Six Flags Magic Mountain announces Full Throttle roller coaster

This ride doesn't totally blow my mind either, and I say that as a diehard fan of most of Premier's work. It's just that this and SUF seem like super-low capacity rides that devote an entire ride to a single element that a number of other rides have as but one part of a complete package. I think that Premier could give Intamin a run for their money as well as soon as they start getting the contract for rides with the capacity and "completeness" to do so.

Yes, capacity. My recent adventure to Canada's Wonderland and my experiences at Europa Park have taught me that capacity counts for how my day goes.

Basically, this ride seems all about the launch and a loop slightly larger than Superman Krypton Coaster's and Dominator's, but those two rides have a lot more than the loops.

It's not that I despise the ride and have no desire to ride it. I think it looks cool. However, it alone isn't enough to make me want to go back to SFMM. I am planning a winter 2014 trip so I can ride this, but I'll be going more for rides like Batman-The Ride, Goliath, and X2.

I'm at Magic Mountain pretty often and their capacity on most coasters is pretty bad. I can't imagine how much down time this thing is going to have with three LIM launches. I'm excited to ride it though and it's got to be better than Green Lantern.

Raven-Phile said:
Someone explained to me, that if they launched it from a dead stop, it wouldn't make it over the top hat, so they have to launch it backward, to get it rolling forward again so it has some extra momentum.

Why on earth they couldn't just launch it when it rolls in the first time, is beyond me.

The stop and backwards launch is actually a theming element. The coaster is themed to a bolt of electricity. In the tunnel the ride will experience a sudden loss of power, and then a reboot.

I was at SFDK two days in a row in July (the second day just to grab a couple laps on SUF and get out of there) and SUF spent about 50% of the time down. Granted, it was in 20 or 30 or 45 minute chunks, but it certainly wasn't running smoothly. Of course there are many different possible explanations for that and I have no idea if it's gotten any better.

sirloindude said:

Yes, capacity. My recent adventure to Canada's Wonderland and my experiences at Europa Park have taught me that capacity counts for how my day goes.

What were your experiences at those parks?

I'm wondering if the stop, reverse-launch and then forward launch sequence will eventually be programmed out. Seems like that would cost a lot of money. Kinda like Six Flags Great America not using the back break on V2 (well, it burned out anyway, the rumors say).

It could be for blocking purposes. If the launch is not enough for it to get over the hill and it needs to be moving at a certain speed for the launch to work, and it is also acts as a block brake, then it would need to be able to continue through from a stopped position.

My experience at Canada's Wonderland was that a zillion low-capacity rides at North America's highest-attended regional park can make crowds seem 10x worse, whole at Europa Park, having every coaster be a serious people-mover allows for short waits even when the park is slammed.

As for the stop-launch segment on Full Throttle, I would doubt that it's a block segment due to the possibility of a rollback. You pretty much have to wait until the train clears the camelback to send the next one, but by that time, the ride is pretty much over. It seems like it just adds seconds to the ride cycle on one that has inherent capacity issues by design.

I'd be the first to point out if a ride looks like it would have low capacity, however, I do not see a capacity problem with Full Throttle because the ride is going to be less than one minute long. It looks like the train will hold 18 riders, which isn't great, but if they have two or three trains on the track at one time, I don't see it as a problem.

To me the ride looks fun. The coaster lover in me wants more after the top-hat element and I thought they would use more of the land/terrain since they took out an awesome log flume ride to bring this in.

I hope the capacity is good but I won't hold my breath. Looks like they can't launch a new train until the first one clears the top of the top-hat in case of a rollback into the tunnel, but that shouldn't be a problem since they most likely won't even have a new train loaded and checked by that point anyway.

The Top Hat and the loop being connected is pretty creative. I'm sure that saves on steel cost.

I like the backward launch because it is unexpected. Kind of like Expedition Everest when the train reverses direction. It seem unnatural that a complete circuit coaster should retrace its steps. Sure its short, but it has enough going on to be a must ride.

LostKause said:

Launch into the giant loop, turnaround into an inversion, stop in the tunnel, backwards launch halfway into previous inversion, back into the tunnel for a forward launch, over the top outside of the loop, brakes, station.

This could be turned into an interesting game. Describe a coaster in the most boring way possible and try to guess what it is. One of my favorites could be described as:

Slow climb up lift hill, big drop, slightly smaller drop with a turn, tunnel, turn-around, tunnel, hill, hill, hill, hill, hill, tunnel, breaks, station.

It would e a fun game, and I get your point, but this is basically an out and back coaster with one element on the way out and one element on the way back. With exception to the placement of the elements interacting with each other, it IS a pretty boring layout, in my opinion.

I will end this post with some positives though. I love the name, and that the park will theme a new area around this ride is great! I am happy that it's a Premier ride too! Also I don't think that the ride will have the dreaded capacity issues that I so often speak out about.

RPM said:

Slow climb up lift hill, big drop, slightly smaller drop with a turn, tunnel, turn-around, tunnel, hill, hill, hill, hill, hill, tunnel, breaks, station.

It's Magnum, isn't it?

Well, it breaks every circuit before the station, so it's got to be Vekoma or Intamin. ;)

In all seriousness, that could also be a description of Voyage, but it's closer to Magnum.

Also, unless they double up the station, the station block will almost certainly be the bottleneck on this one. With a launch and a relatively short course, even with the back and forth part, it'll take less than a minute from dispatch to final brake.

What's up with all the rides breaking lately? They all seem to go through the entire course, then break at the end. Who maintains these things?

looks like fun to me. Even though I would never be able to go there to ride it.

Don't rule out the possibility. I never thought I would have been able to do anything like I've been able to do the past few years, but circumstances changed and voila! I work in the travel industry and have been able to enjoy the hobby in ways even I can barely believe.

"If you can believe it, you can achieve it", Timber-Rider.

Read up on the Law of Attraction. It's not what it sounds like. It's pretty interesting, Timber-Rider. It shows you that anything is possible if you want it. It's not easy though. I still have trouble mastering it, but it has changed my life for the better.

Unless you don't like mumbo jumbo type stuff. Then it will not work for you. :)

Personally I'm disappointed. This is a throwback to the Cheap Trick Gimmicky coasters of the 70's and early 80's. The reverse launch is not needed. and SFI need to learn what a top hat is. The maneuver over the loop is a hill.