Six Flags Fiesta Texas announces Dr. Diabolical's Cliffhanger, a B&M dive coaster

Sucks...

I'll be down there when it opens next year. I'll give my review of this beast!

sws said:

Sucks...

Why does it suck?

He's exercising a very old meme where people declare a ride sucks before it's even built. And you're standing on his lawn.

Texas Thrillseeker #1 said:

sws said:

Sucks...

Why does it suck?

It sucks because the midcourse brake slows it down too much. And the ride is too short. And if they needed a coaster like this they would have already built it.

Just throwing a couple more memes out there.

Or Maverick.

This will be the first B&M built by Six Flags in a decade when it opens in 2022 (X-Flight at SFGAM, 2012).

This addition further confirms to me that the days of "all parks receiving something new each year" is finally done (along with the ending of the chain wide video introducing the new attractions). That idea kind of flopped in many different ways.

This will be a great addition to SFFT and if this goes over well, I can see the chain purchasing clones of these for some of the other parks over the next 5 years.

Sucks > Rip Ride Rocket

Texas Thrillseeker #1 said:

I'll be down there when it opens next year. I'll give my review of this beast!

While you're in the area, you should stop by Knoebel's.

I won’t be happy until every Six Flags park in every city gets this exact same ride with the exact same name.

An interesting note is that the theme revolves around a female central character.

The steepest first drop is so yesterday. I am waiting for the dive coaster with the steepest drop after the mid-course. That will be a record breaker that I for sure will want to ride.

The beyond-vertical thing definitely has some impact on some rides, though I'm not sure if I've done any other than SpongeBob at Mall of America that have it. Oh, Fahrenheit at Hersheypark. Or Maverick. OK, I guess I've been on a bunch. Even for the shorties like Maverick, there's definitely an extra kick to the drop, so I wonder what it will be like on one this big.

Did you just use “or Maverick” out of meme context? Nice.

The profile and speed of the first drop can definitely given the impression of going beyond vertical, even if it doesn't. I've heard many laypeople describe Millennium's first drop as bending under itself, even though all of us nerds know better.

If you can imagine a car being thrust forward from the crown of the lift hill, it would naturally want to follow a parabolic trajectory if left to free-fall. If the hill profile is a shallower parabola then the rider will remain in contact with the seat, but if the parabola is steeper than the natural free-fall trajectory then the track will seem to continuously pull away from the train and, if the final angle is steep enough, bend under itself. It's a different kind of airtime than a camelback because you're facing down instead of forward, so you get the feeling of wanting to tumble forward and out of the car.

Now, if the track does go beyond vertical then you will without question pop out of your seat, hence the kick that Jeff mentioned.

I've been on a couple vertical and past vertical rides, and I didn't notice a drastic difference. In fact, I just rode Candymonium in June and it even felt unnervingly close to vertical. It's less than 80°.

The beyond vertical part is never very long, which is likely part of the reason. The number of feet of straight track on almost any largest drop is also very short, typically.

I think it's most noticeable to me on Fahrenheit because the lift is vertical, so the change going over the top is over 180 degrees.

A friend and I were looking at the Thunderbolt at Coney Island Sunday - they elected not to ride in part because of the vertical drop. I said I found the vertical climb much more unnerving; the drop is over before you even realize you're going straight down.