Why no more like Beast?

From what I know about the Beast and how revolutionary it was at the time it opened, why haven't parks/coaster companies tried to create more coasters with a similar layout? I understand there are terrain coasters such as Legend and Raven, but they are much shorter. I would love to see a 7,000 footer like the Beast built sometime down the road.

probably because no one has the room like pki has. son of beast is almost as long......

/ --------------------------------------
http://www.eightdotthree.net

How many parks have the 20 acres (or whatever it is) to devote to a Beast-like ride?

------------------
Ripple Rock Amusement Park
Flying Scooter coming soon!

That's a good point about land area. 20 acres is a good amount of land. Maybe someone could find a way to route it through some of the existing park and around the attractions.

I definately agree with you in that there needs to be more speed-oriented terrain woodies. The reason why the beast is able to attain such length (not only because it has two lifthills) but because the main drop is so large and the hills thereafter are so mediocre. The area required for a coaster of such scale is very large and sprawling. Not to mention that the most popular wooden coasters are the mediocre-sized ones that deliver substantial airtime (which is what most enthusiasts like). There are some coasterfans out here like myself who crave the speed much more than we crave the airtime. Don't get me wrong I like airtime (i'm no airtime whore like others) but I'd take speed over airtime anyday and I'd love to see another mega terrain speed-oriented woodie (wow, what a word I just created) anyday. I don't see one of these coasters being built anytime in the near future. One, they require too much room. Two, larger sized woodies (anything over 130')don't seem to be the most popular rides, unless they are made by Intamin that is, and thats a whole other story. Mediocre airtime machines seem to be the most popular wooden rides today.

------------------
"You know its a good ride when you come into the final brake run wiping tears from your eyes."
*** This post was edited by DorneyDante 8/26/2003 1:08:21 PM ***

Six Flags Great Adventure has more room than I can think of for one!!

------------------
http://coastertrackrecord.tripod.com/

they do? Ok, I didn't know they had that much room, not saying I don't believe you I just didn't know they had that much space available. Oh yeah, that must be why they put superman in the parking lot, gotcha.

------------------
"You know its a good ride when you come into the final brake run wiping tears from your eyes."

In a way, it is surprising that there haven't been any full-fledged attemps to replicate the Beast experience (excluding the HW pair and Boulder Dash). Usually, successful ideas are repeated, and repeated (see Cy-clones and B:TR).

But I am all too glad that the Beast hasn't been copied after all these years. It's truly a one-of-a-kind ride, and that's a rarity in modern amusement parks.

------------------
Come on fhqwhgads!

Superman was put in the parking lot do to insurance reason. Six Flags Great Adventure currently owns 300 arcs of land. Only 120 of it are developed, that includes the Water Park and Safari as well as the theme park and parking lots!! So don't be a wise guy!

http://coastertrackrecord.tripod.com/

For my boy Dante

http://www.gadv.com/editorial5.html

Enjoy and cross your fingers!!!
------------------
http://coastertrackrecord.tripod.com/

yeah, when i was there it looked like they have tons of space to expand and the park is designed like it does too. the frontier area is a mess and really hard to find without looking at a map to discover the route. and once your there you find 4 coasters, a log flume and lots of walkways. that got off topic.

i wasnt impressed with the beast, i thought it was pretty boring and the second section pointless.

/ --------------------------------------
http://www.eightdotthree.net

How much space does Knoebels have? ;)

------------------
Whenever you can ride a roller coaster and experience 15 spots of intense airtime, you know you're on a good coaster. (see: Phoenix)

Crashmando said:
For my boy Dante
http://www.gadv.com/editorial5.html
http://www.gadv.com/editorial5.html
Enjoy and cross your fingers!!!

First of all, I ain't your boy so don't call me that. Did you find the article that good that you posted it twice? I certainly didn't. I never argued the fact that GADV has lots of land, I know they do. What they failed to tell you in that article is that most of that land is undevelopable land that the governement forbids them to develop on.

I beleive around 300 acres. Maybe a little less. I think I am off with SFGAV. I think thet have 700 arces and 300 of it is developed!
------------------
http://coastertrackrecord.tripod.com/

First of all, I ain't your boy so don't call me that. Did you find the article that good that you posted it twice? I certainly didn't. I never argued the fact that GADV has lots of land, I know they do. What they failed to tell you in that article is that most of that land is undevelopable land that the governement forbids them to develop on.

http://www.gadv.com/editorial3.html

Some of you people can just be down right rude sometimes. I took this as fighting words my friend! "Oh yeah, that must be why they put superman in the parking lot, gotcha."
------------------
http://coastertrackrecord.tripod.com/

I don't know how Dorney Dante's words could be interpreted as "fighting words." I have had many conversations with Dante and have never found him to be rude. But anyway, back on the topic about SFGAdv... the park has tons of land, but a lot of it isn't exactly land that would be feasible to develop on. A lot of what Six Flags owns is beyond the lake that sits at the back of the park, so it wouldn't exactly make sense to start building back there when the rest of the park is on the other side of the lake. Any development that Six Flags has ever hinted at has had to do with non-amusement stuff, like golf courses and hotels that would attempt to turn the location into a year-round, resort-like facility. I don't ever see amusements being build much farther outside the current confines of the existing park.

MarimbaGuy, to answer your question, Knoebels has a lot of land as well, but a lot if it is mountainous and covered with trees, and I don't think that they want to expand too far beyond the current limits of the park. Remember, when Twister was built, the original Mr. Twister plans had to be severely altered so that the ride could be shoe-horned into the park.

My big question is: Why would a park really want to build a ride like the Beast? I have never been on it (but hope to ride it one day), but it doesn't seem like the kind of ride that a park would want to invest in. The thing is enormous, and aside from taking up a lot of valuable real estate, must require a lot of upkeep because there is so much structure, so many mechanical parts (two lifts, four trains and all those brakes) and so much track (7400+ feet). It seems to me that a park could build a small wooden coaster like, say, the Raven, and get an equally impressive ride with far fewer headaches.

I think the Beast was a statement when it was built- one of those "see what we can do!" rides that no one would dare attempt to re-create, for obvious reasons. Aside from Kings Island trying to make their own lightning strike twice with SOB, of course.

------------------
-Rob
A.C.E. member since 1990
Posting @ Coasterbuzz since 2000
E.C.C. member since 2002

SFGAdv has lots of land, but no terrain. It's about as flat as you can get, so it isn't really a candidate.

Many other parks that have lots of land can't use it all because of various restrictions. For example, SFA couldn't put anything as loud a woodie anywhere near its property lines because of a 52 dB noise limit at the property line.

And of course, most parks just couldn't justify the cost of building a 7000 foot long wooden coaster.

There can be only one!

ROTFL

Chipster

Deja Vu seat 8B -> There are NO substitutes

I believe Rob was right in his remarks about The Beast. It was/is a statement. Something along the lines of a challenge to all other parks and builders, "This is a one-of-a-kind coaster that nobody's going to recreate." PKI tried with SOB, but what they got out of it was a mess of speed, height, a loop, and some helix'. While The Beast is a true classic, all SOB will ever amount to is a coaster sitting in it's daddys shadow.

IMHO Boss is very Beast remincent. However Beast don't have the number of drops that Boss has

------------------
Charles Nungester.
It's official Lesourdsville Lake is closed for 2003