zamperla/volare lift?

just curious as to how the Zamperla Volare coasters get up the lift hill??

There is a giant paddle in the middle of the spirl that spins and pushes the cars up the lift. It is the best part of the ride ;)

hehe thats what i thought i looked at tons of pictures and couldnt quit figure it out.. what a diferent idea..lol

thanks!

These aren't the greatest rides out on the circuit, but the load/unload mechanism and the lift are really clever.

How is Volare exactly? My hometown park of Särkänniemi in Finland is getting one for 2005 and I've been expecting it with mixed feelings as the reviews have generally been quite bad.

Of course, in here it doesn't go against as stiff competition as it does in the States, but a bad ride is a bad ride, no matter where it's located.

I've been thinking that a Maurer Söhne's spinning coaster for about the same cost and smaller footprint might have been a better choice in the long run.

^I haven´t been on any Volare yet, but even non-enthusiasts are complaining about the uncomfortable ride. I have never heard a good opinion about it.

But don´t get confused with the price tag of the Maurer Söhne spinners, they are far from cheap!

I must admit that I don´t know what the Volare costs, but there must be a reason why so many parks are buying this thing.

Back to the spiral lift:
It is actually a very old idea! Mack used to build a side-friction coaster in the early 1920s which used this lift for the first time.

In the fifties some indoor wild mouse coasters used this lift as well (saves space). The recently dismantled "Wizards Cavern/Broadway Trip" had as well a spiral-drumroll-lift.
http://www.rcdb.com/installationgallery345.htm?Picture=1

During the eighties and nineties Mack re-used this idea for some of their coasters. (see: Euro-Mir and Euro-Sat at Europapark)

^Särkänniemi's Volare costs a little over 3 million dollars. Maurer Söhne Xtended SC 2000 prices at rcdb.com range from 2 million to 4 million dollars.

I've only ridden the Volare at Prater, but though the lift mechanism itself was very cool, the ride was brutal - worse than a SLC on a bad day. Never again.

I have to say..I agree with anyone who gives these coasters a bad review.

I recently made a trip to Denver and stopped off at SFEG and The Flying Coaster was one of my first stops. I enjoyed watching the lift mechanism..and ascending the lift was fun. After that, the ride was the most pointlessly brutal and poorly designed piece of crap (yes, worse than The Rattler) I have ever ridden. Never in my life have I ever felt like crying when exiting a ride. Theres a first time for everything I guess. As Richard Bannister said, Never again.

Could the roughness be helped in any way? New restraints, more padding or something?

I really hate to think that Särkänniemi has invested into something like this after such a good streak of acquiring river rapids(1999), Intamin inverted Tornado(2001) and Intamin Halfpipe(2003).

Padding would probably solve part of the problem. Fundamentally the rides hurt like hell because victims are passengers in an unpadded box which jolts severely at every direction change.

I rode SFEG's for the first time last week, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I had been expecting. You get tossed around a little, but I didn't think it was painful.

However, I think your body type might also have a lot to do with your experience. I'm on the thin side, and I think bigger people tend to have more contact with the unpadded areas.

In any case, make sure you remove EVERYTHING from your front pockets, or they will dig into your thighs the whole way (especially keys).

Thanks guys for answering. Skittlebrau's comment gives some hope, but the general feeling seems to be pretty negative.

Are the Volares popular at all among the general public or are they almost walk-ons? Also what kind of capacity do they have?

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tricktrack said:

It is actually a very old idea! Mack used to build a side-friction coaster in the early 1920s which used this lift for the first time.

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The now-defunct Wizards Cavern at Casino Pier in Seaside Heights used this type of lift. And yes, it was a Mack ride.

Toss me into the pile of people who don't think the Volare rides are as bad as most say they are. While I'll admit that there is a bit too much banging around the corners (the transitions seemed way off), there wasn't any more than I find on most Arrow POS looping coasters. For its size, I think the Volare coasters are pretty cool. A good design that needs just a little polish.

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Drift said:

Are the Volares popular at all among the general public or are they almost walk-ons? Also what kind of capacity do they have?

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SFEG's had a decent-sized line when I was there weekend before last. I don't know how long it was as we exit-passed the ride, but it looked like at least a 1/2 hour. The ride does seem to have OK capacity, as it's always loading; but the cars are small, so you're talking Wild Mouse capacity, not B & M. I didn't see too many re-ride candidates running around to re-queue.

The added plus of buying a Volare is that you can channel all of the park's dough under the lift and use that motion to beat it. Or it could power a donut maker of epic proportions.

SuperFlight at Playland had a decent line on a night when most other rides (save for the Dragon coaster) were a walk-on. The ride-ops were pretty good at moving people through although I'm sure a lot has to do with the fact that the loading/unloading process is almost completely automated and requires very little intelligence on the part of the ride-ops. The kids getting off the ride seemed to think it was good and sounded pretty eager to ride again so the coaster definitely seems to be a hit there. And in a park that requires you to pay for each ride, that is exactly what they want.

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bassististist said:The added plus of buying a Volare is that you can channel all of the park's dough under the lift and use that motion to beat it. Or it could power a donut maker of epic proportions.

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Yeah, you already made that joke in your TR. ;)

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Den said:
Yeah, you already made that joke in your TR. ;)

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Well, someone might have missed it. I'm a full-service humor provider. ;-)

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Rob Ascough said:
SuperFlight at Playland had a decent line on a night when most other rides (save for the Dragon coaster) were a walk-on. The ride-ops were pretty good at moving people through although I'm sure a lot has to do with the fact that the loading/unloading process is almost completely automated and requires very little intelligence on the part of the ride-ops. The kids getting off the ride seemed to think it was good and sounded pretty eager to ride again so the coaster definitely seems to be a hit there. And in a park that requires you to pay for each ride, that is exactly what they want.

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It is New York, I would expect the riders up there to like being banged around a bit, after all, look at how most of the flats at Coney are run :)

I guess you can put me in the catagory that thinks it is not as bad as some say. It is not good, just not horrible. I think it is deffinatly a problem with transitions. They seem to happen to fast and the car does not sem to run through them too smoothly. It is indeed no worse the the Arrow loopers though.

I'll ride a Volare coaster over a head-banging, body-thrashing Arrow looper any day of the week.