Alton Towers 2018 - Wicker Man: GCI Wooden [mild spoilers]

[Dirk_Ermen]

gouldy wrote:

Why *is* the lift hill so shallow? Did we get to the bottom of it, I don't remember and can't be bothered to cycle back through the pages

You're the one at the park now. Snap more pictures so we have discussion material.

I hate to break it to you guy's but SW8 will be on the same size as invadr.

Invadr-sized? That sounds in fact, okay to me!

[mkingy]

matthew6969 wrote:

I hate to break it to you guy's but SW8 will be on the same size as invadr.

I don't think you understand the lack of modern UK wooden coasters.

mkingy wrote:

matthew6969 wrote:

I hate to break it to you guy's but SW8 will be on the same size as invadr.

I don't think you understand the lack of modern UK wooden coasters.

All I know is that a GCI worker himself said that the ride will be similar to Invadr.

[Dirk_Ermen]

matthew6969 wrote:

mkingy wrote:

matthew6969 wrote:

I hate to break it to you guy's but SW8 will be on the same size as invadr.

I don't think you understand the lack of modern UK wooden coasters.

All I know is that a GCI worker himself said that the ride will be similar to Invadr.

All GCI's are similar to eachother.

[mkingy]

matthew6969 wrote:

mkingy wrote:

matthew6969 wrote:

I hate to break it to you guy's but SW8 will be on the same size as invadr.

I don't think you understand the lack of modern UK wooden coasters.

All I know is that a GCI worker himself said that the ride will be similar to Invadr.

What's your point?

^^^ 12 UK woodies (Fewer than you imagine, actually!) are from Oakwood Theme Park, Gulliver's Warrington, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, and Dreamland.

[herman116]

And most of them are quite old but still pretty enjoyable I think.

[mkingy]

A few select pictures from my visit today (full albumn link: http://imgur.com/a/3jr4C)

Seeing it reality has made me a little bit excited for this. There is definitely mroe of a ground height difference than then pictures let on, and whilst it's still not going to be the greatest woodie ever hopefully GCI can provide a load of lats as the layout certainly has room for it!

[gouldy]

The lift his is so weird. I can't fathom it

Yeah, in person the terrain interaction becomes more obvious, for sure.
I'm not going to compare it to Nemesis, but this is definitely going to feel faster than it actually is.

[Paradox]

More progress on the lift and the enclosed turn after it.

The shallow Lifthill reached the top of the steep Valley finally

[Dirk_Ermen]

Launched lift. It's got to be when it's this shallow.

^^ It cant be, that turn afterwards isn't banked... Maybe its an error?

[Dirk_Ermen]

Alee298 wrote:

^^ It cant be, that turn afterwards isn't banked... Maybe its an error?

Since when is it forbidden to have lateral G's on a coaster?

Not forbidden, but a launch into a flat turn would be uncomfortable

[Dirk_Ermen]

Alee298 wrote:

Not forbidden, but a launch into a flat turn would be uncomfortable

From the sound of that you're expecting an end speed of Rita's launch.

[mkingy]

Yeah I suspect we might get a fast lift / slow launch sort of thing, there's a fair bit of banking on the actual turnaround after the crest of the hill.

[Paradox]

Well the theming element has been covered up and a turn is being constructed outside of it now.

An image from the ThemePark Guide FB page shows that Universal rocks are onsite at towers, good news as they did rockwork for Taron!

Alee298 wrote:

An image from the ThemePark Guide FB page shows that Universal rocks are onsite at towers, good news as they did "rockwork for Taron!" (Edited to show surprise!)

WOW, WOW, WOW!

It seems Merlin are actually giving some proper thought and care to this project, compared to things like The Smiler and Ghost train. yay

Well if they got Universal Rocks then this is gonna be good.

I know GCI isn't anyone's first choice for a wooden coaster, but this still looks like it will be fun. Even Invadr grew on me a tiny bit (steep tunneled first drop and an oddly satisfying layout).

All it takes to make a decent wooden roller coaster are a few moments of good airtime, some lats, and a creative layout/special "something." Even GCI is capable of (some of) those. SW8 has a... uh... interesting lift situation to say the least, it clearly will have some cool theming, and the layout is terrain based which is always nice. I think it will be a solid 7/10 attraction. Could've been worse.


BTW, did we ever figure out what the "first" was on this? I scanned the topic but might have missed it.