Ultra Twister and SFA

I was driving down interstate 66 today outside of manassas, about an hour or so from SFA and I saw a truck with green and blue track and catwalks on it. I stopped and took some pictures and it looks to me like Ultra Twister from Astroworld

http://community.webshots.com/album/543846450fKxGtf

Those are definitely UT parts. The rings give it away. I'm not yet ready to accept UT's placement at SFA as fact, but I don't rule it out, either.

Those are some really good shots. There's not a blurry one in the batch, so how exactly did you get the pictures?

Well, I can tell you it hasn't shown up in the P.G. County Planning Board agenda--yet. Of course, once the parts arrive, the PR director has to deny any existance of said parts. They're just "storing" the ride. Let's hope not. UT rocked/s. *** Edited 1/15/2006 7:48:09 PM UTC by Intamin Fan***

Could VERY well go to SFA for storage....remember the lesson of the SLC and SFGE... ;)

But yes, that is unquestionably UT....GAdv's Viper has those weird (Togo) rings, but the likelihood of it being painted in those colors, and traveling in the wrong direction, makes that HIGHLY unlikely...

^ Wasn't Gadv's Viper just demolished when they removed it? I remember hearing about the workers violently cutting apart the pieces and just throwing them in heaps.

I just stopped at the rest stop and took them with my moms digital camera, truckers were lookin at me funny..haha I would have taken more for you all but it was very cold and windy

^^ Yeah Gadv's viper is long gone, thankfully. That is def. UT from Astroworld.

When did they paint Ultra-Twister in those colors? When we went, it was still (nominally) red, white, and blue. Maybe they'll erect it at SFA and re-name it Deja Vu. :)

Tell ya one thing: if UltraTwister *does* end up at SFA someone here on CoasterBuzz is a pretty good guesser! ;)

Thanks for the pics. It'll be interesting to see what happens to it once it arrives at the park.

Jeremy, my pics have UT in the current color scheme...June '04...

http://www.pbase.com/rollergator/image/30046087

About how long does it take to put UT up? Could it be open and ready for '06?

I was doin measurements on google earth :) The ride is roughly 200 yards long....I wonder where they would put it. Looks like behind the blizzard river or inside the L of superman maybe..

---

Intamin Fan said:
Those are some really good shots. There's not a blurry one in the batch, so how exactly did you get the pictures?

Well, I can tell you it hasn't shown up in the P.G. County Planning Board agenda--yet. Of course, once the parts arrive, the PR director has to deny any existance of said parts. They're just "storing" the ride. Let's hope not. UT rocked/s. *** Edited 1/15/2006 7:48:09 PM UTC by Intamin Fan***

---

There's a rest area a little east of Manassas on I-66 eastbound,that's where he probably got the pics.

Nice to see that track for the ride actually passed through,or very close to my neck of the woods as I happen to live in Manassas myself.

As for wether or not it'll go into operation we don't yet know,but my guess is that it'll sit in storage where python was kept until either corporate decides what to do with it(like the SLC at TGE) or until 07 when they can put it up....IIRC we're probably looking at more hurricane harbor improvements for 06 right now.

I heard it's going to be a new Fright Fest attraction. ;)

Fright fest wasn't as good this past season as it was in 04...for starters the shortcut between GC & SWT wasn't open & midnight express sucked like a hoover(for those who bothered to ride) but it was a much better experience in 04.

The only thing good about it was that JJ was actually open.BTW I was looking for season pass info on the official site the other day & it looks like alpine bobs is getting a name change & will be known as Avalanche this season.

Jeremy, Ultra Twister, XLR-8, and Batman the Escape all got new paintjobs a few years ago (so don't say they never gave you anything new:)) I do agree that Deja Vu would make an excellent name with the colors. Ultra Twister has a huge advantage over an SLC in terms of setup because you don't have 50 supports (or however many there are are on an SLC). I think the easiest area in terms of setup would be to to run it parallel to Joker's Jinx, starting by Wild One. You start out on blacktop and head towards the spaghetti bowl, which is flat. Pave over the rest of it, and you've got an excellent support base for the ride.

sweet. very sweet. I was at astro world a couple years ago but never had a chance to ride UT. Know that I am living in DC...I can't wait to ride it at SFA (if it is indeed put up!)

Actually I-Fan I'm not sure there's enough room in between wild one & JJ for Ultra twister to fit as it's a rather lengthy track.

First off you've got the path linking GC to the rest of the park & then Superman straight ahead...your idea is to have the ride run east to west along that strip right?

You've also got the maintenance area for JJ/TSC to contend with as well as the performance area used for midnight express so there's just not enough room for it to fit in that spot if you ask me.

My best guess is it could fit behind renegade rapids going across the field west of superman's first helix,either that or in the field in between superman & Batwing but other than that your guess would be as good as mine.

That's most definately not Ultra Twister you guys are all on crack.

;)