Videos of "Kirnu" first Intamin Ball-Coaster

Linnänmaki, the wonderful finnish park has opened the first Intamin Ball coaster on the planet. A clone will open later this year at Terra Mitica in Spain.

Well, there are short rides and then there are short rides. This is very short!

See for yourself:

Offride: http://www.hs.fi/videot/1135226783340

Onride: http://www.hs.fi/videot/1135226783338 *** Edited 5/1/2007 2:09:57 PM UTC by tricktrack***

Looks cool. Thanks for the links.

It gets a pass for being the first of its kind, but that looks pretty lame. I'd want at least 33 ride cycles.

Looks fun but man, I can't imagine the line for it.

It looks like there should be some sort of linkage that would allow them to put at least 3 cars on. That would allow it to be put in really small parks. But that just looks ridiculously small throughput for as large as it is. It would be interesting to see how expensive it is. It might be a thrill ride for FEC's - I could see it going up as a pay per ride in the Dells or something.

Is it portable?

-Chris

It does look cool in cncept, but what if it was bigger? I could see something similar, but bigger, being installed at CP in the comming years.

Even with very low capacity trains (Maverick for instance) you can get decent pph with enough stations in parallel and serial. It looks like they only went for the serial approach here.

Anyway, it's short (which isn't too bad considering the shortness of some other really good rides) but it also doesn't look all that exciting.

Kinda like the Frequent Faller which I was never too excited about. On the other hand, I'm never opposed to a drop where I'm sitting upright... *** Edited 5/1/2007 6:19:06 PM UTC by ApolloAndy***

Do the cars flip like X, ( is it fouth dimensional ). If so it would be a thrilling little coaster, and if not boring.

They're free to rotate however they want.

Talk about a funny ride... looks like one of those coasters you'd see in an old Disney or Warner Bros. cartoon!

Just because the ride only has 3 cars doesn't necessarily mean that it has a ridiculously low capacity. When you think about it, the entire ride is only about the length of one block segment on a Wild Mouse, and the cars hold twice as many people. As long as it's run efficiently, I think they could match the capacity of wild mice found in every major park.

It's an interesting start. It will be interesting to see if this concept catches on, or not (after all, I don't think X and Eejanaika really made parks want to add that sort of 4D coaster, or at least not the way something like the Intamin Accelerators did right away).

I'm not impressed with Intamin's concept. At least not this layout. Short rides aren't always a downfall. I'm a very big fan of TTD (Pointbuzzers would know). Short rides work if every second of them are great, this just looks like it flips, yanks, and flips again.

X and Eejanaika are much more interesting and I think S&S could posible do more with the concept if they possible make them not so massive and they maybe more interesting layout.

Thank god CP got Maverick and not that rumored (ball coaster/aquatrax).

Hot damn...that ride is way too short. I'm sure the double flips that did at the end is pretty intense. It does look like a good "trial run" coaster...but I'd hope/prefer to see one that's longer before I'd actually get on it. That doesn't even really look like it's worth the wait in line.

I hope they got it for real cheap. I can't imagine it being that easy to market. Especially since it doesn't look like it does anything amazing and seems to almost belong at a fair or something.

looks like something they would set up just as a test, not an actual ride, wwaayy too short IMO. I mean people complained about Whirlwind, and that had a longer course.. Hope to see longer layouts in the future and its a shame the next one is only a clone...

*** Edited 5/2/2007 5:55:45 AM UTC by P18***

The planned cost was 3-4 million euros. Don't know what the final figure was.

Some early trip reports from enthusiasts have been mainly positive. The ride is ridiculously short, but apparently delivers an intensive and fun ride.

Also, in a country where there are only two world class coasters, new additions don't have to meet ridiculously high expectations.

BTW, the park wanted to build a larger and higher ride, but the city blocked it. Would've affected the skyline too much. (Linnanmäki is located on a hill just outside central Helsinki)

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Pagoda Gift Shop said:
I can't imagine it being that easy to market.

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When a park builds a new coaster "NEW FOR 2007!" and a picture of the ride and the name of the coaster usually gets them 75% of the way.

^ To say nothing of the fact that being located *on top of a hill* just outside a MAJOR city like Helsinki is kinda advertising in itself!

Capacity issues aside (not sure iof that's even an issue for Linnanmaki) looks like it's short but fun. How many OTHER free-flipping coaster cars are there? Exactly.... ;)

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rollergator said:
Capacity issues aside (not sure iof that's even an issue for Linnanmaki).

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Linnanmäki attracts about 1,3 million visitors during its 135 day season and those people are packed pretty tight as the park isn't all that large. I'd say capacity issues are a priority. :)