Tallest and Fastest World Records are Cheating?

I have a question to the Roller Coaster Community that's been bothering me for a while.
Do you guys think the Formula Rossa(currently that fastest roller coaster) and the currently being built, Polar Coaster "Skyscraper"(to be the tallest roller coaster) are cheating the world Record?
Formula Rossa launches you to 150 mph, only to hit a brake run and continue at a respectable high speed. Is this cheating a world record? The ride doesn't need to be launched to 150, maybe only 90? 100? It launches to 150, to take a world record it shouldn't have. Kingda Ka NEEDS to be launched to 128 mph, so it could make the hill and continue. If the ride doesn't have enough speed, the ride can't work. Formula rossa seems like an awesome ride, i'm not arguing that! I'm simply saying the world record should go to the ride that needs that speed.

The currently under construction Polar Coaster is set to be that tallest roller coaster on earth, is it also cheating a world record? Or am I being to over critical on this one? When you think fastest and tallest, you think these records should go hand in hand, but NO.
I could live with Ring Racer being the fastest in the world( its next to a race track, kinda makes sense, I could let that go but not Formula Rossa)

I guess I just want the fight of tallest, and fastest to continue with coasters like Millennium Force or TTD, something you see and say WOW look how big that is!

[Turbo]

I agree with what you're saying. Does anyone know how polar coaster will be run? I mean will they be slowing down at mcbr's the entire way down or it is a controlled speed the entire way? or is it only a freefall?

My best guess would be Flashback SFMM. A ton of brakes. Goes down, brake, goes more down, brakes! They said it would hit 65 mph, so maybe not as bad as i think, but yeah BRAKES!

I kind of actually feel like Kingda Ka, Top Thrill, and Formula Rossa all cheat the record at one point. I feel like the speed should come from a drop to be qualified.

Well Kingda Ka still reaches 120+ when it goes down the hill?

That's basically the only element to it though. it's basically a drop machine. I'm just being picky.

Drop and speed machine!
but i guess im being picking too.

I know most people will tell me I'm stupid for my opinion but, I mean Steel Dragon Millenium Force pick up speed without the aid of LSM's or LIM's.

dont think its cheating, I also dont think it really matters, all those records really achieve is marketing, it gets people through the gates. To me what makes a great ride is not how big and fast it is, but the overall quality of the ride

[mkingy]

Agreed with CKidd 100%. If anything marketing = more people through the gates = more money available for future development = better rides!

[Coasterkidmwm]

Rickrollercoaster wrote:

I kind of actually feel like Kingda Ka, Top Thrill, and Formula Rossa all cheat the record at one point. I feel like the speed should come from a drop to be qualified.

Remember terminal velocity exists.

[TheArchitect]

I think if you are on a roller coaster, and that rollercoaster hits a speed which is faster than any other roller coaster, then it qualifies. Same as if the lowest piece of track is at X height, and the highest is at Y height, and you do the difference to determine the total ride height which measures more than any other ride, then that also qualifies. So I felt high roller on the stratosphere tower was always a cheat, but thankfully it wasn't really recognized as the tallest rollercoaster, just the highest rollercoaster.
BUT, it's what we do with the information that counts. Just because a ride carries a record it doesn't make it a good ride, or one that we feel is worthy of its fame. Records don't have to mean anything, it's up to us which of the fastest roller coasters are the best, and which of the tallest roller coasters are the best. It depends what the ride does with the speed once it has it, or what it does with the height. I remember when TTD came out, it seemed like such a pointless ride to me because it just shot you up a tower then you came straight down into the brakes. So for a while Millenium Force was still the best ride. But then Expedition GeForce seemed like it made such good use of the drop and speed compared to Millenium Force, etc.

[TTD03]

I think they all cheat in a way, but I don't care, for TTD, it still gets to 120 MPH and 420 FT.

Just think TTD is a legit racing machine! And the look of its tower from Millennium Force's 2nd banked turn after a parabolic hill, is spectacular!

I do not think they are not cheating. Formula Rossa is a roller coaster, and it goes 150 mph. Objectively, it is, thus, the fastest roller coaster in the world. It's hard to argue with that.

The only thing about records that bother me is when they search the bottom of the toy box for an obscure record, like Cedar Fair sometimes does. Tallest Fastest Longest Loopiest Bluest Twistiest Rolleriest (wing) Coaster in the world!!! I mean sure, objectively again, it qualifies for those things, but it seems a little silly, in my opinion.

[Paradox]

Umm I think you mean Six Flags. Cedar Fair doesn't really go for records, but when you look at Six Flags almost every ride they make breaks some sort of record for example Goliath is the tallest, fastest and steepest wooden coaster and Full Throttle has the worlds tallest loop. I do feel like Kingda Ka and TTD are cheating a little bit because the coaster is basically a glorified drop tower. It goes up and comes back down and then that's it. Even though KK has the hill afterwards, I feel it is just there to prevent lawsuits from the Cedar Fair company for design copying.

Paradox wrote:

Even though KK has the hill afterwards, I feel it is just there to prevent lawsuits from the Cedar Fair company for design copying.

...but KK and TTD are both made by Intamin.

All this means is that we should stop paying attention to speed and height and start paying attention to Drop Height. You can't cheat on it like how Polercoaster cheats on height, and the speed at the bottom of the drop is a function of the drop's height and will typically be the maximum speed except on launched coasters.

I like to ask "How tall is Polercoaster's highest drop?" and "How much slower would Formula Rossa have to launch to not require braking on the first hill?"

you could totally cheat drop height, just put trim brakes all the way down!
Like intimidator 305! but with more trims.

Formula Rossa took the Fastest coaster record in the worst way possible! Launch to 150 then instantly brakes!
At least KK and TTD do something with the speed their given. Its like if KK suddenly decided one day to launch rides to 160 mph then hit the brakes to 128 mph and continue the ride as normal. The whole coaster community would be WHY? just for a record? Seriously? Thats how I see Formula Rossa

[TTD03]

lol240 wrote:

Just think TTD is a legit racing machine! And the look of its tower from Millennium Force's 2nd banked turn after a parabolic hill, is spectacular!

Indeed it is!

Paradox wrote:

Cedar Fair doesn't really go for records.

Well, now they don't, but from the 80s till the early 2000s they did. Magnum, Raptor, MF, TTD, etc.

Dusso Janladde wrote:

All this means is that we should stop paying attention to speed and height and start paying attention to Drop Height. You can't cheat on it like how Polercoaster cheats on height, and the speed at the bottom of the drop is a function of the drop's height and will typically be the maximum speed except on launched coasters.

I highly agree with this post.