Six Flags Magic Mountain announces Twisted Colossus

Because I like Flashpass, Michigan's Adventure, and popcorn, so I have nothing else to fuss about.

Point taken. Your first response wasn't bad, either. ;)

Vater said:

Why is track length an issue? A single ride is 665 feet longer than a single ride on the original, but now it has an extra lift. It's a wash..

Especially when you consider that most of the time, the ride only ran one side, anyway.

Actually, it'll only ever run one side again...

People are calling it a möbius, but does that mean Beast is too just cause it has two lifts?

sirloindude said:

Actually, capacity wasn't even an item I was concerned about. One could argue that given the single track, they can't ever shut one side of the ride down, so this ride will be forced to have high capacity all the time. ;)

No, but it will make SFMM's patented single train operations extra painful for those of us waiting in line.

Some might have a problem with the extra lift hill breaking up the pacing. I do not. I really like the idea of two airtime filled 80 degree drops, and one side has a double down, and the other a double up.

A Mobius strip is "a surface with only one side and only one boundary element." It's being used in this context to refer to the two separate tracks being turned into one continuous track.

Kennywood's Racer could be described the same way. (It's a racing coaster, but with one continuous track instead of two side by side tracks; your train returns to the opposite side of the station. For those who haven't had the pleasure of riding.)

But "true" mobius coasters have two side by side stations and switch from one side of the station to the other. This would be a mobius with the original station configuration, but since it only has one station, it's just a coaster with 2 lift hills that happen to be side by side.

Maybe, but only because the tracks are a little different, and they don't make you get off after doing one side.

It looks to me in the video, they basically chopped off the entire second half of the ride. After the 2nd inversion, both trains turn left, the green to the station, and the blue to the second lift. In the original Colossus, they would have turned right and then done a few more dips (with the section where the infamous 'double drop' was removed) and then another right turn and some pointless bunny hills back to the station.

Those parts of the original Colossus were pretty boring, to be honest. I'm sure RMC could have made them exciting, though, so it's kind of a mixed bag that they're being cut. Oh well, it's still a longer ride than the original if you count that you get to go on both sides of the track in one ride rather than only one!

If you aren't familiar with Colossus, and I'm guessing a large percentage of the people on this site aren't, the dramatic shortening of the track does make some sense. Colossus' station is a significant distance from the bulk of the ride. For us North Coasters, consider Gemini. Now rotate the station 90 degrees and put it on the other side of the midway, and you have an idea of how Colossus' station relates to the rest of the ride. The station platform is right off the midway, and the trains come out via the same sort of reverse curve you see on Kennywood's Racer, or the KECO racers at Kings [Island | Dominion] and Carowinds. That station exit will cause the trains to switch sides if you run them together (as at Kennywood) unless you deliberately separate them (as KECO did). Colossus avoided this by having the tracks cross over before entering the final brake runs.

Now, I haven't yet had time to look at the details for the makeover, but if you're finishing up the first circuit and you're going to go around again, there is no reason and no excitement in returning to the station. There's no reason to do it. Just circle back around to the base of the lift hill, and *presto!* you've cut a thousand feet out of the running length. And that's without even considering any other changes to layout and profile.

I still lament the passing of another racer. I think racers are cool.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

From the video, it appears they are removing much more track than just the initail turn around to the lift. The coaster used to drop, turn, and then go out and back 2 times. Now it looks like it will drop, turn and go out and turn into the lift hill or station.

Feelings go both way about this ride. It is great that they are keeping the dual track aspect, although with typical 6 flags operations, it probably won't run side by side very often and the high 5 and crossover inversions will be worthless.

It doesn't appear it will "race" to certain point where there is a winner. That's a shame to lose that aspect because on any true racing coaster you always see cheering happy people on the winning train. Racing adds another aspect of excitement to a coaster.

With one load station and typical 6 flags operations, the capacity of this coaster will be highly reduced than if it was a dual station racer. As mentioned before in this thread, racers have a high value with customer experience. If they are run correctly with both side running, it is a coaster that people can ride without a long wait on a busy day.

This ride will be exciting if trains are run together.

Typical Six Flags operation? LoL.

I'll remember that as I post my trip report from SFGAm from yesterday.

DISCLAIMER: I had a great time.

At this point, it no longer seems to be typical. It's become stereotypical Six Flags behavior.

super7* said:

From the video, it appears they are removing much more track than just the initail turn around to the lift. The coaster used to drop, turn, and then go out and back 2 times. Now it looks like it will drop, turn and go out and turn into the lift hill or station.

Feelings go both way about this ride. It is great that they are keeping the dual track aspect, although with typical 6 flags operations, it probably won't run side by side very often and the high 5 and crossover inversions will be worthless.

It doesn't appear it will "race" to certain point where there is a winner. That's a shame to lose that aspect because on any true racing coaster you always see cheering happy people on the winning train. Racing adds another aspect of excitement to a coaster.

With one load station and typical 6 flags operations, the capacity of this coaster will be highly reduced than if it was a dual station racer. As mentioned before in this thread, racers have a high value with customer experience. If they are run correctly with both side running, it is a coaster that people can ride without a long wait on a busy day.

This ride will be exciting if trains are run together.

Eh, I don't care about any of this. It looks like an outstanding roller coaster regardless if it races or not. Great pacing, very good elements and typical forceful airtime.

Rides that are supposed to race or duel would be less exciting if they didn't. I hear a lot of people dissatisfied that The Racer at Kings Island does not race. Same goes for Gemini at Cedar Point on slow days. Racing is one of the unique aspects of those particular rides. It is one reason people give those rides attention. They are designed and meant to race.

Twisted Colossus looks like a fantastic ride. I'm sure that unless the park is very slow, the park will understand the importance of racing the trains.

Breakdown of my post: Racing rides that are meant to race is important to their fun-factor. I'm sure that SFMM understands this and will race their new coaster that is made to race.

I'm sure it will race, especially since it will only have one station, the racing elements are being built into the ride and the Colossus crew has generally been the most efficient crew in the park.

As long as they're running two trains, wouldn't it be hard for them not to race?

Ask Busch Gardens Tampa.

Why? Gwazi never raced. ;)