World's Largest Loop?

I would lean towards Dominator just by the fact that at the top it is just creeping right along giving some of the greatest hangtime ever, while Superman has an amazing loop also the speed still maintains more throughout it. But my money is that Superman's loop is only shorter by less than 10 ft, given the height of the first dop. I think Supermans is taller than the 114' that RCDB says,but I question if it is 135' that dominator's.

Supeman's drop is definately diving, just not the 110 degrees like Batman, it is one extreme dive of about 90 dgrees far from straight. I personally think that superman is a better ride (one of my top 10) but Dominator has one awesome loop. My money is still with Dominator but I'd bet that supermans is like 131' while Dominator is 135' LOL.

Re: wide loops - probably something by Anton. These days the loops are either clothoidal or sinusoidal, I forget which, but it produces that teardrop shape. Anton's earlier loops were near-circular if I remember right. Then again, he probably never built a loop nearly as big as B&M or perhaps Intamin have, so perhaps one of the one's we're talking about has a bigger width, even though it has the teardrop shape.

Edit: SoB's is a steel loop, not wooden. Doesn't count! ;) Then again, it's the only halfway pleasant moment in the entire coaster, and even with that, I remember nothing about it other than thinking "wow, for 2 1/2 seconds by head and back don't hurt ... and why was that MCBR about a mile long?" *** Edited 12/17/2004 6:15:01 PM UTC by Impulse-ive***

Or perhaps by "wide" what he meant was the horizontal distance between the entrance and exit of the loop. In that case wouldn't it be Tennessee Tornado?

This is another photo taken when Superman Krypton Coaster was being built from outside the park.

http://www.coasterphotos.com/SFFT/construction/floorless84.htm

Many Texas sites say the loop is 145 ft. tall, might be counting Superman on top. The cliff is around 100 ft. tall, the lift is about 170 ft. tall for refernce, there is no way the loop is 114 ft. tall.

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These days the loops are either clothoidal or sinusoidal, I forget which, but it produces that teardrop shape

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Clothoidal.

I searched Google and found SFFT's press release announcing SKC:

Fiesta Texas today announced Superman
Krypton Coaster, a floorless B&M with 4,025 feet of track, and a 168 foot lift hill. The first drop will careen alongside and
supercede the quarry walls twice then lead into a 114 foot vertical loop. Following will be a 96 foot dive loop, a heartline
camelback, a cobra roll...

I snipped the rest. Point is, the park itself touted the loop as being 114 feet.

http://www.coastergallery.com/2001/Krypton04.jpg

http://www.rcdb.com/ig632.htm?picture=14

Looking at these pictures I think that Dominator's train are about 1/6 of the loop. Krypton Coaster looks to be about 1/5. I would then come to the conclusion that by doing some basic math.

114/5 = 22.8 Krypton coaster's loop divided by five train lengths.

135/6 = 22.5 Same for Dominator

22.8*6 = 136ft - Really close to 135ft, for Dominator's loop

22.5*5 = 112.5 - Also close to 114ft for Krypton Coaster.

The numbers are so close that Dominator must be the largest loop. A varible is I don't know the length of the coaster trains, I know that they each have 8 cars on them so I assume they are close to being the same length. Obvisouly these numbers are not concrete but they are pretty close, all of them within two. This isn't the a super Newton theory but it just so happens to explain rcdb.com facts.

OK, OK...to contradict what I posted earlier, this is from a December issue of Amusement Today, when SKC was announced:

"After climbing Superman's lift hill high above the rock wall, trains will careen down a 168-foot curving first drop through a cut-out in the cliff. At speeds of 70 mph, riders will encounter the first inversion: A giant
vertical loop extending from the quarry floor to 45 feet above the cliff wall."

So AT states the loop is indeed much taller than 115 feet.

Interesting ;)

eh?

Yes, it says the top of the loop is that far above the quarry wall, but that's the same as saying Viper at MM has an incredibly high loop. I think the situation is that the loop's top of steel sits around 140-150ft, but the entrance and exit track for the loop are raised 20-25 ft off the ground, leaving only 120-125 ft for the loop (or 114 as mentioned in the official press release). The bottom of the 1st hill hits "ground" the same was as Viper, but the train climbs for a bit, then enters the loop, completes it, exits, then has to fall futher if it were to reach "ground" again.

B:KF/Dominator's loop on the other hand had track which is raised maybe 5-10 ft above the water surface, and which is nearly level with the ground of the mainland of the park.

Thanks for the info LG ;)

I meant at it's widest point and also isn't it said that SKC's loop starts at a height above the cliff bottom like 30 feet or so if so 145-30= 115 back to the about 114 that you said?

such a confusing question and such a wonderful debate....

edit* doh someone beat me too it! *** Edited 12/17/2004 7:04:12 PM UTC by dragonoffrost***

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Mamoosh said:I snipped the rest. Point is, the park itself touted the loop as being 114 feet.

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Sydney Purvis (the PR Director) also issued a press release stating their boomerang was 20 stories tall. Don't beleive everything the park tells you.

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SFZIP said:Many Texas sites say the loop is 145 ft. tall, might be counting Superman on top. The cliff is around 100 ft. tall, the lift is about 170 ft. tall for refernce, there is no way the loop is 114 ft. tall.

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Thank you, I'm glad someone is using some common sense. Just look at the drop and the loop! There's no way you're dropping 168 feet into a 114 foot loop!

He meant storybooks, he apologizes for any inconvenience.

Change of topic a little. I read on rcdb.com that some ride was going to have a 200ft loop. I think it was some inverted coaster at that. Did that ever come to be? I don't even remember that is was even getting constructed. Since I havnn't seen anything since and any reports for the near future I was just trying to remembr. Who knows? For all I know I could have imagined it, but I remember a small discussion on coaster buzz about it. Does anybody remember this dcoaster or even know what I am talking about?

I looked at all the pictures. I don't think Krypton's loop sits a whole lot higher off the ground than Dominator's. I counted the number of track ties from the point the loop starts back to the ground and come up with about 15-16 for each. It's a little harder with Dominator because you can't even see where the track bottoms out. 5-10 feet -vs- 20-25 feet? I don't think so.

*** Edited 12/17/2004 7:27:58 PM UTC by Jeffrey Seifert***

I've never seen the coaster in person and pics of the full loop seem hard to come by.

Just from what I'm reading in this thread I'm guessing the confusion comes defining loop size vs loop height.

If the loop is 30 feet off the ground, it would be 114 feet and stand 45 feet higher than the cliff wall. (like Impulse-ive said)

Could it be that both of Moosh's sources are technically correct one is just referring to the loop size (114 feet) and the other is referring to loop height (145 feet)?

Meh, everything's bigger in Texas....:)

Someone was gonna say it, and the Vegas odds on ME were pretty good, so....;)

Gonch, given the fact that the parks own press release said SKC was going to have a "96 ft. dive loop", I wouldn't put too much stock into what the park says in this case. :)

Joe, always the voice of reason lol