Stratosphere fastest ride ever?!?

Friday August 31 2:51 PM ET
World's Fastest Ride Planned in Las Vegas
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Get ready for the ride of a lifetime.
The Stratosphere resort in Las Vegas plans to build a free-fall style ride that will drop thrill seekers 740 feet, sending them on a trip reaching speeds up to 120 mph before rocketing them back up a track across Las Vegas Boulevard at a force of four G's.
The resort will unveil more details of the ride, which has yet to be named, at a Sept. 6 meeting of the Las Vegas planning commission, said Stratosphere spokesman Mike Gilmartin.
The track for the ride will be shaped like a fishhook, with the long side of the hook running up the side of the 1,149-foot-tall Stratosphere -- the tallest building west of the Mississippi River, Gilmartin said.
Riders will be shuttled up the 740-foot track in an enclosed car alongside the tower, then dropped into a free fall that will send them zooming down, then across Las Vegas Boulevard, then back up a shorter 415-foot high track on the other side of the street, he said.
The ride will go back and forth on opposite sides of the track like a pendulum until it comes to rest in the middle, he said.
``It's a free-fall drop,'' Gilmartin said. ``It will hold 12 seats, all enclosed. It looks like a little rocket car, there are three different levels inside, three rows of seats. The ride looks like a giant ski jump.''
If it is built, the new ride will become the fastest and tallest in the world, beating out two existing rides that now lay claim to the title.
Superman the Escape at Six Flags Magic Mountain near Los Angeles rises to a height of 415 feet and reaches speeds of up to 100 mph. In Australia, meanwhile, Dreamworld's Tower of Terror near Brisbane drops thrill riders from a height of 328 feet, on a ride that reaches speeds up to 107 mph.
Stratosphere is already home to two other rides, including the Big Shot -- a ride atop the tower that rockets people up a needle at a speed of 45 mph.

How could Tower of Terror be 107 MPH. I thought it was tied with S:TE. Well, I sure am looking forward to this ride. I hope it turns out to be one of the most awesome experiences on a thrill ride. I just wish that I can get there when it opens. Will it top Big Shot which provides an awesome experience. I was hoping the cars would be more like an Intamin first generation freefall, but these are probably more like Tower of Terror at WDW. I wonder how much it will cost to ride?

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Nitro: The Most Explosive Coaster on the Planet explodes at Six Flags Great Adventure in 2001.

For some reason Tower Of Terror is shorted and faster then Superman.

Am I the only one who think 740 feet and 120 MPH don't match up?? I thinbk it should reach almost or 200 MPH.

When does this open? I have always wanted to go to Vegas this and thier other coasters will be more of enticing, but then I would have to go to DL SFMM KBF and DCA, Ohh geez I feel a trip coming.

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The Original Duke From Danimation!

ive heard and read on many web sites that Tower of Terror IS 100mph, but many feet shorter than S:TE...it doesnt go 107mph, trust me. It opened the same year as S:TE, so why would it have gone on without notice?
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"Ahh Beer. My one weakness. My Achilles heel, if you will" - Homer Simpson
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What is terminal velocity again? I haven't taken physics yet but I seem to remember it's around 120 mph. That would explain the lack of proportion. When it hits a certain point, it stops accelerating and just falls at a constant rate of speed. Somebody else feel free to elaborate.

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Joshua Wilcox
Knowing others is intelligence, knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.

Enclosed cars?!  What a rip.

From what that said the cars won't be open but inclosed. That stinks but with a ride like this how can anyone complain.
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There are rules or formulas used to measure speed when being suspended in freefall mode such as wind resistance... friction etc.

they have been discussed before...... go to this link.

http://www.coasterbuzz.com/forums/thread.asp?ForumID=11&TopicID=13067

That will give you all the information you need.

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Dave

Wind, probably. Getting hit with bugs and such at 120 mph could cause serious damage.
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http://www.ultimaterct.com for RCT

"The track for the ride will be shaped like a fishhook, with the long side of the hook running up the side of the 1,149-foot-tall Stratosphere -- the tallest building west of the Mississippi River, Gilmartin said. "

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...fishhook... like the rumored arrow fishhook?  cool beans ;)   does anyone know what the fishhook actually is? please explain.

