Six Flags Great Adventure announces the world's tallest, fastest coaster

The switch track might as well not be a part of the launch track, they are in two separate areas. Superman: Ultimate Flight uses the dual-stations and does it perfectly.

What in the hell would CP do with a 500 foot coaster? Is that really needed after plopping down a $25 million Dragster?*** This post was edited by BullGuy 9/29/2004 11:13:55 AM ***

Im sorry 36 feet, my post was referring to WickedMatt because he said "And by a lot? 36 ft and 8 mph aren't much at all" That's what my post was for, stating 36 feet is a lot to break a height record by when we are dealing with heights in the 400's. I also don't see any tricks being pulled, I do see people looking for anyway to say something negative about this coaster though. ;)

^Just as TTD launches faster sometimes than its advertised speed, so will Kingda Ka. With the stats given, it should have a faster launch in a shorter amount of time. And even if it didn't, it's *still* going 128mph!

About 36ft not being a huge record breaker - when is the last time something broke it by more? TTD only beat out STE by 5ft (you *know* that's the only reason they went to 420ft).

Impulsive, I'm not sure what you're trying to say - are you comparing TTD's drop with KK's? According to SFGAd the drop on KK is 418ft.

And you'll definitely get air with the horsecollars (lord knows I did on SR), but you just won't feel as vulnerable. I'm more worried about getting knocked around on the spiral down than I am about "not getting air" on the bunny hill.

JC

Here's the CNN.com version of the article http://www.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/09/29/fastest.coaster.ap/index.html ^_^

Honestly I'm a bit impressed. SFGAM is my hometown park (live maybe 30 minutes away) and this is a really balsy move by SF. I agree on that one. =) It's kind of cool to see them stepping up to the plate. Maybe they can teach my cubbies something T_T *growls at maddox and goes back into lurkdom*

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baller24 said:

Plus that bunny hill looks pretty sweet but how much air do you really expect to get with the OSTRs?

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Plenty. Storm Runner delivers some of the sickest, most extended air around and it's an Intamin Rocket with OTSR's.

I think it looks pretty cool. I do wonder how close to the renderings the whole area will really look though. Seems like an awful lot of work to be done in the offseason. If they pull it off, I'll be very impressed, but I have a feeling it'll take a season or three for things to 'fill in' and look like the concept.

Just to let you know... major news outlets are definitely picking up on the story. This one is from CNN's homepage:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/09/29/fastest.coaster.ap/index.html

"Has any other high-capacity coaster successfully implemented a dual station, single track layout?"

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad has done this for more than 20 years.

It's close to New York, which we all know is the center of the universe, so nautrally this will get lots of play in the media.

Wow. That's amazing. SF is doing what CP should have: a bunny hill! Even with OTSRs that will be airtime heaven. Looks like I better start planning a trip to the east coast!

Although, leave it to Six Flags to make some lame PR quote:
(from CNN)" 'This is the first step in a process of really transforming Six Flags Great Adventure from the largest regional theme park in the world to a true regional destination,' Kieran Burke, chief executive officer of Oklahoma City-based Six Flags, told The Associated Press."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/09/29/fastest.coaster.ap/index.html

Does anyone else find that quote a bit odd? That one ranks right up there with the Cheerios 'may help reduce the risk of heart disease.' So, there's a chance it will help lessen the chance of the chance of heart disease. Right.

baller24, your going to get as much airtime on it as you get on any other intamin hyper when stapled in. Which feels like a lot even if you dont leave your seat.

I hardly doubt they will ever get the two stations working in tandom. I cant see it happening, even if one side it efficient the other will lag behind and cause the intervals to be off. This IS SFGAdv, home to one of the worst park experiences of my life. They cant even load a simple ride like Nitro or Batman efficiently.

I have no faith.

Legendary - yea, I was comparing TTDs to KKs to STEs - I thought that although the physical structure supporting the vertical tower on STE is 415', the track vertical difference is only like 330' or something, I thought I read that somewhere. I knew TTD's was 400' exactly, so I was figuring KKs was between 410 and 420, which you've confirmed.

