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[2024] Thorpe Park: Hyperia - Mack Hypercoaster

It could well be for a layout change; I do think it would be nice if they were able to add in a few straight airtime hills, as much as I think the layout is very impressive already given the site and Merlin’s tight budget! And Merlin may well have listened to some of the enthusiasts complaining about the length and lengthened it slightly!

However, there’s one thing that puts me off the prospect of a layout change, and that’s the wording and level of detail they’ve chosen to justify this change. If this was for a layout change, surely it would say something like “an alteration to the scope of the ride” that would have been spelled out to the planners in more depth (for instance, I imagine they’d have to outline any new footers being poured or whatever, as well as any new high points in that area), as opposed to “cut and edge landscaping”. That to me suggests some sort of more minor work away from the ride itself; I did notice that the new area encompasses the entirety of Loggers’ former plot whereas the old area didn’t, so perhaps the “design development” is that they’ve decided to demolish the remaining bits of Logger’s that weren’t covered in the initial scope? Also, the original layout doesn’t quite fill the originally outlined area, so surely a layout extension could in theory be done within the current boundary if they wanted one?

Don’t get me wrong, it could well be for a layout change (I don’t know much about how planning works for that type of thing), but something tells me that the planners wouldn’t be happy if Thorpe tried to pass off a layout extension as “landscaping”… I’d expect them to have to go into greater detail for something like that, or at very least specify “an extension to the scope of the ride”.

It’s worth remembering that the wooded section of The Flume was technically considered part of Wicker Man’s site during the planning process, but this was only due to the removal of the wooded section of The Flume; Wicker Man did not ultimately end up using the wooded area at all.

To be honest, I don’t think Exodus really needs a layout change, personally. Yes, it’s not the longest coaster, and it doesn’t look to be a straight airtime machine in the way that many were hoping for, but given the site, the budget and the brief, I think it’s already pretty impressive myself!
 
It's not just a little bit short though is it? At least 50% of the ride layout is basically missing if the plans are to believed. That's a big if as well because there seems to be a lot of people out there who seem to pretend to know exactly what the coaster is like before a piece of track has even arrived on site.
 
Matt.GC said:
It's not just a little bit short though is it? At least 50% of the ride layout is basically missing if the plans are to believed. That's a big if as well because there seems to be a lot of people out there who seem to pretend to know exactly what the coaster is like before a piece of track has even arrived on site.
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With regard to the bolded, please forgive me for asking; what do you actually mean?

Are you suggesting that you think they’re going to reveal more of the layout, or are you suggesting that you’d have liked the layout to be at least 50% longer?

Personally, I’ll admit I’m unsure about whether this is a layout change or not. It could well be, but it’s worth remembering that Chessington’s consultation revealed the entire layout; that did not change before the full application. Assuming Merlin want to keep procedure uniform across the company, I think that what we saw will likely be what we get.

That’s not to rule out an extension, though; I think it could well happen!
 
Matt N said:
With regard to the bolded, please forgive me for asking; what do you actually mean?

Are you suggesting that you think they’re going to reveal more of the layout, or are you suggesting that you’d have liked the layout to be at least 50% longer?

Personally, I’ll admit I’m unsure about whether this is a layout change or not. It could well be, but it’s worth remembering that Chessington’s consultation revealed the entire layout; that did not change before the full application. Assuming Merlin want to keep procedure uniform across the company, I think that what we saw will likely be what we get.

That’s not to rule out an extension, though; I think it could well happen!
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The change to the EIA boundry is not a layout change from what we currently know.

The ride is 50% too short, but I don't think Thorpe are interested in making a proper sized hyper coaster.
If it was going to be longer it would show in the plans, even if other elements were obscured (like they did for The Smiler).
 
