, apollos chariot, nitro, batman, or any of the other major B&M coasters going down for any long period of time.

Why an Intamin hyper? All of the recent Intamins have not been over 200ft. I would expect it to be something similar to Fahrenheit or iSpeed.

I think iSpeed looks pretty awesome. A complete mix of Xcelerator/Maverick/Fahrenheit plus some other new stuff. Intamin seems to like mixing and matching.

^Because, KD already has 3 launched coasters and 2 traditional looping coasters. Not to mention, one of those is a launched-looping coaster...

The only thing Kings Dominion is really lacking in (as far as coasters go) is height.

Pagoda Gift Shop said:
All of the recent Intamins have not been over 200ft.

What does that have to do with Intamin? They just build what the park orders.

Here's a VERY good example of the supports we're seeing on site at KD:

http://www.rcdb.com/ig4147.htm?picture=13

Pretty close, no?

It's not a hyper.

King's Dominion lacks a hyper. They already have the other types of coaster experiences covered. The last new coaster was a floorless looper, and the one before that was a launch family coaster.

I'm not disputing the fact that it's probably a launch like ispeed, I'm just saying that a hyper would make more sense for them to spend millions of dollars on.

EDIT - Screamscape is saying that it's a possible replacement for Hypersonic, which makes sense to me. They also say it could be the first Wing Rider concept in the U.S., which I would be estatic about!

Son of Grizzly. ;)

I'm sure Intamin would love to sell some more hypers. In fact, I'd love to ride some more Intamin hypers. I was just referring to the recent trends in which types of coasters Intamin has sold.

I'm assuming that when folks mention 'hyper' here they mean 'traditional hyper', meaning not a launch-tophat. Intamin has sold 2 of the latter (Xcelerator, Stealth) and only 1 traditional hyper (Thunder Dolphin) since the Supermans. Meanwhile, B&M has built around a dozen, including the dive machines.

If KD didn't want anymore launched coasters, don't you think they would have thought of that before they built the 2nd one...or the 3rd one? It doesn't have to be launched though, a la Fahrenheit.

I think the problem here is that we're still talking about the launch like it's a gimmick. I don't think it is, it's an alternative method of creating the energy to propel a coaster through a layout - an alternative to the lift hill.

Saying, "But they already have a couple of launched coasters" sounds as silly to me as saying, "But they already have a couple of coasters with lift hills."

I say we're crossing the line from a launch being a 'gimmicky' thing to a launch being a different way a getting a coaster going.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I do kinda think launches are gimmicky. Perhaps nowhere near as gimmicky as stand-ups or suspendeds or (God willing) flying coasters, but I have always felt that Kings Dominion having four (now three) launched coasters was overkill. While there's certainly the suspense of waiting for the initial launch, I prefer the suspense of climbing a lift. Not to mention, you can usually take in some nice views of the park for longer than a few milliseconds.

Now, I'm not saying I think launches will--or even should--eventually die out (like the aforementioned coaster types). I guess I'm just a little irked that I live closest to the park with the most coasters that don't have lift hills. :) I'm also a little bummed to hear that this new addition won't be a hyper, but I'm sure I'll dig whatever it is.

Yeah?

Well, Americans really need to learn more about launched coasters, where & when they started, and what it means for the industry. Every time someone attributes gimmicks to launches, they've obviated their coaster ignorance.

...

(Just for you, Vater. ;) )