It's Official: Texas Giant Gets A Makeover!

Great Adventure advertised El Toro as having the steepest drop of any coaster in the world, so sure, why not call this new steel ride a woodie.

[Kev]

^^ That's pretty typical of SFOT, home of the "world's first double looping coaster" and "world's first tubular steel track coaster". I guess maybe it's typical of all SF parks, from what dc said about El Toro. I just ignore the marketing BS. I doubt most Texans really care about what the rest of the world has anyway.

^and they're calling this the steepest in the world, even though el toro steeper.

[Kev]

Originally posted by Oscar

Instead of spending 10 million on it, they should have bulldozed it and throw in a couple flats there. /me runs from the TG fans!

LOL That would have actually be a good thing for SFOT, since they basically have NO good flat rides. I went to the state fair last year, and had more fun than I've had at SF in a very long time.

[Kev]

Originally posted by Jonny Richey

^and they're calling this the steepest in the world, even though el toro steeper.

Pretty much my point was that SFOT has never been very truthful in their advertisements.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Texans are a bunch of dumb gullible fatasses that think "biggest in Texas" is an accomplishment that routinely lie about everything around them.

El Toro is not steeper.

Originally posted by Jonny Richey

^and they're calling this the steepest in the world, even though el toro steeper.

GP

Ok - I guess I'm a wood coaster snob. I usually prefer riding any wooden-tracked coaster over any steel-tracked coaster. The Texas Giant has been on my top ten wood coaster list since its debut. I'm personally sorry about this; as far as I'm concerned, the Texas Giant is now added to my defunct wood track coaster list. I may be in the minority. I'm used to that! I also didn't love El Toro, feeling that if I'd been blindfolded, I wouldn't have known it was a wood-track coaster. Heck, my number one is the Boss - that definitely puts me in the minority! And if they were ever to do this to the Boss, I'd stop going to Six Flags Mid-America. That brings me to my point - I guess they're saving me money. Now I never have to spend the money to return to SFOT, at least until they put up another wood-track coaster. At this point, the only wooden coaster in Texas that interests me will be the Boardwalk Bullet. This new Texas Giant may or may not be a good ride; I won't go to find out. It's not my thing. However, I personally hope it's not necessarily "better" so that it doesn't spread to other real woodies. One thing to consider, though, is that it's probably cheaper to maintain wood than to retrofit it this way.

El Toro's 76 degrees, this says 79. I know my math teachers always taught me that 79 > 76, but I don't know about anyone else.

[Mikey]

OMG three DEGREES! *face palm *

[Kev]

^^ You should do a NL recreation for us, Bob. I don't think I've ever seen a really good one. I know I tried once but never got it right, but I bet you could really do it justice.

But bigger IS better! Surely the dozen or so spam letters I get every day wouldn't be lying to me.

I'll bet Rocky Mountain has a whole PowerPoint presentation with colorful 3D charts explaining just how much can be saved over time by replacing your wood track with steel. Honestly I don't see how properly maintaining a wood track could be cheaper than maintaining steel, especially in a varying climate. Keeping it smooth is quite a lot of work.

Note that I said "properly maintained" and "over time", for Six Flags it's likely a wash.

I hope they've factored in extra maintenance for the support structure now that they've increased the speed and probably the weight, it's going to be under more stress.

Originally posted by boneplaya

El Toro's 76 degrees, this says 79. I know my math teachers always taught me that 79 > 76, but I don't know about anyone else.

Oh, I remember hearing somewhere it was 86.

[sillyme]

I really don't know why this is such a big deal. Giant's sucked for years, and they've been retracking massive sections of it for years to try to fix it. It's not working, so they're basically scrapping it and replacing it with something new. It's really not the end of the world like y'all are making it out to be. I'll be riding it on opening day, hopefully.

[slosprint]

The big deal is that it's just a massive marketing gimmick. My bet is it'll turn out nearly as bad as Bizarro was.

Someone pointed me to the Rocky Mountain website, they have updated it to include their new coaster track (people were probably asking them about it after the Texas Giant announcement).

http://www.rockymtnconstruction.com/

On the site it shows the track curved (and solid steel which it certainly isn't) so something we've heard isn't right. We're going to have to wait until they start tracking a curved section of the coaster to really know whats going on.

Marketing gimmick? The ride wasn't that good before. The 79* drop alone should tell you they're probably going to do something cool with it. Give it a chance before you call it a marketing gimmick.

The Bizarro thing is COMPLETELY different. Those rides (especially SFNE's) were actually good beforehand.

[Mikey]

Why bother with a wood structure and a steel deck?

[slosprint]

^^ I am happy to give the ride a chance, just as of now that is what it looks like to me.

Originally posted by dcs221

The Bizarro thing is COMPLETELY different. Those rides (especially SFNE's) were actually good beforehand.

EXACTLY. In fact, riding the sfgadv bizarro was actually better when i rode it at night. But There is also the fact that the restraints are normal and the speakers arent near your ears.

[Mikey]

They could have done the first wooden coaster with two consecutive loops and a jump threw a ring of fire.

I wouldn't be surprised if that happens.

It will have a double down into a black hole?

Yay! Blackhole scramble goodness!!