People worried about OTSRs and airtime really need to go ride Storm Runner. As LG said, some of the sickest airtime around and there's all kinds of room to move in those restraints, so they don't inhibit that at all. I am a little worried about banging in the spiral though, because sometimes on TTD, I find myself leaning pretty far out of the car on the spiral.

And all you people sayin' CP won't try for 500', do you really think a guy that basically touched off the coaster wars by saying "mine's taller than yours" is going to go out without owning the record at his star park? Doubt it ... but this is GAdv's day, not CPs, so let it go.

Coming from an avowed CP fan (not fanboy though), I am excited about this coaster. Records come and go, and we all knew TTD's wouldn't last forever.

What I really like about this coaster though, is the theme, look of the area, and of course the "airtime hill". In my mind, this coaster is more of what Dragster should have been, though TTD is still a great ride.

I love the whole new jungle themed area around the coaster, and hope it actually looks as lush as it does in the pictures. However, that likely will take a few years.

At any rate, it looks like a trip to GAdv is certainly in the cards for next year. Now I just have to pray that the ride is actually running the day I get there!

Looks like the east is going to be a great place to visit next year. I had no plans on visiting Great Adventure next year until I heard about this. Hopefully they can run it fairly decent.

As for the restraints, I don't find them horrible, although they can be fairly nasty for those that like to ride with their hands in the air. as the restraitns will dig into your shoulders. In other words, I know I plan on keeping my arms down. =:^)

As for the speed record, I have seen TTD read 128 on the radar diplay on two different occasions this year. Yes, I seriously doubt CP would ever start advertising that their coaster can do 128mph, but the speed did happen. That's not to say KK will be limited to 128 mph launch on certain days.

Keith, you did another fantastic job with this animiation (as always)

-Sean

Danimales - I don't see anything odd about that. I see that as the slap-in-the-face challenge to a duel with CP. You want to have a mega-marketable resort-destination park? Fine, our chain can do that too.

Maybe look for a lot of money to be poured into non-ride improvements and hotel properties at GAdv in the coming years?

Guys, keep in mind that while it is only 8 miles faster, which is significant already, it is reaching that speed in around .5 to .7 of a second FASTER. About the airtime, if the hill is 129, and the drop is around 418, that is roughly a 290 foot difference, so the speed will definately cause floater air, if not extreme floater air, regardless of the "gentle" sloping.

I think the OTSR's will be good, because I remember on the twist on TTD that you move laterally very badly, and it was creepy the first time.

I thought height was measured from the ground to the top of the ride.

just my input.

Chernabog beat me to it, but Big Thunder is of course the most obvious example of a successful dual-station single-track operation.

Storm Runner has multiple problems with the shoulder bar arrangement. First of all, the shoulder bar prevents the lap bar from going down where it should. The shoulder bar does nothing to stabilize the lower body, and...guess what...there's a knob in the middle of the seat. So if you're lucky, you're tall enough that the shoulder bar is annoyingly snug, because if it isn't, you get a ball-busting on the seat mold. Storm Runner's twisting airtime ought to be really cool, but instead it is really unpleasant. There is nothing wrong with Storm Runner, though, that couldn't be fixed by removing ten fasteners from each seat.

Incidentally, I think the new Intamin lap bar design (apart from the shoulder bar) is a good one, and I am surprised that nobody else has done it that way. Well, apart from Setpoint, anyway...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

One more thing, GAdv allready has more kids rides than operators. How is adding more a good thing when they wont have enought staff to run the old ones in the other areas?

Since they're not a professional business or anything, they won't know better to hire more people. What will happen now?!

Pufnstuf, the same pictures are on the SFGAdv Media Center page. ;)

+Danny

Like what Sean said, I will be keeping my arms down if I ever do get to ride this one. I had my arms up on Storm runner and at one point it really dug into my shoulder. I can see that happening on the twist on the way down.

This story also got mentioned on the Howard Stern show this morning. Robin read the stats and Howard said something like "You'll be puking and snapping your neck in 3 seconds." Both Robin and Artie said they wanted to ride it though.