Wooden Coasters Based upon Other Coasters?

There are a number of wooden coasters that were designed to be similar to existing or defunct wooden coasters. Some examples are:

The various clones or near clones of the Coney Island Cyclone. (Georgia Cyclone, the defunct Texas Cyclone, etc.)

PKI Racer and PKD Rebel Yell -- not only similar to each other but greatly influenced by the old Coney Island (Cincinnati) Shooting Star

PKD Grizzly -- This was based to some extent on the Coney Island (Cincinnati) Wild Cat.

SFEGs Twister II and Knoebels Twister -- both inspired by the Elitchs Gardens Mr. Twister but the Knoebels ride did a much better job of capturing the essence of the original

GL Raging Wolf Bobs -- Supposedly based upon the Riverview (Chicago) Bobs but generally not regarded as highly as the original

Some other coasters captured particular elements of great coasters of the past -- Eg. HPs Wildcat has an initial drop like the Crystal Beach Cyclone and BBs Kentucky Rumbler has a drop like that in the old Rye Aeroplane Coaster.

Are there some other good examples of the above? *** Edited 7/20/2006 6:10:35 PM UTC by Arthur Bahl***

PCW's Mighty Canadian Minebuster--wasn't that more like the shooting star than the others you mentioned?

Also, Wild Beast at PCW is almost the same as PKD's Grizzly, so add that to the list.

PCar's Thunder Road is very similar to PKD's Rebel Yell, so maybe add that to the list.

PGA's Grizzly, while it's not the same, seems loosely based on PKD's Grizzly and/or Coney's Wild Cat, so perhaps this is a contender, too. *** Edited 7/20/2006 5:46:46 PM UTC by rablat5***

The first one that comes to my mind is Son of Beast. Not only a "sequel" to a legendary coaster, but the helices on Sonny were inspired by Papa's finale. Too bad SOB pales in comparison.

- Aaron K

I remember that PKIs Racer and SFOGs GASM had similarities in design even though the latter was not a racer. These two coasters set off a renaissance in wooden coasters at a time when few new woodies were being built.

Not sure if I would call GASM at SFoG very similar to PKI's racer. They are both out and back coasters, and being such, both share an out and back design... but that seems to be where the similarities end.

But using The Racer as a starting point...

PKI's Racer (1972) > PKD's Rebel Yell (1975) > Carowinds Thunder Road (1976)

Other Paramount coasters owing designs to other coasters:

Kentucky Kingdom's Thunder Run (1990) > PKD's and Carowinds Hurlers (1994)

PKI's Fairly Odd Coaster (1972) > PKD's Scooby Doo Ghost Coaster (1974) > Wonderland Sydney's Beastie (1985)

Not sure about this one (as I can only base it on a few pictures), but...

Screamin' Eagle at SFStL brings to mind pics of the (defunct) Shooting Star (1968-1986) at (defunct) Lakeside Park in Salem VA. Can any one who has ridden both of these confirm or deny this?

Also... all of the coasters inspired by the Coney Island Cyclone.

I believe Wolverine Wildcat was supposed to take after Phoenix but it did not turn out quite the same.

Stricker's Grove Tornado is a mirror-image of the Rocky Glen Comet, and the Teddy Bear coaster is a copy (exact?) of the coaster of the same name from Cincy's Coney Island.

One thing to remember when comparing PKI's Racer and Fairly Odd (originally themed as Scooby-Doo also) coasters to the Rebel Yell and Scooby-Doo at PKD is that these two parks were built to be almost identical copies of each other. When Taft Broadcasting bought out Coney Island in Cincinnati and began planning KI, they wanted a little bit of the feel of the old park feel too it and kept that formula when they built KD. One this is for sure though and that is the construction of the Racer sparked the new wave of coaster construction.

I see someone has been studying the Cartmell book... :)

How about the Twister 2 at Elitch Gardens and the Knoebels Twister, two variations on the original Mr. Twister? Someone already mentioned the Stricker's Grove Tornado being based on the Rocky Glen Comet, but what about PTC's standard junior coaster: the Jet Flyer at Gooding's Columbus Zoo Amusement Park, the Valley Volcano at Angela Park and the Hunt's Pier Flyer were all copies of each other. Those were John Allen's first three coasters, and they were basically larger versions of Herb Schmeck's Little Dipper junior coasters. More important, those three coasters (and perhaps Schmeck built an earlier version?) became the pattern for almost every junior coaster built ever since: the Taft/KECO "Scooby Doo" coasters at Kings Island, Kings Dominion, Carowinds and Canada's Wonderland, but also CCI's second coaster, Zach's Zoomer at Michigan's Adventure.

Incidentally, of those three John Allen coasters I mentioned, only the Jet Flyer is still operating...now known as the Sea Dragon, and the park is now known as Wyandot Lake. The Southern Ohio ACE Region is holding an event next Saturday (7/29) to celebrate its 50th season, and the park operators are all wearing "Sea Dragon 50 Years" T-shirts this season.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Is Zach's Zoomer at Michigan's Adventure similar to Waldameer's Comet?

Similar, but not exactly. The Comet is a little larger than the Scooby Doo rides, and Zach's Zoomer actually has more in common with the Scooby Doo coasters than with the Comet.

Of course, one feature the Comet has in common with the Sea Dragon which does not exist on the Scooby Doo coasters is the semicircular loading platform. Oh, and the hand-lever controls. Which reminds me: While the Comet has dual controls (one set at load, one set at unload), Sea Dragon has only one set.

Zach's Zoomer differs from the Scooby Doo rides mostly in the train configuration. Zach's train is a miniaturized version of PTC's 2-bench articulated car, while all the other coasters I've mentioned in this message have the flanged-wheel junior coaster cars.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.