Wood or Steel...or both?

Under the asumption that CCI is still activly designing coasters, do you think that wooden manufacturers (CCI, GCI) design better rides for their respective medium than do steel design firms, say B&M, Intamin, Vekoma, Premier, Arrow. This is not a wood vs. steel question but more of a who does their thing better. For instance not "Was Greztky better than Jordan", but who had a bigger impact on the sport they played...or in this case bigger impact in design with respect to materials specialized in. My vote goes to wood. I believe its much more difficult to build a good wooden coaster than a steel one. At knotts for example, Ghostrider and Excellerator. Both coasters at the top or their game yet even though it is older GR still pulls in consistantly longer lines and better crowd comments.

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"To summarize, you(willthethrill) are a petty low down weasel and I hope that Jeff removes you from this board for that very reason." Bob Hansen
A proud CoasterBuzz Member (Kick the Sky)

*** This post was edited by willthethrill on 7/24/2002. ***

I think Intamin B&M and Arrow are more effecton the coaster market. Becasue aprks just think another rough woodie but we know there not.

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Sean

Of course all the steel coaster makers. They designed so many new kinds of coasters. Here are some-Floorless, SLC, Suspended, Hyper, Giga, and 4d to name a few. All wood coaster makers ever did was improve on the old design. They still made better coasters though.

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S:RoS ( SFNE ) is #1!

True, but you could also argue that since wood coasters have been around so long, that wood companies would have to be even better to keep their popularity up. I mean look at the so-called wood renaissance of the late 90s. These firms turned out some great designs and excellent build quality and as a result some outstanding coasters. Plus, wood ages better...bar none. Steel starts out smooth but where does it go from there?

Willthethrill

Wood doesn't age? Mean Streak hasn't aged?

I personally love just about any kind of thrill ride. Wood coaster, steel coaster, towers, spinning rides, everything. But I do believe that steel manufacturers have been more innovative. I think that it is harder to design a wooden coaster, but with steel, the concepts are limitless. Who would have thought something like X could be made. What is next? Only time will tell.

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The worst day at Cedar Point is better than the best day at work.

CCI has been able to create extreme thrills on small, 70 foot drops like the drop on ghostrider after the scenic turnaround. That thing's drop is more extreme than xcelerator or perilous plunge.

steel has evolved sooooo much. wooden hasnt. but wooden cant really evolve much personally i think a wooden coaster is better at what it does. pretty much every new wooden coaster that goes up now is a winner. when you look at steal, half the stuff they put into parks look like junk. Vekoma SLCs-junk,premire launches(before lap bars)-junk. stuff like superman the escape are useless. they are one trick ponys were as wooden are often good the whole way through. any arrow that is over 5 years old is junk. any vekoma boomerang is junk. personally and wild mouse is junk to me. so you you have a better chance of a winner if you put in a wooden then if you put in a steel, but the best of the steel is way! better then the best of the wooden.IMO. my top 15 has one wooden coaster.

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1.Fire Dragon 2.Ice Dragon 3.Raptor 4.Batman Knight Flight 5.Kraken

I prefer wood because of the sheer terror that goes through your mind when you ride one. Every time you ride a woodie somewhere in your mind, your hoping that it doesn't fall apart. That's part of the fun of riding a woodie.

firedragonlord said

"any arrow that is over five years old is junk"

um, let's see, #3 steel coaster, voted on by Golden Ticket, is magnum, made by arrowdynamics, 13 years old now. The number #3 coaster really sucks. You know that?

Actually, that's my number #1 steel coaster.