Matt N said:
It could well be for a layout change; I do think it would be nice if they were able to add in a few straight airtime hills, as much as I think the layout is very impressive already given the site and Merlin’s tight budget! And Merlin may well have listened to some of the enthusiasts complaining about the length and lengthened it slightly!
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Merlin categorically will not have listened to enthusiasts regarding the layout. It's a nice sentiment, but it's wildly false. I cannot stress enough time and time again that we are a minority, and they will not alter multi-million pound plans for perhaps a few hundred keyboard warriors at best.
 
Danny said:
Merlin categorically will not have listened to enthusiasts regarding the layout. It's a nice sentiment, but it's wildly false. I cannot stress enough time and time again that we are a minority, and they will not alter multi-million pound plans for perhaps a few hundred keyboard warriors at best.
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That's correct, because the general public are the main target audience and not us poor enthusiasts. :p
 
Danny said:
Merlin categorically will not have listened to enthusiasts regarding the layout. It's a nice sentiment, but it's wildly false. I cannot stress enough time and time again that we are a minority, and they will not alter multi-million pound plans for perhaps a few hundred keyboard warriors at best.
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Skyscraper said:
That's correct, because the general public are the main target audience and not us poor enthusiasts. :p
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Although I'm sure many people would still get off and say "that hit the brakes hard at the end" or "why is that so short".

fans of Thorpe Park is a wider audience than discussed and I think Merlin/Thorpe aren't thinking enough about the impression that guests get from rides that could be better than they are.
 
Personally, I don’t actually think Exodus’ length matters that much. It’s got a decent few elements and a decent 30-40 seconds of “action” from the renderings I’ve seen.

If the ride was like Stealth or Oblivion and literally did a drop and turn into the brakes or whatever, I would perhaps agree with the criticism a tad more, as this ride doesn’t look to have one real strong sensation to carry it like either of those. But there are a decent few elements on this, and for my money, it’s not the length that matters, it’s what you do with it that really counts, and Exodus looks to do a fair bit with its length!

Out of interest, why is it that rides like Swarm, Wicker Man and Exodus get so many complaints about length compared to similar rides of a similar duration? For instance, Wodan and Mystic Timbers actually have less seconds of “action” than Wicker Man, with around 40 seconds from lift hill to brakes while Wicker Man has 47 seconds, but Wicker Man gets far more complaints about its length. Why is this, out of interest?
P.S. I apologise if that last paragraph sounded confrontational. I wasn’t trying to be confrontational, I was purely interested to know.
 
Wodan and Mystic Timbers both run faster and with longer layouts. Neither have a 'boring corner' as part of the layout as well.

The fact is when your building a hyper or giga coaster unless your building something like Stealth or Red Force people are really expecting a reasonably lengthy circuit based on the energy created by the initial drop.
 
Wodan's length was objected during the planning and construction. The ride itself, however, is rammed to the rafters with relentlessness. It does not hold up and regardless of how many times you have ridden it, it still leaves you tingling with adrenalin at the end of the ride.

There are many coasters I have ridden that don't have that effect on me anymore, yet Wodan still leaves me on a complete high after riding. Even being in the first train of the year one icy cold morning where it was riding in Slowdan mode, it is still exhilarating.

It makes the Wicker Man feel like a junior coaster.

It isn't about ride duration, it's about what is done with it (Stealth is the best example at Thorpe for this). Exodus looks to be very much about elements that aren't consistent in pacing (like a hyper coaster) crammed into a short duration.
 
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Danny said:
the Wicker Man
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Ultimately the problem will always be the cost of track. Hyper and Giga coasters are many time more expensive than a regular coaster because;
More height = more speed = more track for the same duration.
The track is also more expensive because it needs taller supports and to handle larger forces.
Unfortunately it's not in Merlin's interest to spend the amount it would take to build a full length hyper. Regretably Thorpe Park have a history of big investments not paying off. Therefore it's kind of inevitable that this ride could either be small and long or big but short, not both.
 
I'm surprised they haven't dismantled Logger's Leap and Rocky Express yet. (Although given how long Logger's Leap was SBNO before the park admitted it would never come back perhaps I shouldn't be surprised).
 
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