Alton Towers - SW7 - "The Smiler"

At what point does it stop being a coaster and become a flat ride? lol


Edit: I mean, how many times can they spin that thing before people stop calling the whole thing a coaster?

[gouldy]

Someone link the animation to the thread! In the 2 minutes I have before I have to leave for work, I haven't the time to Google it!

Sorry it's late, but here it is

[gouldy]

Interesting, but gimmicky. I wonder if the source for this is someone who genuinely has some 'behind the scenes' knowledge, or whether it's just a mixture of conjecture and someone's imagination...?

I'd say it's just based off of rumors, but it seems everyone that "says they know something about it" all point to this idea... so...

Have fun twirling in a tube Brits! [:)]

lol...the actual humor will come when another park builds a coaster with the same system in order to have the most inversions in the world. Oh, Alton Towers is going with 30 inversions today? Lets do 35. (A year later)...Oh they're at 200? Lets stop this and go with 500.

It's literally and figuratively a vicious circle.

[gouldy]

Yeah.

I think the only limit to this is capacity... well that, and nausea.


Although, do any of the inversions that this element does actually count as 'inversion on a roller coaster'? At that point, when the car hits the brakes and starts doing whatever, is it not temporarily a flat ride? Where is the line?

It's all subjective, just like most things in this industry. All about being able to put some positive 'spin' on your ride.

hehe ;)

It's all advertisement lol, marketing. Not amusement technicality.

Now what needs to happen is do this while dropping at the same time. Now that would be interesting.

That could be an interesting idea. Put that stupid spinney tube on an elevator and make it a little bit more interesting, anyway.

[mkingy]

Originally posted by dcs221

lol...the actual humor will come when another park builds a coaster with the same system in order to have the most inversions in the world. Oh, Alton Towers is going with 30 inversions today? Lets do 35. (A year later)...Oh they're at 200? Lets stop this and go with 500.

It's literally and figuratively a vicious circle.

haha yeah there's just 8 people that have been stuck on the ride for the entire season, night and day, spinnning endlessly.

http://www.rcdb.com/11062.htm

4 rows of 4?

I wonder how accurate this info is.

[mkingy]

RCDB generally is pretty accurate I find. I've never seen things put ojn there that haven't been annouced

It's true, here's another source (Alton Tower website) :

http://press.altontowers.com/news-alton-towers-resort-to-launch-world-first-rollercoaster-in-2013-11705

[gouldy]

It reads on the AT site: "Passengers per ride train ????????? 16 (4x rows of 4)", which sounds as if it is to be more than one car per train, rather than how it is with the typical Eurofighter. This is probably the reason it doesn't have a normal Eurofighter drop, which obviously wouldn't be possible with more than one car, or without heavy braking over the whole apex for the rear car.

It'll be interesting to see what these trains looks like... "4 rows of 4" could just be 2 normal Eurofighter cars forming a train. Or will it be a longer/wider version of the Anubis/Dare Devil Dive cars? Not out of the question, of course.

[mkingy]

I reckon 2 cars of 2 rows personally but yeah, could be anything.

So are we going to get more than 4 of us there for opening day?

[gouldy]

I'll be there regardless of whether anyone else is going, as I'm sure a few of us will, so good suggestion - a meet-up it is!



OMG OMG OMG.




Picture from TowersTimes (I think)

Speaking of RCDB train-car-rider accuracy... The new GG

http://www.rcdb.com/10353.htm

^O.o? I think someone needs to redo math.

[mkingy]

Yes for the track being on site

Also i think opening day is potentially on a Weekend. I can't remember where I read that but...

[gouldy]

Aerial photos.

Pretty damn big hole.








All photos from TowersTimes.co.uk

[mkingy]

Pretty rubbish photo but this has gone vertical now:

[gouldy]

Yup!




Looks like the part that goes underneath the entrance pathway is constructed. Seems an odd place to start perhaps, but it looks as though they could be building from one end of the site, to the other (like you'd clean the kitchen floor by starting in the furthest corner, then cleaning back towards the door).

Edit: couple more images:






How low down is that cobra roll!?

[Turbo]

This should be way better than Thirteen. If it's not, I will be surprised