The Dr. Seuss Driving Machines at IOA

Just curious, are the Driving Machines (can't remember the full name) supposed to be operating? I was under the influence that the ride was not operational.

It's not..nor will it ever be.

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"...they came like a winged curse. A twin plague of demonic dragons!" - Dueling Dragons

Sad, but true, they will probably never open. I don't buy the initial argument, that the design was defective because there would be no way to evacuate guests other than cherry pickers if the ride were to stall.

I mean, it's true. Unlike Disney's TTA there is no way to get people off the ride other than by bringing in the heavy equipment. Still, Paramount parks have no problems with the SkyTours rides in their kiddie areas. It's not as if these rides have a reputation for breaking down. It would have been a great high-capacity attraction at IOA, and with the Skipper boats down it would have been the only transportation ride in the park.

In Jan 2000 there was a sign saying it would open in 2001. (Never did) There were cars dricing around the track with animatronic characters on them. I wonder if they are still doing that at least? It was fun!

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- Peabody

Well, the cherry picker excuse sucks. How would CP evacuate the Sky Ride? Kennywood or Compounce and their ski lifts?

What exactly is this ride supposed to do, anyway?

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"When I was growing up, we were taught something called manners. You'd understand that if you weren't such an idiot." - Jack Handey

There were a few design process up for grabs..the best one was that you could accelerate your car to 'ram' the car in front of you.

One main problem with the cherry picker is the fact that some of the ride goes over sand on Sneech Beach...can't get a cherry picker out there.

Edit: Also, there are areas in the track where one could *easily* hit another portion of the track over them causing a large eletrical shock. Not good...

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"...they came like a winged curse. A twin plague of demonic dragons!" - Dueling Dragons

*** This post was edited by CsTrFrK on 8/17/2002. ***

Sylvester McMonkey McBean's Very Unusual Driving Machines.....yes, I've been on top of them virtually since park opening...no, they're never going to become a ride, according to GR office....Yes, they still roam around on top of Seuss Landing, and I wish it HAD become a ride....I'd have a bunch of laps by now....it just wanders around that area of the park on the electricaly powered track.....Sneetches In, Sneetches Out...

edit...CsTrFrk, beat me....I was completely unaware that you were going to be able to bump other cars....now that is even "cooler still".....

*** This post was edited by rollergator on 8/17/2002. ***

Well...I guess that explains it. I saw something up on the tracks driving around and was a bit confused. I took a couple of pictures because I never actually saw anything moving around up there before.

I think the bit about the cherry pickers implies if there was a fire, there is no quick evacuation method (unlike skyrides, where there is virtually no danger of fire aboard). But still, that sounds like a flimsy answer to me, fire evac procedures are definitely very important in the design of anything, whether it be a building or ride.

Who knows. I figured it was just down for the day when I was there in June. That sucks, it looked like a fun ride.

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the member formerly known as MisterX

Looks like it wouldn't be a great ride anyway.

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Track Record: 142 and counting.....
Holiday World Blows

PatMan007 said:

"Looks like it wouldn't be a great ride anyway. "

.....yeah, the kids really hate Dr. Suess and hate driving cars and bumping into things.

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- Peabody

*** This post was edited by Peabody on 8/17/2002. ***

I had been very interested in PMMVUDM and so I just went and had a sneek and peek in the very large queue area and loading area when I worked there. I had heard many times durring the one year of employment that it would open soon and it never did. I was told by my supevisor that the dudes that they hired to design the ride were fired just before the RV's were to be manufactured and they destroyed the plans out of spite. So the new designers had to go back to the drawing board to re-design the RVs. Fromwhat I heard, no one at the park really knows what the original idea behind the ride was to really be.

I really don't know if that's far fetched or not but I have seen more bizarre things happen at IOA with my own eyes then that.

Does anyone have any pictures of this ride? it sounds interesting.

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Rob

"Some people spend an entire LIFETIME wondering if they made a DIFFERENCE. The MARINES don't have that problem." -President Reagan 1985

According to one of my friends that works in entertainment at IOA and USF the reason is evacuation. They could use cherry pickers, but the pathways below the ride won't support the weight. They can't even drive a maintnence truck through there.

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Welcome "aboard" Wicked Twister. Please keep your hands and arms inside the midway at all times.

*** This post was edited by Michael Darling on 8/17/2002. ***

One Reason I heard for its Delay was that the Vechiles IOA were sent were too small for Guests to fit into it, and so they had to be sent away for a redesign(This is what I heard from a Manager I bumped into at the park back in 1999) but of course after that, I dont know what offically went wrong, because when I came back to the park a year later, I was told the ride would never open. Its kind of a shame, because a Queue Area and Station were built for the ride, so its puzzling if we will ever know the full truth.

Looks like it wouldn't be a great ride anyway.

True, but remember, the ride was built in Seuss Landing and was designed for Kids in mind, so it was never designed to a great ride, I'm sure if it did ever open, Kids would enjoy it a lot

There were cars dricing around the track with animatronic characters on them. I wonder if they are still doing that at least? It was fun!

As far as I am aware, they still do run the vechiles round the track, It actually make the ride look a bit more presentable. after all, its better to do that than not run anything round it, because people would wonder why it was there in the first place if they saw nothing go around.

It would be extremely special if Mrs. Geisel could be the first person to ride when the "new owners" of the park get the ride up and running....nah, that something only HW would do......

ALF is cool, I should have my pictures of it running soon. I'm not sure if it had any characters in it (whatever was in there wasn't human).

Mike D., what do you mean the ground cant support cherry pickers?

And if it was a matter of safety, why couldn't each car be equipped with an emergency escape ladder? That would be a better solution verses cherry pickers.

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(Coaster Con XXV, SFMM)ACEr Lady: Who would like to be at Cedar Point right now!? ACErs: YEAAAAAH!!!

this should be closed, most all of your thoughts are purlery rumours, the only fact is that they cant evac. the people in time, and that is that, lock the thread! there is no room for speculation\rumours @ CB!

I heard an outside-Universal company was hired to manufacture the track and car system. The ride had several difficulties and did not open with the park. In the meantime, this company went out of business (I doubt related to the IOA incident, but maybe). IOA figured they could open the attraction, but eventually decided that it would be too much trouble to redesign and recontruct things themselves for the little, if any, extra attendance it would bring in. This was not supposed to be a star attraction at all. That is what I've heard.