What happened to "Rita"?

In Cleveland, RITA means Regional Income Tax Agency. RTA is Regional Transit Authority. I'd rather that RTA than RITA. Then again, I'd rather have my eyes gouged out than deal with RITA.

*edit for spelling* *** Edited 12/8/2004 9:47:03 PM UTC by rolacostaking***

Richard...have you looked at the pics? I'm pretty sure that it's a rocket coaster. ;)

I'm thinking that maybe this WON'T have a tophat. If the figure 8 layout is true, then I would guess launch, vertical loop, overbank, inline roll though loop, helix, brakes. Just a guess though. Who knows what we will see.

Kanonen is only about the same height, has a tophat and inversions. The only difference is Kanonen is slightly slower.

Of course its going to be a Rocket Coaster there is no other choice. We know its an Intamin because well you can see the track in the photos, there is 0% chance it will have a LIM or LSM launch because electricity is simply to expensive in the UK to justify this type of ride.

I've spent the last 30 minutes looking through the forum on towerstimes for the plans but I can't find them anywhere although I know they are on there if someone wants to have a look. Literally the ride is a glorified figure 8 layout there is no top-hat just long sweeping curves and there might be an inversion at the centre of the 8 although it is very difficult to see from the plans. Its a very strange layout and shows the ride as being more of a family ride which is what it was stated as in First Drop yet the park are hyping it up as a teen ride with the 0 to 62mph marketing!

hey i know a few ACE members that refer to themselves as the queen of speed, and they ain't named rita.

Alley-oop ...

She became a meter maid.

See, what bothers me is that if there is no top hat or any sort of vertical track, than this cannot be considered a rocket coaster. There are tons of launched coasters out there, linear induction, hydraulic, air, and other sorts of mechanisms that essentially do the same thing. Even Intamin has other sorts of launched rides, such as volcano and its impulse coasters. The term 'rocket' coaster has been something that has essentially referred to a launched coaster that at some point during the course, hits a vertical ascent, top hat, and vertical drop............a more modern, more succesful, and more adaptable version of the S&S Thrust Air 2000 essentially. If this 'Rita' coaster is truly nothing more than a glorified figure eight, calling it a rocket coaster is completely uncalled for. If the ride truly turns out to be what we all think it is at this point, I will be terribly disappointed. Why hype up something so minute?

Uncalled for? Okay, you do realize that Rocket Coaster is the product name given to hydraulic coasters produced by intamin, correct? They can call it whatever they want, it dosen't have to have a vertical top hat or anything.

And how does rocked=vertical? To me, Rocket is indicitive of speed and launch, not necessarily vertical.

Intamin can call it whatever they want, and nothing that we do or say remotely matters when Alton starts billing it as a rocket coaster.

Ryan Zwerin is right, Rita shouldn't be called a rocket coaster. It's uncalled for.

It should be called an accelerator coaster, that is Intamin's new name for the product. ;)

The whole point of my last post was simply that by calling it a "rocket coaster," people who have an idea of what a rocket coaster is may wind up being mislead. I mean, be as precise as you want in terms of how you define a particular coaster, but it doesn't take a genious to realize that something with a layout about as complicated as the Trailblazer at Hershey park is not quite in the leagues of every other rocket coaster ever built. As for your question regarding the word "rocket," in case you've never thought of it, rockets are devices that travel vertically. Or, if you would like to get more in-depth, rocket can also be a verb, which is described as "To fly swiftly straight up" or "To soar or rise rapidly"-- as cited on Dictionary.com.

If that is the case, what is the definition of a hyper-coaster or mega-coaster? Unless I am mistaken, the 200 foot barrier and a complete circuit used to be the deciding factor as to what to call these rides. Unfortunately, rides (however great they may be) such as Steel Eel or Goliath (Six Flags Holland/ Walibi World) have been billed with the same classification, though their height's do not exceed the 150 ft range.

As with practically everyone else who surfs this site, I am a coaster enthusiast. Many of you have not seen me much because a lot of the responses I see to posts here disgust me. People criticize each other for grammar, spelling, saying something that may be minutely inaccurate, and it's all just "uncalled for." Being a roller coaster enthusiast is not about being a critic of others, it is about the innocent love of the greates damn pastime on the face of the Earth. If people want to lash out and criticize posts that I or anyone else may post, feel free if it makes you happy....................but while you are at it, try getting the central message of the post as well:

for instance:

the main theme of my last post was simply that the title of 'rocket coaster' (no matter what the definition actually is) is quite a stretch for what we're seeing in this tiny Staffordshire creation. It's similar to Intamin creating a 30 foot, complete circuit coaster with the same track used in S:ROS and calling it a mega-coaster......."one of these things is not like the other" comes to mind as I wonder why the category should be broad enough to include this ride. Hopefully the layout will prove to be slightly different than anticipated, but the whole concept is still disappointing nonetheless.

Fish and Chips anyone?

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aflack said:
Of course its going to be a Rocket Coaster there is no other choice. We know its an Intamin because well you can see the track in the photos, there is 0% chance it will have a LIM or LSM launch because electricity is simply to expensive in the UK to justify this type of ride.

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Yes, we know it's an Intamin -- but no, we don't know what type of Intamin it is. I've yet to see any official word from the park one way or another. Until that is announced one way or another, we have no way of knowing what type of launch is used. And yes, it looks like Intamin now call that particular model an Accelerator coaster, not a Rocket.

http://www.intaminworldwide.com/i_products_roller.htm

I've got an inside source at Intamin that verifies why they changed the product name of rockets to accelerators. It's because they are designing a coaster that is actually propelled with a rocket! They are working with NASA on it and it's apparently going to run with liquid oxygen! BTW, the launch will be vertical and the height at least 500 ft.

As for the topic itself, I don't see why Rita shouldn't be called by its product name. Especially when the new name doesn't imply anything about vertical ascending. Majority of Alton Towers' audience have never heard of rockets/accelerators and will not expect a 200ft tophat. For them, it's also irrelevant what the propulsion method and the manufacturer is. All they care about is whether Rita gives a good ride.

Richard I have reard your reviews many times and know that you have been to many parks in Europe. I think you are based in England and if this is the case then you must be aware that the UK will never get a LIM or LSM launch because of the costs this only leaves one other option which is the Accelerator hydraulic launch that Intamin do! *** Edited 12/10/2004 9:45:25 AM UTC by aflack***

I wanna know what's so uninteresting about being launched at high speeds into a figure eight of overbanks, zero-g rolls and small airtime hills? I would love to ride something like that! Honestly, while I love the speed of TTD, I would much rather they have used that speed in a layout that matches what your description of this figure eight is - plus I think it would fit the theme better than going straight up ;)

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aflack said:
Richard I have reard your reviews many times and know that you have been to many parks in Europe. I think you are based in England

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I'm not. I live, in fact, in Ireland.

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and if this is the case then you must be aware that the UK will never get a LIM or LSM launch because of the costs

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It may be unlikely, but I don't believe for a minute it is impossible. Anyway, I suggest we all calm down until the park announces the official details, and at that point one of us can eat humble pie :)