[2024] Thorpe Park: Hyperia - Mack Hypercoaster

[ItsAllGood]

 

[Jb85]

Keep the photos coming.



We knew this was tall but good god it's massive in the flesh

 

[Dave]

I’m not trying to take anything away from this ride as despite its short length I think it will be a great ride, but it’s funny to think folk are freaking out about the height of a rollercoaster than is only just half the height of the tallest rollercoaster in the world, it’s not even in the top 10 tallest

 

[Skyscraper]

I’m not trying to take anything away from this ride as despite its short length I think it will be a great ride, but it’s funny to think folk are freaking out about the height of a rollercoaster than is only just half the height of the tallest rollercoaster in the world, it’s not even in the top 10 tallest

It'll be because we don't have many really tall coasters in the UK, and those we do have aren't that great!

 

[Matt N]

As @Skyscraper implied, I think context is key here.

In somewhere like America, for instance, a coaster of this height might not be too remarkable, but this is the UK, where rides typically have to be built low so as not to annoy neighbours and such. We don’t get properly tall rides in this country very often, so I think it’s hugely exciting when we do get one.

Also, Hyperia will naturally look absolutely huge by virtue of it being notably bigger than any other ride in the park and on a scale that absolutely dwarfs the rides directly next to it. For some perspective, Hyperia is 31ft taller than Stealth (that might not sound like much, but that’s around a 15% increase on Stealth’s 205ft height, which is not insignificant), and all three large elements on the ride are taller than every other Thorpe coaster aside from Stealth (Thorpe’s current tallest coaster aside from Stealth is Swarm at 127ft, while Hyperia’s three large elements are to be 158ft, 165ft and 141ft tall respectively).

Saw and Colossus, which are directly next to Hyperia, both top out at 100ft or under, so seeing as they’re under half its height, Hyperia will naturally look pretty huge next to them!

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

I'm still surprised that they managed to get planning permission for something this tall. Building at height in Heathrow's flight path and all.

 

[Matt N]

I'm still surprised that they managed to get planning permission for something this tall. Building at height in Heathrow's flight path and all.

During the rumour phase, Heathrow often came up as a reason why Thorpe couldn’t build a coaster taller than Stealth.

However, I think the reason why they've been allowed to might be because Thorpe is just outside of Heathrow’s designated inner circle. This means that its maximum height limit is 500ft as opposed to the 220ft or so that it would be if the park were inside Heathrow’s inner circle. Don’t quote me on that, but I seem to remember people wheeling out the Heathrow outer and inner circle maps, which showed that Thorpe was just outside of Heathrow's inner circle.

Regardless of the reasons, though, Heathrow clearly hasn’t caused any issues seeing as they’re building a 236ft tall coaster!

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

During the rumour phase, Heathrow often came up as a reason why Thorpe couldn’t build a coaster taller than Stealth.

However, I think the reason why they've been allowed to might be because Thorpe is just outside of Heathrow’s designated inner circle. This means that its maximum height limit is 500ft as opposed to the 220ft or so that it would be if the park were inside Heathrow’s inner circle. Don’t quote me on that, but I seem to remember people wheeling out the Heathrow outer and inner circle maps, which showed that Thorpe was just outside of Heathrow's inner circle.

Regardless of the reasons, though, Heathrow clearly hasn’t caused any issues seeing as they’re building a 236ft tall coaster!

Thank you for the very well thought out response, I won't hold you to it but it's nice to know some of the details! I was trying to be ever so slightly amusing, though the flight path thing does baffle me. Whenever I'm passing by I try to keep as low as I can, preferably just above the tree line. I wouldn't want to be caught up in a bird strike. 🪿

 

[rob666]

I think the height limits were discussed many pages back in this very topic...somewhere.

 

[SuperMuscleMan]

More pictures have been shared by Thorpe Park in their Annual Passholders group.

Talk about over processing. Jack needs to use a better lut on photos. It's great to see the progress but the saturation is off the chart.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

Talk about over processing. Jack needs to use a better lut on photos. It's great to see the progress but the saturation is off the chart.

He's fighting a losing battle there. Making autumnal wet construction in the UK look attractive, hip and cool. It's just not going to happen.

 

[Poisson]

It's a seemingly conscious decision on every photo, I assume the park wanted a glow effect almost.

 

[Relife]

He's fighting a losing battle there. Making autumnal wet construction in the UK look attractive, hip and cool. It's just not going to happen.

Just slap some really loud Dubstep over the video and see how many time you can use the word ' insane'

 

[Steve74]

Will probably get slated for this but I must admit that there are so many photos doing the rounds on social media and YouTube video updates from almost all vloggers whenever a crane moves, that I'm beginning to get bored and slowly losing interest in the project.

I know everyone is excited by it with it being a UK first and Thorpe's first coaster in 10 years but less is more and all that! One vlogger (not Jack Silkstone) who YouTube recommends to me is up to update number 70!!

 

[Hew878787]

Does he plug a drink that rhymes with Chime by any chance?

 

[AT86]

Will probably get slated for this but I must admit that there are so many photos doing the rounds on social media and YouTube video updates from almost all vloggers whenever a crane moves, that I'm beginning to get bored and slowly losing interest in the project.

I know everyone is excited by it with it being a UK first and Thorpe's first coaster in 10 years but less is more and all that! One vlogger (not Jack Silkstone) who YouTube recommends to me is up to update number 70!!

Breaking News just in.

Dave, the Exodus crane operator has stopped for lunch. It’s a Tesco BLT today apparently.

 

[Steve74]

Does he plug a drink that rhymes with Chime by any chance?

That's the guy yeah lol

 

[RicketyCricket]

Will probably get slated for this but I must admit that there are so many photos doing the rounds on social media and YouTube video updates from almost all vloggers whenever a crane moves, that I'm beginning to get bored and slowly losing interest in the project.

I know everyone is excited by it with it being a UK first and Thorpe's first coaster in 10 years but less is more and all that! One vlogger (not Jack Silkstone) who YouTube recommends to me is up to update number 70!!

Was gonna say the same but didn't want to be the party pooper, so thank you for your service.

I think it's because the park is open every day for the rest of this month, so every man and his dog is taking pictures.

November and December updates will be more fun.

 

[Tim]

I think it's also influenced by the UK having such a large number of Enthusiasts compared to the number of actually interesting projects going on here.

Something I noticed years ago when part of the Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 community is that an overwhelming number of members were either from America, Germany, The Netherlands or the UK.
America obviously have a massive Theme Park culture, Germany and The Netherlands have some of the best parks In Europe. I'd say the UK makes sense too if you look at it from the perspective of the late 90s, when the really exciting hype driven projects had the worlds attention. There's clearly a big love for Theme Parks here, even RCT (and now Planet Coaster) came from the UK.

But unlike in those other countries major projects like this are few and far between. We already saw it earlier in the year when Jumanji, Curse and Sub-Terra opened. I think I've seen the reopening ceremony for Sub-Terra now from almost every conceivable angle. And If I tried looking I could probably find an update for every day since Nemesis closed last year!

I can't hate on people for being enthusiastic (unless they are doing it just to cash in of course). My advice, either pick a Vlogger that you like (or find bearable) and just watch their updates, or only watch one video every few working days. If their's big news, you will hear about it, most likely here.

 

[John_P]

Its a smaller country to cover theme park wise than a lot of them as well. You've got Pleasure Beach and Flamingo Land as the two most northern parks, Drayton and Towers in the Midlands, then the 3 merlin parks on the M25. Plus Paultons maybe an hour further away.