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BBSpeed26, it IS the new Arrow Fishhook. I think they explain it fairly well in the article. You are taken up, then dropped 700 feet and rock back and forth in the unbalanced "U" until you stop at the bottom, where the station is.

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Joshua Wilcox
Knowing others is intelligence, knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.

Apparently T.O.T hit 107mph in testing! For that to happen, it had to be unloaded & hit top of the tower brakes. That ties it with Dodonpa or better as RCDb lists it at 106.9mph. S:TE (1996) was the first ride designed to hit 100mph & had problems doing so which were fixed in T.O.T (1997) & beat it to the target speed.

But drop 700ft & zoom up the 415ft tower? That doesn't figure unless it's braked before topping out. If unbraked, it would have to be 650ft at least. It sure sounds similar to Vekoma's Hammerhead Stall. If the cars were to rotate like it, that would be WILD! Then again the uneven heights inspired the name "Fish Hook." Hey, if it was built in a park with the appropriate film licensing it could be called "I Know What You Did Last Summer." Really sorry for the bad joke. :)

If the RRFs are any indication, the vehicle wheels will be massive. A RRF car has 3ft dia rear wheels & 2ft front wheels. 4ft? 5ft?

 Why not eliminate wheels with MAGLEV technology? Nah, too expensive but a definite for Ultracoasters of the future. Actually MAGLEV cars/trains would sport wheels in case of power outages.

"Rocks like a pendulum to a stop in the middle?" That means there will be transfer tracks at the bottom. I hope this ride goes ahead, it will be very interesting to follow its construction.

*** This post was edited by Taipan on 9/4/2001. ***

Taipan has got it spot on.  The Tower of Terror hit the 107mph mark in an unloaded test before the ride opened.  The big thing was that it did it at a press confrence being held for the rides launch date etc.  At this time the fastest that I have ridden the TOT at was 159.5kmph and that was just after it opened.  At the moment it is reaching aroung the 157kmph mark on every run.
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"Thunder from Down Under"
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Taipan said:

 Why not eliminate wheels with MAGLEV technology? Nah, too expensive but a definite for Ultracoasters of the future. Actually MAGLEV cars/trains would sport wheels in case of power outages.

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sounds interesting... I last rode a levtrain at the Expo in British Columbia, I forgot the exact year but it was in the mid 80's... That thing was incredible, it was so smooth it was hard to tell you that were moving.
For a coaster it would be awesome. There would be so little friction that with a tiny lift hill the coaster would maintain speed through most of the course. Roughness would never be an issue.
Do you think they would use upstop wheels, or upstop magnets so that there would be no contact with the track? I'm sure there would be wheels as backups, as you mentioned, but the thought of a coaster that never contacts the track is giving me chills. That would be the TRUE flying coaster.
Unfortunately the power use would be enormous. The ride would almost have to have it's own plant, just like the example at the expo did. Sounds expensive, but didn't they spend $50 million on Steel Dragon 2000? It would probably cost that much to build a lev-coaster similar to a Schwarzkopf shuttle loop. I also think they would build a monorail or other transport ride using this technology first, since most people haven't experienced it yet.
-djansi

This is rather old news...
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- VertiCord Crew 2001
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look at the date of the first post....someone just had something new to add.

Just to add on the other TOT comments, and other questions that have been lying around. Where TOT is shorter, it is not the track height, which is identical height, from lowest to highest track, but it is the fact that S:TE is built atop a hill, giving it an automatic +40ft or so. TOT did hit 107mph during testing, and has hit 103mph with people on it during testing, but it's official speed is 100mph, although now it is about 98mph, as is with S:TE.

Isn't it funny how all us Aussies seem to have to input into this totally non-australian or TOT related topic :p, no you're right, it's not.

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Australian

The city council is to vote on whether this ride will be built tomorrow (November 7). Let's keep our fingers crossed.
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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead

They are voting tomorrow I thought they voted on it a month ago and they said no?
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Here is a picture of a model of the ride.
http://members.telocity.com/alantis104/strat.jpg

This is a picture of a scale model of the car.
http://members.telocity.com/alantis104/strat2.jpg

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Joey Ciborek FLCC Member
www.FloridaCoasterClub.com
"WE RIDE ALL YEAR!"