SFMM 2019 - West Coast Racers: Premier Quadruple Launch

An interesting new development from Six Flags Magic Mountain. Recently, clearing work has begun around Cyclone Bay/Apocalypse for a new 2019 attraction:







This is what the area currently looks like on the park map:



What's interesting is that Apocalypse will be down for the rest of 2018, while they work on the 2019 project. It even looks like from this image that will be receiving some re tracking:



In terms of what the 2019 attraction will be, rumours of a new coaster have been circulating for a while now, but now it seems like it's about to become a reality. In terms of what type of coaster it will be, rumours are pointing towards a Mack Rides style launch coaster in the veins of Time Traveler with spinning cars. What supports this rumour is this french documentary they show some track being manufactured at the Mack Rides plant. It is explained that it is going to the US in California. Considered the only rumoured park in California to getting a new coaster in 2019 is Magic Mountain, it is probably most likely going to end up here (Begins at 1:28.45):



Finally, in terms of what it might be called, trademarks have recently been filled for West Coast Racer and Maxx Force:



There was also a trademark filled for Adrenaline Alley, which could possibly be the name of the re themed Cyclone Bay. West Coast Racer is rumoured to be the new named for the go-karts in the area and Maxx Force the name of the 2019 attraction.

It will interesting to see how this unfolds.

Sources:

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/vi ... =2&t=26782

http://www.screamscape.com/html/six_fla ... untain.htm

About time they got a new coaster! Just when I thought they were going to turn into the chain's equivalent of Michigan's Adventure.

^ In the last 5 years they got Full Throttle, twisted colossus and sever important large flat rides.....

Obviously nothing will be confirmed until Six Flags does their 2019 announcements (likely just before Labor Day), but several rumors seem to be lining up with things I've heard from reliable sources. According to what I was told...

-The entirety of Cyclone Bay will be rethemed as Adrenaline Alley. Supposedly the complete project has a budget of around $25 million, with $20 million of that for a new coaster (the most expensive Six Flags has purchased chainwide since 2006) and the rest going to other elements of the area.
-The coaster will indeed be a Mack, though exactly what type it will be is unknown. The most reliable rumor I heard was a hyper similar to Flash in statistics, but with the spinning cars of Time Traveler. The station will be located where Deja Vu stood and the lift will climb the hill to rise above Roaring Rapids (which will not be removed, but will be closed from Labor Day until the coaster opens). The rest of the ride will be a generally out-and-back layout running the length of the area.
-The slingshot will be relocated next to the other two upcharge attractions (both of which are staying), and a new flat ride will take its place. Given Six Flags trends, I suspect this to be either a Super Loop, Skywarp, or Tourbillon, but haven't heard strong rumors on which it might be.
-The two trademarked names are the names of the two new rides. Any other renames are still TBD.
-Apocalypse will receive retracking on the sections not covered in the previous major retrack and will be rethemed to match the new area.
-The whole area will be given a refresh similar to recent area re-dos at the park (Screampunk District, Metropolis, the Boardwalk). No new buildings, but all those that are kept will be modernized.
-The park is starting this early to ensure everything will be ready on schedule after their last couple projects were delayed. While I haven't heard this specifically mentioned anywhere, I strongly suspect SFMM is going to use this expansion as an attempt to draw tourists visiting So Cal for Star Wars Land next summer up to Valencia for a day. That is the only reasoning I can see that would convince Six Flags to approve such a large investment at a single park.

Again, it's possible that any part of this may wind up being inaccurate, but I've got confidence that there is probably more truth to it than not.

tiepilot69 and I were there in March and we noticed a LOT of ground leveling happening behind that Apocalypse area. Dozers and trucks were all over the place on that hill, working on a huge piece of land. Much larger than what the park map closing indicates. It went very far out of the park boundary. Whatever is happening in that section of the park is going to be much more than just new rides.

^Anything behind Apocalypse is not SFMM property, but is instead for a new housing and retail development being built there. The park boundary ends at the service road directly behind Apocalypse.

Oh... I guess that makes more sense. Where the heck is a Mack hyper going to fit then lol. I'll be excited to see whatever they add there. Apocalypse is a piece of crap in desperate need of some lurv and a total overhaul of that area would make it more interesting. Right now it feels like the dumpster of the park.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Ugh I get that the park kind of has 1 of everything so it can be hard to be creative (and that this is a rumor) but why blow 20 million on a goddamned spinner?