Geeeeez, think before you say something.

firedragonlord: I can think of many smooth Arrows before 1995. Anaconda, Big Bad Wolf, Loch Ness Monster,Iron Dragon, Magnum, Corkscrew (CP and NSL), Canyon Blaster, Demon, and Sidewinder. Both Vekoma Boomerangs I've been on (Hershey and SFEG) are very smooth. Both Vekoma SLCs I've been on (SFEG and SFMW) are very smooth. And if you hate Wild Mice so much, try riding a spinning one. They are much more fun.
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TOGO!

millenium force maniac: i've ridden magnum and i think its junk. sorry if this offends you but it is. its rough, its ugly, and its overated huge!. wow so its voted #3 by golden ticket. i bet superman at SFNE isnt up on that list. and i bet 80% of people who have rode both magnum and superman will say its better. those things are all about how popular the ride is. ever see coasters like boulder dash and the boss on there. nope. but you always see raptor and beast and raven. no dueling dragons either.

PT300: i've heard more then once, people complaining about the roughness on ever coaster you listed. i have been on 3 vekoma SLCs and they are all horrifying.(top gun,PCWo,serial thriller,SFWoA and Mind eraser,SFDL) i have been on 3 boomerangs as well. 2 of theme were fairly new and wernt the worst, but still pretty bad and the other was horrible.

Both of you. How many arrows do you have in your top ten. I would say no more then 2(magum and x) and besides Vekoma flying dutchmans you have 0 vekomas in your top 10. i have 0 arrows and vekomas in my top ten steel. magnum is like 14th behind pretty much everything that is decent that i've ridden. vekomas and other arrows are behind magnum. and kumba. kumba is so bad. worse then magnum

i was not trying to start a war with my comments, i was just giving my opinion on the subject. everyone should know this by now, seeing how everything in these fourms are own opinion.

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1.Fire Dragon 2.Ice Dragon 3.Raptor 4.Batman Knight Flight 5.Kraken

*** This post was edited by FireDragonLord on 7/27/2002. ***

Wow, I must just have good "luck" with these coasters or something. I've been to BGT twice (once in 1998 and once in 2002) and both times Kumba as had zero headbanging. I'm sure many can back me up with that. I don't know what happened to Magnum in the past few years, but in 1999 it was smooth. Sure, some of the coasters I listed may have been rough at some point, but if you can tell me where you heard someone complain about Nagashima Spa Land's Corkscrew being rough, I'd like to see that. Same with Iron Dragon, BBW, Demon and Sidewinder.

I don't keep a top ten list. I only like to compare the inverteds with the inverteds, and the stand-ups with the stand-ups.

I don't know what you mean by starting a war, I was just (strongly) disagreeing with your comments.
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Long live TOGO and ARROW!

FireDragonLord: I don't know when you last rode Kumba, but this was my first year to ever go on it and I thought it was very smooth and very little headbanging, if any at all. It's also a 10 year old coaster so it's got its share of wear and tear.

So what the Golden Ticket awards rated Magnum #3. It's their personal top coasters and I don't thinkt that what they are trying to do is say "these are our favorites and they should be yours, too." It's just a matter of opinion.

Would I let the Golden Ticket awards sway my opinion of riding a coaster? Not a chance.

Anyway, I think steel has evolved better and designers have become very innovative. Wood, OTOH, has pretty much stayed the same as far as engineering. But, what else can you do with wood? I've only been on one wooden coaster and I think it's great and I would love to ride more. The only thing that's changed for wooden coasters are the layouts. That's not a bad thing though, because there are some wicked layouts out there.

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Does this thing go faaaaaast!

*** This post was edited by HuLk on 7/27/2002. ***

by kumba being bad i meant just a bad ride. not rough. sorry i didnt mention that. kumba is not rough. i have no complaints about it. im just not a fan at all of sit down loopers. floorless are a diff story.

hulk: im not trying to say thats what there saying. heys trying to tell me its good based on the fact its ranked high on that list. im trying to say there bias and they dont really mean anything. people rate hulk #1 alot and i hate the ride.the launch is sweeet but the rest is so boring. yet another sit down looper.

and no, a dumb coaster award site wont sway my views on what coasters to ride either.

I was directing that to them, sorry I didn't title the second paragraph.

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Does this thing go faaaaaast!