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[2024] Thorpe Park: Hyperia - Mack Hypercoaster

I mean there is no doubt this is going to be fun and Alton Towers fans can hardly be churlish when our home park has the definition of a one trick wonder that lasts 15 seconds with Oblivion. But it does feel very much like a tick-box ride to get 2 UK records.

That said it will mean we actually have a good Mack hyper model in the UK.
 
I've lost count with the amount of brake run jokes on here...its actually getting rather tedious TBH as much as the Air tunnel jokes.

Next thing I'm going hear is that when this thing opens people will say that PMBO will be better than this much like how some day Duel is better than Alton Manor...calling it here first.
 
QTXAdsy said:
I've lost count with the amount of brake run jokes on here...its actually getting rather tedious TBH as much as the Air tunnel jokes.

Next thing I'm going hear is that when this thing opens people will say that PMBO will be better than this much like how some day Duel is better than Alton Manor...calling it here first.
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I mean yeah, there are people who unironically like Furius Baco. Only natural to have some strange people.

Reminds me a bit of Millenium Force by the POV. All that speed and energy used for very little. Though this does slightly more than excessively long banked turns at least.

First drop looks ridiculous mind.
 
The length of this ride is an interesting one.

Personally, I don’t think that length is everything, and the elements this does have all look like they will deliver. There are some very short hyper coasters out there that are revered; a key example is Skyrush, which isn’t very long but is praised to the high heavens. I think this could be very similar, as it doesn’t look like a layout with an awful lot of dead space.

I initially had a similar feeling that the ride was just another multi-looping coaster in a park already saturated with multi-looping coasters, and to some extent, I agree that a non-inverting hyper coaster could have added greater variety to the lineups of both Thorpe Park and the UK at large. However, I do think that this coaster will still feel very different to any of Thorpe Park’s others, as well as any others in the UK, and I still think it will provide quite a bit of negative g action. Granted, it doesn’t look filled to the brim with straight airtime moments, but I’m thinking that every element looks like it could very well provide negative g’s of some description. I reckon the drop could have very good negative g’s, the drop out of the Immelmann could have some nice airtime, the overbank into an inversion could have some very nice sideways and inverted negative g’s, the dive loop could have some very nice inverted negative g’s, the smaller outerbank could provide some nice negative g’s, and the airtime hill at the end could provide some nice straight airtime.

In my view, it’s not length that matters, but rather what you do with it. Exodus looks like it will utilise its length to the fullest in a layout with impactful elements and very little dead space. Surely we’d rather a short ride that uses its length well than a long one that doesn’t do anything overly interesting?

As construction progresses, I increasingly think that Exodus could be an absolutely phenomenal ride, and I absolutely think that it could surprise people. Bring on 2024!
 
After going on Iron Gwazi last week, I’m actually really hopeful that a couple of the elements on Exodus will be amazing! The outerbank turn into the inversion should hopefully be wild, and the inverted stall on Gwazi was super fun too (and weirdly didn’t even feel like you were upside down?!).

I also think the height of the drop will be great - I do, however, wish it was a straight drop instead of a twisting one. We really are lacking on simple, big, forward drops in the UK. I think Oblivion is the only one that comes to mind? There’s probably some others I’m forgetting about. Most other coasters seem to have to have some kind of twist or beyond-inverted drop that, in my opinion, just takes away from the intensity of the drop itself…

I will remain hopeful for Exodus’ drop still being good, though!
 
Looks Slo... Short.

In all seriousness I've just been thinking about the length, and while it undeniable could have been better if it was longer it's probably not going to be a deal breaker. Rita is shorter (launch and 3 turns), and it has its fans. Stealth and Oblivion are far shorter, and they are signiture rides that are amoung the most popular at their parks.
This isn't a one trick pony. There are multiple outstanding looking moments, there's just no breathing room between them and you'll just be hoping that when you hit the breaks there's a short enough queue that you can get straight back on.
 
I agree with @Tim. I think the potency and impact of the elements could absolutely make up for the shorter ride time and produce a ride experience that’s very different to the average hyper coaster, but still extremely well received.

I would also raise an interesting analogy I’ve heard from others that might reassure people about the length. Instead of thinking about Exodus like a regular hyper coaster, why not think about it like a Dive Coaster or similar? The likes of SheiKra, Griffon and Valravn are over 200ft tall, yet also pretty short in terms of elements. Those rides arguably have some degree of “dead space” (as much as I absolutely love a good Dive Coaster, I’ll admit that SheiKra isn’t “relentless” per se), but are well received enough. Exodus doesn’t look to have any dead space, as far as I can tell; if those 200ft+ Dive Coasters are well received, then I don’t think Exodus should have any issues.
 
Tim said:
Looks Slo... Short.

In all seriousness I've just been thinking about the length, and while it undeniable could have been better if it was longer it's probably not going to be a deal breaker. Rita is shorter (launch and 3 turns), and it has its fans. Stealth and Oblivion are far shorter, and they are signiture rides that are amoung the most popular at their parks.
This isn't a one trick pony. There are multiple outstanding looking moments, there's just no breathing room between them and you'll just be hoping that when you hit the breaks there's a short enough queue that you can get straight back on.
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I agree as well. It should have been longer, but it will still be a good ride. It will almost certainly be the best ride in the UK for airtime.
 
Everyone loves stealth, and that is done in 10 seconds, and for how much track and supports is going in, this ought to be one of the pricier Merlin coasters
 
The cited budget for Project Exodus was £18 million, if I'm not mistaken. It's a very expensive project for Merlin, and I'd imagine it'd cost in the region of £25 million had they really padded it out with more elements. Seeing as this project was conceived during covid, it's not much of a surprise that they're reluctant to spend more money in really extending the layout. But anywho, it is wise to perceive this coaster as something more akin to a dive machine. People rarely complain about those rides, and this looks to pack in more unique elements and airtime than the likes of Sheikra and Griffon do.
 
Nosferatu said:
had they really padded it out with more elements.
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It doesn't need more elements, just either more space between them or more simple just track sections. I guess you could describe airtime hill as an element, but its the fact it is tall so has the energy to do stuff and doesn't coupled with the fact Thorpe has plenty of coasters with plenty of elements and they are missing a decent non-inverting coaster.
 
I imagine it's the pure cost of building something like this in the UK as opposed to other places. The other fact is Merlin tend to spend large amounts of there budgets on theming and marketing something they've probably had to move away from to spend money on very expensive hardware. Then again I imagine this will have a massive marketing campaign, I suppose to an extend it will market itself with perhaps the easiest of thrill coaster USP's; being the tallest and fastest.
 
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