GerstlCrazy wrote:

Where the heck is a Mack hyper going to fit then lol. I'll be excited to see whatever they add there. Apocalypse is a piece of crap in desperate need of some lurv and a total overhaul of that area would make it more interesting. Right now it feels like the dumpster of the park.

Absolutely agreed! When it was new, Apocalypse was probably in the top three or four at the park, but now it ranks somewhere around 10th and I don't even necessarily ride it every visit. That whole corner of the park has been in a pretty sorry state for about a decade, which actually worked with the theming of Apocalypse, but as the park has been refreshing other areas it has just stuck out more and more and it's beyond time to fix it up.

As for the fit of a Mack hyper, this is just a quick mockup for scale. Given the size of the construction site I don't think it's unreasonable to imagine a ~4,000 ft long, ~200 ft. tall coaster fitting back there.

Coasterkidmwm wrote:

Ugh I get that the park kind of has 1 of everything so it can be hard to be creative (and that this is a rumor) but why blow 20 million on a goddamned spinner?

Take this with a grain of salt, but one rumor I heard was that this wasn't originally designed as a spinner and Six Flags asked for Mack to add spinning trains after seeing how successful Time Traveler was in order to increase marketability. I don't buy this completely, but it does sound like the sort of thing Six Flags would do. When it comes to SFMM, it's either got to be a first or break records, and that would be much more difficult to do with a standard hyper.

I've heard everything from Time Traveler like spinner, to hyper with spinning seats. to hyper with forwards/backwards seating to launch coaster. For once I have no clue what to believe.

I feel like every new Mack coaster has the spinning cars rumor attached to it....

[Coasterkidmwm]

Hopefully it's not one lol.

Teaser campaign has started:



..and here is what the site currently looks like:















Source: https://www.californiacoasterkings.com/ ... t-10-2018/

A modern dueling or racing roller coaster... I am very intrigued. I mighta said this already but the park needs one more good reason for guests to drag themselves to that back section of the park. Now it appears they're getting two

About time they get another new coaster. Just when I thought they were going to turn into the next Michigan's Adventure.

^ The park goes back and forth with CP for most coasters in the world. I'm not sure what you're talking about.

Hmmm...those teasers aren't quite what I expected to show up based on previous information. Sounds more like a Mack Launch (perhaps a launched hyper), and based on the signs I'm going to guess two launches, four inversions, and a racing theme (West Coast Racer). I highly doubt we'll actually see a two-tracked coaster, and I really hope we don't. If Icon cost about $20 million, a two tracked Mack would need to be shorter than Full Throttle, and at SFMM it would probably run one track 90% of the time.

I keep getting thrown off. I pretty sure Mack is out since they connected the track that was suppose to go to sfmm, to carowinds. So there???s now less evidence that it will be Mack.
The teasers make me more worried than excited. All the racing or dualing clues are weird since there???s TC already at the park. Logic would say they wouldn???t put another dualing coaster in the park but, this is Six Flags, and they don???t follow logic all the time.

All the clues are pointing to a coaster that might be disappointed based on the potential of the park(space they have), the 20th coaster record and the moves other parks have been making that would push sfmm into investing into a serious ride.

What does sfmm need? What do you want? And what is your guess?

I think sfmm needs airtime. Whether that???s a giga, or an el toro, just a hilly airtime machine.

What I want would be a dive coaster that breaks the 300ft mark, or the tallest giga. West coast has no giga and the biggest drop at sfmm is Goliath, which isn???t that steep.

My guess though is still a launched Mack coaster. Seems less likely now than ever, but I???m still hoping.

Since they already have two dualing coasters maybe it's another launched strata, but with racing theme? Just going off of a whim, but the whole two is better than one sign.. they have one, and two would be better

[gouldy]

It's obviously a dueling launched hyper Mack spinner.

[mkingy]

gouldy wrote:

It's obviously a dueling launched hyper Mack spinner.

Yes. Please.

Now the rumour seems to have shifted to an S&S coaster of some kind:

Maybe Cedar Fair could learn a thing or two about decoys.

Oh good god please no

Traintastic26 wrote:

Now the rumour seems to have shifted to an S&S coaster of some kind:

Well obviously what this park needs is another 4D coaster, so what about a dueling S&S Free Fly?

JK, I think it will be an air launch racing coaster