Mitch's Wood Coaster Poll - Results

lest we forget the first "hybrid" the crystal beach cyclone which was constructed with a steel frame due to its lake side location and then was reborn as the comet now at sfge *** Edited 12/9/2007 2:19:15 AM UTC by teaj***

I just don't get the debate at all. Both Voyage and El Toro are wooden coasters, period. Judging how they were built and how they ride is simply a matter of personal taste.

Both are great rides that I couldn't have imagined riding ten years ago. The advances in technology and design have allowed us to experience something close to perfection IMO. They absolutely deserve the top two spots, no matter which way you flip them.

Forgot to vote. Procrastination is a beeyotch.

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Acoustic Viscosity said:
The transitions are over-engineered virtually eliminating the laterals.

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Weren't the "wings" on the trains replaced because the original ones were breaking off? Wouldn't that infer there are some pretty intense laterals?

Actually there was a lot of discussion about Colossos riding like a steel coaster when it opened, and it was causing mixed reviews much the same as El Toro. I don't recall Balder having the same discussion though.

Not sure about the need to replace the flimsy wing thingies, other than they were flimsy and I imagine wouldn't hold up well with the way typical guests seem to treat the interior of rides.

Thunderbird, and Kentucky Rumbler, not #1, and #2. Oh well better luck next year, when the retracking of Voyage gets even worse than this year. But I'm sure that the majority will still rule in it's favor.

Yeah, because for many Voyage is a much better ride regardless of its "re-ride-ability".

Ain't that the truth.

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halltd said:

Wouldn't that infer there are some pretty intense laterals?

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no, it would imply there are some pretty intense laterals.

I thought I heard the Cordes pre-fab thing was somewhat analogous to how they make Pringle's potato chips: the wood (or the potato) is ground to a pulp and combined with whatever they use to bind it up, then shaped to each piece and extruded out. So it's still wood, but it's not. Like Pringle's are potatoes, but they're not.

As far as The Voyage's steel structure not having an effect on the ride - wait a few years. From what I've seen and felt, the CCI steel-structured woodies may save on maintenance and offer more stability, but it's pretty unforgiving and gives a "stiffer" ride the older it gets, and makes the track roughen up faster. It happened to Zeus, MBP Hurricane, Great White, Silver Comet - though the last two have been retracked pretty regularly and run good these days. Great White got a whole new trackbed of Douglas fir from M&V about five years ago, I think that helped a lot but it's getting rougher again. Fortunately Holiday World is good with maintenance, they know they have a big big winner and will do what it takes to keep it running as best as it can. But the bad spots show up even in the space of one season's operation, and it'll get harder as time goes on to keep up with it.

That's what I was getting at. Saying that they're both made out of wood over-simplifies it (especially if you're willing to admit that it totally gives a different ride). Sauder furniture is made of something wood-like, but no one in their right mind would ever call it lumber. McNuggets are chicken-like, but I wouldn't call it chicken (especially when it's half made of corn and water).

The point is, if the construction method, or in this case the manufacturing method is that different, then it's no long the same thing.

I do know that the last time I rode Villain it was alot rougher than the first time I rode it. I don't know if it was due to the steele structure or lack of maintenance.

I think a lot of people missed the point of El Toro's existence. What wood coaster does it interact with that not many people like? Of course, Rolling Thunder.

In a park full of steel coasters, I think ET was the right choice. It was Six Flags's way of adding what a lot of people had probably been requesting--another wood coaster--but it had to compliment "feel-wise" what already existed in the park.

There is no doubt to me that ET is just way out of control, and it's not even the airtime--which is scary enough--the MF-speed cable lift, the first drop in the back seat, or even the disturbing upstop wheel noises.

It's what occurs in the infield of RT that is simply baffling the first time you ride it (and maybe even after that). The turns are taken at such a high rate of speed (but smoothly) that I literally had no idea what had just occurred.

Ultimately, I'm on the fence about El Toro being a wood coaster. I think it does a great job of looking like one (and that's all the public needs to worry about), but the trains, wheels, and even the seats make it hard to for me to compare it to anything else in the States, except for another Intamin steel coaster like S:ROS at SFNE.

Will we ever see another stateside? If anyone has the money for it in the near future, it would be Busch, and BGE has a rather large plot of land looking for a new inhabitant, and they'd finally get their "wood" coaster without disturbing the neighbors too much.

If you have a problem with certain coasters being in the wood poll, shouldn't you be bothering, er, contacting Mitch about it? Maybe he can create a third poll called "Other."

Until then, ya gots two choices-- yer wood and yer steel.

I'm glad voyage won. It is a terrific ride, and they do a great job maintaining it. I think a little park like Holiday World deserves the excellent publicity this brings. It shows that you don't have to be a super huge park to win best coaster. I mean when was the last time Six Flags built a number 1 woodie?

It was Six Flags's way of adding what a lot of people had probably been requesting--another wood coaster--but it had to compliment "feel-wise" what already existed in the park.

No. It was Six Flags way of adding a coaster they assumed they'd have to do as little maintenance as possible on.

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Intamin Fan said:
Ultimately, I'm on the fence about El Toro being a wood coaster.

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That's like being on the fence about Earth being spherical.

They might have been right had the elevator lift actually not been as problematic for El Toro as it is.

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RatherGoodBear said:
If you have a problem with certain coasters being in the wood poll, shouldn't you be bothering, er, contacting Mitch about it?

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Because the poll is irrelevant to the discussion about whether or not manufacturing versus building makes enough of a difference in the ride experience to warrant categorizing it differently.

^ And there's about as much chance of reaching a mature consensus on this as the "Superman" debate. I'm perfectly fine with each individual making up their own mind as far as how to categorize Intamin prefabs. What's Intamin's definition?

^^ Except the "discussion" began with two comments to the effect that El Toro was "hardly a woodie at all" and "barely a woodie." If the reason why enough people ranked El Toro lower in the poll is because they don't consider it genuine enough, then it becomes relevant to the discussion.