Remember Shaft of Terror?

The Shaft of Terror located at Gol Reef City outside Johannesburg (sp?) has opened. The structure for the lift hill and the drop is a real tower used at a mining some years ago. The first drop is pretty steep as you can see in this pic: http://www.rcdb.com/installationgallery1481.htm?Picture=3 The parks official site has some new pics: http://www.goldreefcity.co.za/shaft.htm And in one of those pics they show a car for the ride. And guess what i see, just lapbars! That's awesome. But there's one problem. It's in South Africa and i live in Europe, so i will probably not ride this incredible ride in a looong time.

So what you think about this one?

Looks like fun, but too far away.
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GO CU! Big 12 Champs!

Max G-Force of 6.3?! Not too shabby. Me likes.

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Rich Genthner / PTC99

This is a very interesting coaster, considering it was built all locally and didn't involve any major coaster manufacturer. It will be interesting on the feel of the ride as well as the safety. That first drop does look wicked !

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Go Full Force

The banking on that drop reminds me of a heavily-banked drop on some wooden coaster out in the woods of Ohio...Cincy, I think!
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PoTP acolyte - remove fear to reply
Son of Drop Zone - PKI CoasterCamp I Champions!!!

Wow that is amazing. I really like the tower, and love the cars. And I miss White Lightnin! Ahhhh...those shuttles.

If it has officially opened this is newsworthy. Submit it!
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DON'T....LOOK....BACK! The Headless Horseman awaits you in 2002!
Model coasters and rides: www.angelfire.com/oh4/tk173

It definately looks like a step up from the B&M versions, although it's kind of hard to figure out the layout. Hopefully it's smooth, but with an unheard of maker who knows (except those lucky souls in the pics).

Rollergater, I'm not getting what you're talking about. I'm not really seeing any resemblance to the Beast anywhere in the Shaft of Terror pics. It's a vertical first drop (supposedly) with a turn as it's dropping. The only coaster that resembles that drop to me is Expedition Ge-Force. The one banked turn looks more like TA2K to me.

*** This post was edited by Incidentalist on 12/19/2001. ***

I thought the shaft of terror was an arstechnica thing... Or is that DoD?...

Anyway this is very interesting. I really don't understand why it has taken so long to have vertically dropping roller coasters, as I can't think of an inherent reason that they shouldn't work. ANy history on why it took so long to have vertical drops?

Coma

Hey! I took that photo! Just as well RCDb has my photos as the online photo album I used has stuffed them up.

Yep, 6.3Gs due to the quick pull-out. It drops about 110ft above the ground hitting 90degs at ground level then pulls out just 49ft underground.

The layout is more or less the same as Oblivion, only shorter, steeper & more terrifying. I reckon the turn after the drop is not banked enough. It is about 20ft aboveground - 90ft below the top of the drop. Oblivion's turn is banked 90degs. Therefore Shaft's should be the same or overbanked/higher up.

The man & his sons in the car is one of the park officials. I'm not too sure. His sons look familar, maybe I went to school with them. As for the car, it has fiberglass seats - ouch!

The GRC site is not very good. I'll email my JHB buddies & get them to check it out & take pics for me.

This coaster is a great idea! I love how they utilized an existing structure! Having studied geology, I love any coaster having anything to do with it...theming or otherwise. Speaking of which, I must tip my hard hat to DCA for keeping actual geomorphology in mind when designing Grizzly Rapids.

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"I'll bet that thing hits 5 Gs going through that loop.....faaar ooouut!"

Unknown maker? Huh? It's Giovanola, people!

Anyways, it looks fun. Doesn't look too big on restraints. I feel like going to Africa now... :)

«Çå£ïÇõå§†ê®Š», ya' beat me to it! The manufacturer is Giovanola. Most people probably couldn't tell because of the track.
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"I’m more than a bird..I’m more than a plane...More than some pretty face beside a train...It’s not easy to be me"-Five for Fighting "Superman" dedicated to all of the hardworking rescuers of the WTC...

No it's not Giovanola, man. Read the details. It was initially thought to be so, but that's not the case. It just bears resemblance to a product that Giovanola has in their catalog.
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- Peabody

I do believe Giovanola had something to do with this coaster, if not design then fabrication.

rollergator said:
The banking on that drop reminds me of a heavily-banked drop on some wooden coaster out in the woods of Ohio...Cincy, I think!
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PoTP acolyte - remove fear to reply
Son of Drop Zone - PKI CoasterCamp I Champions!!!

Yeah! It kinda does... good thing it's 3 times as steep and doesn't have brakes all the way down it :)

Incidentalist, if you look at the first pic, you'll see that the drop is leaning HEAVILY to one side...the second hill on Beast drops you at a similar angle (although the "slant" on Beast's drop into the helix is to the left side of the train) and SoT is tilted the other way.
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PoTP acolyte - remove fear to reply
Son of Drop Zone - PKI CoasterCamp I Champions!!!

*** This post was edited by rollergator on 12/20/2001. ***

I thought I remember reading somewhere that the manufacturer was Nauta-Bussink, who has a website (http://www.nauta-bussink.com) and has a "mine diver" model ride.

Anyone know for sure?

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Jeff Tobe
tobejeff@pilot.msu.edu

not for sure, but I looked at that site and the mine diver model seems very similar. And the "lost city" ride looks really cool.....I'd like to see that for TR:TR.

Liz

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"The only real limit to height is what people are willing to get on." - Ron Toomer