Question about the origin of Drachen Fire

I went to a site and it made me wonder something. Is it true that B&M was suposed to design and build the coaster? If they were then why did Arrow step in? Can someone give me the story

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Best Coaster: Millennium Force
Worst Coaster: Project Stealth

Everyone has different opinions on this story. I'm not sure if it's true, although, if it is, it would explain a lot. For instance, the camelback was supposedly going to be a zero-g roll, but they had to change it for Arrow. Another example is the fact that no other Arrow coasters have a brake run followed by separate corkscrews...they always are double corkscrews. There are other little things that also don't seem Arrow-like. Hope this helps a little. If not, too damn bad. Haha, just kidding.

-Raven_Rider

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"Hold on tight, with all your might, and enjoy your flight on the Raven!" *** This post was edited by Raven_Rider on 2/23/2001. ***

Well, a year later B&M designed the wonderful Kumba for BGT. A few similarities.

Yes the story goes that B&M were supposed to build her. But some where along the line they got to wound up in the other projects and handed the Blue Prints over to Bush who gave them to Arrow. Many people believe this is why she is so rough becuase she was orignially meant for a wider guaged track that b&m offers.

Can you imagine if B&M did build this layout? It would've been 7 inversions, the norm. for Mega Loopers. A B&M Cutback Inversion would've been pretty cool.

Are there any other coasters with a Cutback Inversion? I.e. half corkscrew mirrored.

Also didn't the layout originally have 6 inversions? Wingover, Batwing, Corkscrew, Cutback, Corkscrew. Was the first corkscrew removed due to severe headbanging?

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Home Park - Wonderland Sydney, Australia.

Last corkscrew. Even if B&M had been working on the project, the design from them would have had to be simular because the parks order the rides from the manufacturers. When Arrow built the ride, they gave BGW a product they had requested. I never got to ride it. I'm mad, I want a ride:(.

I think B&M was finishing up their first Inverted at that time. They were too strapped for time and gave the job to Arrow after some tweaking of the layout.

The design of DF is definately "non-Arrow," (cobra roll, cutback, seperate corkscrews)

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"X" marks the spot in 2001!

Doesn't anyone's BS detector go off when a thread goes on and on like this and not a single person has anything to say about it? What credibility do any of these statements have?

When Toomer talked about it at CoasterMania'99, he sure did seem to have Arrow take ownership of it and for the most part said they did what BGW asked for. He also commented that it wasn't enough room to do it.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

What made it nonArrow? Maybe those were the first times Arrow were to use those inversions. Plus, I may be looking at it wrong, but isn't Anacoda somewhat simular? Everyone can say "wow if it had of been what it was supposed to of been, a B&M imagine how it would have been". Given the comments Jeff passed along from the ride's credited designer, maybe anything like that pushed into that space could have well came out worse. Arrow had the experience at the time, even though the B&M people had been in the business, they had not been a company like Arrow.

Look at the supports on the lift hill for Drachen Fire. They look a lot like B&M lifts with the supports starting in the middle at the bottom and moving farther apart at the top. I can't think of another Arrow coaster that has that kind of support system. I'm a firm believer in this rumor because the layout just screams B&M, and Arrow has never designed anything like Drachen Fire, even in terms of later coasters.

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E.J.
Webmaster: Theme Park New England
http://tpne.8m.com

I agree with you themeparkne. when you look at pics of the Drachen Fire its definatly not a standard Arrow designed coaster. Those supports are B&M all the way. I wish I would have gotten to ride this coaster. The inversions look great. Here take a look for yourself. http://www.rcdb.com/installationgallery112.htm?Picture=3