400-500 Foot Coaster?

[TTD03]

After my last trip to Kings Dominion last week and riding I305 a lot, I began to think, why has no park created a 400-500 foot coaster with a MF or I305 type lift hill that goes up at 15-20 MPH. I think the drop on that would be sick. I don't really consider the drops on TTD or KK to be that good because you are not building up anticipation for them, you are launching out at 128 MPH and then going up, while your brain scrambles to catch up, you are already going down the hill again. Whereas in a 400-500 foot coaster with an MF or I305 style lift going 15-20 MPH, the anticipation would build as you are going up, and then you would have a sick drop.

Thoughts?

Probably would be expensive as hell as well as taking up a ton of space.

[TTD03]

Yea, its another MF coaster in terms of space. But I305 does a lot in a not huge space. Great Adventure could do that with the newly available space behind Kingda Ka where animals and the drive through Safari used to be.

I'm pretty sure money is the primary factor. While I305 does do alot in that small space think how much more space and material would be needed for an extra 100 feet in height, not to mention an extra 200 feet

[mkingy]

I think a vertical lift might be possible - but the difficulty is what you do with the layout once you're up there. It's a lot of speed to deal with and you've already spent a load of money getting it up that high.

I always wonder the same thing but its probably expensive and difficult to engineer. would need like 4 chains unless you use a cable lift. or maybe you could use terrain or even a building to build the lift up to so you don't need such a massive support structure.

Number one: sunglasses to protect your eyes from bugs will be required as well as Formula Rossa! Number two: air resistance that also goes with "skydiving" terminal speed.

As Plantoris said, I imagine the only way we'd see a coaster that high is if it used the terrain or was built onto the side of an existing stucture to lower the costs of the steel for the supports, since as a coaster gets higher, the cost grows exponentially for the steel used.

As much as I'd love to see a coaster like this, it would be very rare. The idea actually isn't far-fetched, but like everyone else said, money would be a real hassle.

I wouldn't be surprised if SFMM tried something like this, though..

[TTD03]

CKidd- Guess that's a fair point, you would need a ton of space.
mkingy- Yea I could see a vertical lift being the only option, but quite frankly, vertical lifts are just plain uncomfortable to me.
Plantoris- Wouldn't even consider using a chain for this, we don't want another Steel Dragon 2000 lift hill, cable lift only.
lol240- I don't think we'd need glasses to protect the eyes yet, that's only on Formula Rossa because of the frequent dust storms that happen there.
Projektion- Yea I agree, the only way to do it would be on the side of existing terrain, if Magic Mountain had the space, it'd help with their whole mountain and hilly area they got there.
Sambrwn52- As I said with Projektion, I agree, only a hilly place like Magic Mountain could probably do something like this, if they had the space.

TTD03 wrote:

Sambrwn52- As I said with Projektion, I agree, only a hilly place like Magic Mountain could probably do something like this, if they had the space.

Yeah, and because they always feel the need to break any record possible haha.

[TTD03]

Yup

A few years ago I thought we would have seen something at least 500 feet by now, but money is the most likely issue as most responders have pointed out. It just doesn't make much financial sense to build a massive ride like this because the increase in attendance isn't worth it. It's also a point of building something like that. I remember reading something that there were only 4 cranes in the world capable of reaching the height for Kingda Ka and Top Thrill Dragster. Even taller rides would narrow down that range, and the cost goes up. I think eventually we'll see a 500 foot tall coaster, but not for a long time still.

[mkingy]

Luxornv wrote:

A few years ago I thought we would have seen something at least 500 feet by now, but money is the most likely issue as most responders have pointed out. It just doesn't make much financial sense to build a massive ride like this because the increase in attendance isn't worth it. It's also a point of building something like that. I remember reading something that there were only 4 cranes in the world capable of reaching the height for Kingda Ka and Top Thrill Dragster. Even taller rides would narrow down that range, and the cost goes up. I think eventually we'll see a 500 foot tall coaster, but not for a long time still.

An innovative solution would be to do what they do when they build skyscrapers - have a crane platform within the structure half way up to construct the rest of the ride around it! Again, this would be hugely expensive and inefficient but its definitely possible!

[TTD03]

That'd be a cool way to see a new coaster built!

TTD03 wrote:

Yea, its another MF coaster in terms of space. But I305 does a lot in a not huge space. Great Adventure could do that with the newly available space behind Kingda Ka where animals and the drive through Safari used to be.

Someone made such a coaster in NL1, I think it was called Project Strata Force. The lift reached the absolute top of the workspace and the drop off the MCBR was as tall as Nitro's first drop.

Well, I remember 15 years ago all these same reason were brought up on why we would never see a 300 foot coaster, and voila, then they built one, someday there will be one

[TTD03]

I hope so!