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Cedar Point: General Discussion

That's correct. I would assume that they will reroute the queue line away from the launch track as well, to make sure that incident cannot happen again.
I guess ... but the height and speed of the thing combined with its placement in the park means it's never going to be fail safe.

The stuff on the Gemini midway is probably closer to the tower than the existing Dragster queue.

#ReadyToGo
 

From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGHo5f1EQ-g


Some interesting rumours are coming out of this video from El Toro Ryan. It is now suggested that this could have a swing launch, with the second tower that the vehicle will reverse launch up to, being behind the old station. It is also suggested that there is the potential with this to make it taller than Kinda Ka, thus regaining it's height record.

This is all possible, but I feel the final forward launch, if they go after the height record while using a swing launch, would then need to be less powerful than the previous one(s) in order for the train to pass over the top hat at a reasonable speed. That or they use trims to slow the train near the top. Or, they could make the track taller on the new section, but the trains do not go as high, so that the last launch can be full speed without the use of trims. Could you class that as retaking the height record though? Say if the track is taller but the trains do not travel to that height? Sounds a bit like cheating to me. With all this in mind, due to the current design of the top hat, by going after the height record, if that is what they decide, there is the potential to make the ride less thrilling (than what it could be after the refurbishment) if they are not very careful.

The clearance on the ground so far, as is shown in that video, does support the idea that this could be the case. But without actual confirmation it is just speculation at this point, even if there are apparent ̶s̶a̶u̶c̶e̶s̶ 'sources' involved.

Zamperla are still top of the list for the manufacturer, they also do have some swing launches in their product offerings.

Interesting development without a doubt., Interesting discussion points. This is one coaster refurbishment besides Nemesis, that really has caught my attention.

In fact, in the picture in the post above this, you can see the cleared area behind the station, where the rumoured tower for this reverse launch tower spike will go. Surely if they did this, due to the size and length of the ride, they will need the station area to be in a different location, so they can load trains while launching. The fact they have cleared the station almost completely, supports this idea. All should be taken with a pinch of salt at this stage.

If this is Zamperla, this is without a doubt one of their biggest projects to date. All companies need to start somewhere I guess. So far, even when taking things with a pinch a salt, there is a possibility that what is suggested does add up to what we are seeing. These next 12 months will be interesting that is for sure.

I am not sure if these discussion points were mentioned before. But there is certainly more development on these rumours in the last few days / weeks.
 
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That or they use trims to slow the train near the top. Or, they could make the track taller on the new section, but the trains do not go as high, so that the last launch can be full speed without the use of trims.

If it does reverse up a new record breaking spike, for which it would require a higher top speed, as the difference in height is only 30ft (to meet the record), could it be possible that they simply wouldn’t need to trim it before the top hat, as they will lose some of the excess speed to air resistance/friction while travelling forward over the launch track again and up the top hat? That is assuming the height/speed peaks on the “reverse” journey up the new spike.

Mild Forward launch to the end of the launch track and partially up top hat —> Max speed reverse launch backwards up the new spike to the new record height —> Forward again with no further launch or trim necessary to clear the top hat

(That’s if I’m imagining it the same way. I admittedly haven’t watched that YouTube video.)
 
Well they are definitely doing something there. I thought the two spikes idea sounded too absurd to be true, but this work does make it seem more plausible.
 
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