Possibly an old link, but http://www.yuretz.ru/prikol.php?id=470
:shock: :shock: :shock:
Yea, that’s the coaster in Ohio, right? The one they kept secret while they were building it? I’m trying to figure out why you linked to it on a russian web site.
A warning for those who are browsing at a place where they don’t wanna be seeing pictures of a woman who pissed her pants: do not scroll all the way down the linked page.
You can’t really blame her, though, can you? I mean, shit. That coaster is hardcore.
This is the ride’s actual homepage. It’s called the “Top Thrill Dragster,” and it resides at Cedar Point.
hah, i was gonna ride that last time i was at cedar point. except that it was a 3 hour line for a 30 second ride. plus i was afraid that my acrophobia would literally turn my body inside-out.
Six Flags in New Jersey made a bigger one, Kingda Ka!
I was planning on giving it a shot this summer. The day before I was to hit the park, there was an article about a test run of the coaster that resulted in miscellaneous parts falling off. I’ll let them work the kinks out. :)
I have some friends at work that have been all over the country riding rollercoasters. They’ve been on Top Thrill numerous times. I think they’ve also ridden Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure.
Both coasters have had major breakage already. When the coaster launches, there are metal bars that come up behind it after it goes overtop of them, so that it will slow down if it came back the wrong way uncontrolled. These fired off while the train was going over them causing major damage to the train itself. Luckily, it was during a test run. I think this was Kingda Ka that had that problem. The launch mechanism on Top Thrill a couple has broken a couple times too.
These guys have ridden just about everything of note in the US and say that Top Thrill is one of the best, but that it’s probably the last of its type for awhile. They’re just too expensive to build and maintain.
–Dave
Rollercoasters, like SUV sizes, are one of those areas where you really don’t want a metaphorical (or literal) race to the bottom. I say we promote one as the most ass kickingest or whatever, and call it a day. I’m not sure trying to make the most extreme coaster sounds like a contest you really want to win.
There are a lot of things that they can do to make them entertaining without them being higher, faster, longer, etc. Using the terrain to send you barrelling through a forest, or building one inside a cave are just two quick ideas.
Disney World will have a new one soon that looks pretty cool. It’s called The Himalayan Adventure or something like that. When I was down in June, construction was pretty far along. As with all their rides, it has some higher concept theming. It will also help spice up a trip to Animal Kingdom where the Dinosaur ride is currently the most exciting thing available (and that’s pretty frightening at times :) ).
–Dave
Kingda Ka shut down for a month or so because too many people were getting nosebleeds, I think (this was after the test dummy falling off problems). I know that my brother and his friends were really disappointed because they closed it down the day they went.
Some of my other friends went on it and the general consensus was that it wasn’t worth waiting in line for four hours.
The folks who own Cedar Point (Cedar Fair) are constantly in the game to have the best roller coasters in the world. They built the magnum, which was the tallest, and then they built the millenium force and that was the tallest, and now they have the top thrill dragster which was the tallest. The park itself is almost all roller coasters, I believe they hold the record for the most in one park.
They are possibly going to purchase all of Six Flags. A couple years ago they purchased “Geauga Lake” which was owned by Six Flags. It was Cedar Point’s unsuccessful competitor for a long time. They were going to build the world’s largest coaster on that property, but I believe the local residents stopped that plan from happening.
K