Tallest Roller Coaster in the World

Coaster Art Guy writes "Cedar Point amusement park unveiled the tallest roller coaster in the world today. Top Thrill Dragster launches you from 0 to 120 MPH in 4 seconds via a hydraulic launch. The dragster looking like cars take you straight up a 420 foot tower, into a top hat element, and twists you 270 degrees straight down. All in about 20 seconds from start to finish. How about that one? Also check out the POV video here Quicktime or here Windows Media Player."

Comments

Cerebral Hemorrhages

[(eternal_software)]

There have been a lot of reports of people getting neurological injuries on coasters already.

I wonder how much more they can push these things before the human limits are reached (at least the human limits the insurance companies will allow!).

Re:Cerebral Hemorrhages

[or_smth]

You bring up an interesting point. As one could expect, an injury/death in a theme park is the absolute worst thing for business possible. While a lot of people think theme parks are safe, and they are (to an extent), there is a lot more going on then they might not know about. I'm pretty sure every park basically wants a NDA from anyone who got hurt on a ride.

So, we are reduced to the employees (myself included, I work at a Canadian theme park) and rebellious victims to give us any information. Try this site if you want to see more or don't believe me.

Just something to watch out for.

Eh

[Anonymous Coward]

I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but frankly I'm sick of seeing people excited over this coaster. What makes a good coaster is pacing. Millenium force is considered a great ride because it reamins exciting thoughtout the entiure duration of the ride. Antipation builds up on the lift, the frist drop is amaizing, the campelback is nice the overbanked turns are unique and the bunny hops are great. It stays varied.

Here, anticipation builds for probalby about 15 seconds. You launch and go though the ride in 15 and then you wait for the train to unload. It's not much of a ride. There's no pacing and no variety.

Anohter thing that bothers me is the wait time for this ride. MF has a capacity of 1600 people per hour and suffered waits of upto 4 hours when it was new. These people waited for a 2:45 ride. The wait/ride second=1:30

TTD has a capacity of 1500pph and the ride only lasts what I exect to be about 30 seconds of actual coaster. Its lines should be longer than MF's when it was new and the wait should be a little more to factor in the lower capacity (about 4:15). The wait/ride second=8.5.

I'd much rathter go to Six flags magic mountain next year and ride Scream! - it's a full ride with a higher capacity.n I'd wait less and leave the ride happier. The longer ride will produce more adrenaline which is the whole point of coasters anyway.

Thanks for reading my rant

Re:two rides

[JackL]

Now that would have been cool! The Gemini at Cedar Point is a twin coaster. Back in its hayday the riders would be shouting for their car to "win". The atmosphere was incredidble. I'm still a die hard red train rider to this day.

Interesting you brought up safety - on the Gemini you can actually give high fives to the people in the othter train. And when you are a little kid, it seems like they can almost pull you out!

This is actually something I'm familiar with.

[Xnone]

Cedar Point is certainally a great park. They care for their employees, and run a great place. I have had much experience with many people involved with the park over the years, living just a stones throw away. I did some computer work in the past for the head mainframe analyst there a while back. I saw some pictures from their data rooms back in the mainframe days, as well as some more current ones. It certainally is an impressive sight, especially being an amusement park. The park is built in fact on a peninsula, not an island, so they have more room then you would think to expand, as well as hotels, and marinas which can be used for future expansion. They outdid themselves with the Millennium Force in my opinion. There is nothing like watching your favorite lady (or man) in the seat next to you as you scream down a 310 foot drop in the front seat. I can only hope this coming attraction will hold a candle to its predecessors. Cedar Point has several methods these days to cut down on the time to wait in line, such as hand stamps, and such, for those early to arrive. Hopefully this will cut down on the anticipation time, and increase the ride time on this. Anyway, this introduction is certainally thilling, and I can only hope my ride this coming May will live up to the immense hype.

Re:Call me a purist.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it is a roller coaster. A roller coaster by definition rolls (roller). It also coasts (coaster). This seems to fit the description, a rolling vehicle that after launches, coasts to the end of the track. So, mr purist... are you saying that all those coasters pre-revolution with no inversions are not coasters? I suppose all those wooden things (son of beast excluded) don't count as roller coasters, as they don't have any 'sort of loop'. Damn.

Oh. My. God.

[DaveOf9thKey]

So, does this mean that the Running of the Bulls will no longer be pushing toward Millenium Force anymore? =^)

This ride actually bears a bit of a resemblance to Superman: The Escape at Six Flags Magic Mountain, only that ride isn't an out-and-back like this one. It also owes a small debt to King's Dominion's Hypersonic XLC, which has the most intense launch of any coaster I've ever ridden -- a compressed-air system that pushes the car 0-80 mph in 1.8 seconds. At 20 seconds long, Hypersonic is also too short a ride. If someone could have made a full 90-second coaster ride out of something like Hypersonic, it would likely be my favorite coaster of all time. As it stands, that honor still goes to Apollo's Chariot at Busch Gardens.

Until I get to Cedar Point this summer, that is... =^)