'Cinecitta World', Rome: new park, Colossus clone and free-fall drop Intamin

[Laura]

Regardless of the restraint system it's still going to wrench you around a bit and a nice bit of straight, basic track to enjoy the drop is a nice change from 'cram in as many gut wrenching maneuvers as possible' - at least for people like me who find lots of inversions quite hard-going (but still enjoy other elements of the ride, e.g. the speed and height)

(Speaking of restraints, I saw a video for Karacho at Tripsdrill and that looks headache inducing despite the lapbars)

Speaking personally I couldn't do a massive ridecount in one day, I'll maybe do each ride once or twice (unless it's something like Swarm or Blue Fire) because I can't handle the intensity of super-fast elements any more.

Looking at this coaster I would predict the drop would be the only reason I'd re-ride it. The rest of it would probably make me feel terrible for the rest of the day. It still has ten inversions, so not having anything interesting at the bottom of the drop doesn't really seem like a wasted opportunity to me like it does to other, more hardened enthusiasts!

 

[PeteA]

(Speaking of restraints, I saw a video for Karacho at Tripsdrill and that looks headache inducing despite the lapbars)

I assure you Karacho has no headache inducing moments. Its a lovely ride which is well paced, loopy and interesting. The lap bars make the ride and I could ride it over and over again and in fact I did ;D

As for Cinecitta World, the more I see of it, the more I am impressed. Cant wait for this to open.

 

[Nick]

Testing video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6cDqkPN9A4#ws

Loving the lap-bars and the pace of the ride looks pretty good.

 

[DiogoJ42]

Flippin' 'eck! That's charging round the track like crazy! This is what Colossus should have been. I really hope that Thorpe get these trains to replace the old Colossus ones. But I think we all know that will never happe.

 

[Ian]

Also, as a continuation of what Diogo has said, does it look to anyone else like these restraints could easily be implemented on existing Accelerator trains with OTSRs? You see where I'm going with this Another Intamin deal for Merlin! New Colossus trains and lapbars for Rita to make it more enjoyable. They do essentially look like OTSRs with a different shaped lap piece and the shoulder bands removed. I'm sure they could be retrofitted without too much trouble.

 

[DiogoJ42]

I would argue that accelerator restraints already are lap restraints. They just need the plastic blades at neck hight removed. Seriously, those things do more harm than good.

 

[TheMan]

Flippin' 'eck! That's charging round the track like crazy! This is what Colossus should have been. I really hope that Thorpe get these trains to replace the old Colossus ones. But I think we all know that will never happe.

Could possibly be the best all round ride on park, not necessarily my personal favourite, but it would really take it up a few notches. Be like a new coaster. I think that would be one of the first things I pushed for if I ever ran the place. Repaint, clean up and tart up the theme, add them trains etc. It's a good more traditional steel coaster, we just don't have enough of these.

 

[Alastair]

I wouldn't want them to waste money on fitting new trains to Rita. If they're going to spend money on trains, then do it for The Smiler. Rita isn't a good enough or long enough ride to warrant the money for retrofitting.

 

[Rob]

A couple of new photos from themeparksitalia.com:

And a few more from CWFans.it:

More photos can be seen here.

Some of the theming is just crazy, in particular the station for the Colossus clone! I think the park is meant to open sometime this year although I'm not sure when, it does seem like there is still quite a lot to do. I can't wait to see it once it's finished though!

 

[CGM]

10 Inversion Coaster at Chimelong Paradise is much smoother than Colossus and as a result it's noticeably faster, particularly through the heartline rolls. This one seems to be running at a similar speed but the lapbars will add a new dimension to the ride.

Something I didn't realise until the other day is that Cinecitta is actually an ailing film studio. It was set up by Mussolini to be the hub of Italian film making. They have some seriously impressive sets there such as this one:

Some really prolific films were made there such as Ben Hur, Gangs of New York and la Dolce Vita. I think Cinecitta World is part of a scheme to revitalise the studio which has been largely unused in recent years. It certainly adds a lot of context to the park.

 

[Alastair]

Quite ironic though that they've got that level of theming, yet you can just drive 10 minutes down the road and see the real thing

 

[Rob]

According to this report Cinecitta World will open in July with only eight attractions. The owners also believe that most of the park’s guests will come from the nearby retail mall and only spend a few hours in the park after shopping, so they don’t plan on making the park a full day’s experience. Seems very strange. Can't help but think that this park will flop.

 

[Sam]

New photos of the coasters testing here, notably the Mack SuperSplash.

And a video of the thing here.

 

[CGM]

New photos of the coasters testing here, notably the Mack SuperSplash.

And a video of the thing here.

I think that video demonstrates why turntables are well suited to the SuperSplash model. Those enormous elevated turns take up huge amounts of space and make for a horrifically ugly ride. I can't imagine that trundling around the turn at 2 miles an hour is very exciting either. The trains are capable of tighter turns which makes me wonder why the park wanted such an odd layout.

 

[AstroDan]

Wow. That structure is hideous.

Why no turntables?

 

[Rob]

A few new photos from the park which I think is almost ready:

 

[TheMan]

Maybe not as "WOW!" as I expected but still extremely impressive from the pictures being shown! Possibly all the rides relying a little too much on a centrepiece rather than an area?

Difficult to tell from those couple of pics, but really the standard seems very high!

 

[Rob]

POV of the Colossus clone, Altair:

 

[DiogoJ42]

That looks a lot faster than Colonsucks.

 

[Jonathan]

POV seemed to be rather shaky. It may just be the camera, but I'm sure the train was 'bouncing' (for want of a better word) quite a bit, which is concerning.