I know this sounds like a random question, but have there been any rumours of this park getting a new coaster any time soon? I'm only asking because from 1996 up until 2011, Fuji-Q has installed a large, record-breaking roller coaster every 5 years, now hear me out. There has been:
- Fujiyama (1996) - Togo hyper coaster (Tallest roller coaster)
- Dodonpa/Do-Dodonpa (2001) - S&S compressed air launch coaster (Fastest roller coaster and fastest launch acceleration)
- Eejanaika (2006) - S&S 4th Dimension coaster (Most inversions, although this is quite a debatable one. I don't personally think it should have gotten the record because I don't see seat inversions as proper inversions in the same way that track inversions are.)
- Takabisha (2011) - Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter (Steepest roller coaster)
Going by this rule, Fuji-Q was due a large roller coaster in 2016, but they didn't get one. I wonder why this may have been. Has there been a change in ownership between 2011 and 2016 or something? Or have the owners simply abandoned that cycle? Another question is: what should they get? Going by their strategy of record-breaking coasters, the only proper record they have left to break is length. And not many parks seem too keen to break the length record anymore, so I don't know if Fuji-Q would want to. I'm also not sure of how much space Fuji-Q has, so they may not be physically able to do this unless they built a really twisted roller coaster with hundreds of crossovers. Furthermore, length is a very expensive record to break. For example, Steel Dragon 2000 (the current record holder for length) cost $52millionUSD or £39,033,280. I know part of that was down to the earthquake-resistant structure, but that is still obscene. I think Fuji-Q is quite a small park, so I don't know whether they could afford that sort of money. The only ride types I can think of that they could go with to break the length record are a giga coaster or a wooden coaster. Both would be good fits for Fuji-Q, although I think that a woodie would be a better fit because Fuji-Q already has a steel airtime machine in the form of Fujiyama, and because wooden roller coasters are considerably cheaper to build than giga coasters.
On a side note, if Fuji-Q was to build a roller coaster, the earliest they could realistically open it at this point in time is 2019, because if it was to open in 2018, we would probably have seen groundwork and possibly an announcement by now. So, what do you guys think Fuji-Q should get as their next coaster? Do you think they should break the length record?
P.S. Sorry for the long post.