Do you prefer narrow or wide B&M Dive Coasters?

[Matt N]

Hi guys. In recent years, it does seem as though the Dive Coaster has maintained surprising longevity; despite having existed since 1998, it’s arguably one of B&M’s more popular models at present. With Dr Diabolical’s Cliffhanger and Emperor having opened in 2022 and Iron Menace opening at Dorney Park in 2024, the model is certainly still being sold at a fair rate by B&M.

But over the years, the model seems to have diverged into two sub-types, if you like.

Some of the earliest Dive Coasters were wide Dive Coasters. These have 8 or 10-across trains and are often built on a huge scale, with huge drops of 200ft+; even Oblivion and Diving Machine G5, the smallest wide Dive Coasters, have drops that are the best part of 200ft tall. The wide iteration of the model is more common in North America and Asia, having never really taken off in Europe beyond the Alton Towers original. While wide Dive Coasters are often older than narrow ones, that isn’t necessarily a hard, fast rule; the most recent wide Dive Coaster, Yukon Striker, only opened in 2019.

But from the early 2010s onwards, the narrow Dive Coaster started to appear. These have 6-across trains (or more recently, 7-across trains in some cases), and are built on a smaller, more compact scale, often not exceeding 100ft by a huge amount; the smallest narrow Dive Coaster, Baron 1898, has a drop height of only 123ft. Even the largest narrow Dive Coaster has not yet matched the drop height of the smallest wide Dive Coaster, so I think there is a distinct difference in scale. The narrow iteration of the model is more common in Europe, although it is now starting to take off in North America as well.

With the Dive Coaster having diverged into these two distinct sub-types that have numerous differences, I’d be really interested to know; do you prefer narrow or wide B&M Dive Coasters? Are you a fan of the scale of the wide B&M Dive Coasters, or do you prefer the compactness of the narrow B&M Dive Coasters?

I haven’t yet done a narrow Dive Coaster, so I can’t comment. However, I would say that SheiKra and Oblivion both have an awesome sense of power about them that I can’t imagine the smaller Dive Coasters quite matching, without having ridden one. I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve ridden a narrow Dive Coaster, but that’s just my current view.

But I’d be interested to know; do you prefer the narrow B&M Dive Coaster or the wide B&M Dive Coaster?
EDIT: Sorry, moderators… I just realised that I posted this in the “UK & Europe” forum when I meant for it to be in the “Rest of the World” forum. Could someone please move it, if they wouldn’t mind?

 

[Enter Valhalla]

I’d rank the B&M Dive Coasters I’ve done in this order:

1. Oblivion The Black Hole (Gardaland)
2. Krake (Heide Park)
3. Sheikra (BGT)
4. Diving Coaster (Happy Valley Shanghai)
5. Baron 1898 (Efteling)
6. Oblivion (Alton)
7. Valkyria (Liseberg)

So on the basis of this, I guess I prefer the narrow ones. Sheikra and Diving Coaster are both wide track and, whilst enjoyable, the trains feel quite cumbersome going through the elements.

 

[Tim]

Only the 2 Oblivions and Sheikra for me. So I guess you could say I've done a small, medium and large as they all felt distinctly different.

I think I prefer the larger models as there's more punch on the drop and both types loose speed quite rapidly. These rides really are all about that first drop. It's why I still rate Oblivion, It's all about the build-up to the drop. And the tunnel gives it an extra kick I missed on Sheikra.

 

[Ripsaw97]

For me the one experience that i cant get on any other diver is Oblivion having the wonderful bar on the front, Im not sure if it was designed for this purpose but resting my feet on the bar during the fall gives a far more superior fall experience in my opinion. =P

 

[Plastic Person]

The drops on the wider, older models feel significantly more powerful to my sensitive belly than on the newer-generation models, which are otherwise zippier. I'll take the old-school approach any day, but I don't feel that Oblivion II or Baron 1898 are bad coasters by any means. I appreciate that B&M are willing to spend such time evolving their approach.

 

[Matt.GC]

Only done Baron and Oblivion. Love both but for different reasons. Baron doesn't even feel like the same model of coaster. That's because other than the technology behind it, it isn't really. Oblivion is a true dive coaster, Baron is a looper really that happens to have a holding clutch before it's first drop.

 

[Rob]

Griffon.

That is all.