TBC: SW9 Speculation

[Matt.GC]

The Air car park, if built on, would need replacing, even if it is mesh on the fields. It's used regularly throughout the season. Turning the Air car park into a new coaster and themed area (which it's size is perfect for) would be an incredibly high investment for the park and the only reason they'd even consider expanding the park would be to attract more visitors. If the park went back up to 3 million per year you'd be looking at the main car park and J full for most of the year only leaving the fields for peak times overspill. You'd be taking capacity away from parking to upgrade capacity of the park.

Galactica and a new coaster in the car park could easily become a new area with the monorail passing through and it could be excellent. But I think the prospects of it happening are next to nil. Extremely expensive when they can just build a new coaster in an existing area with some remodeling and imagination.

As we know, it's highly likely it'll be many years until it happens anyway. By which time, a number of the parks attractions would be approaching end of life.

My hope is that they'd choose Dark Forest or X Sector. I wouldn't want the asthetics of FV or KC ruined by dumping a coaster on top of either. Either way, a coaster would fit in all 4 areas. If you ripped everything other than Nemesis, Galactica and RCR out of FV there's tonnes of room. KC has space everywhere. X Sector has room for something compact down the bottom by Enterprise and could even use the space behind Oblivion for a station, maintenance and queue lines etc. Similarly, there's space in DF if you ripped the food outlets out and used some space behind Burger Kitchen.

 

[QTXAdsy]

Actually regarding the Cark park if what we're suspecting for now just SW9 but an entire new land...I had a look at the area on Google maps and realised that a new area could actually be built in there without even touching the car park.

What I mean is if look at thr area closely where the Galactica/Air queue goes, you'll see that if you relocate the queueline to be not in its current area, then with a bit of groundwork then you could actually squeeze in a new themed zone separate to FV that could put in a flat ride of some description, go for the Oasis theme for the area if this means Air returns.

Opening up that area, which up to the current entrance to Galactica is rather cramp IMO, means you'd get a new photographic location on that final helix of the ride which I'm sure would appeal to the GP seeing a ride in full flight. Then if the new area is successful then you can go for the car park idea in which SW9 would be something of a phase 2 for this new location.

Honestly if Towers wants to expand the park boundaries then that one area beside Galactica might be the one area that could be a shout that, hopefully, won't cost a huge sum of money compared to digging up a car park.

 

[MakoMania]

 

[Ash]

My point is more aimed at cost and imagination. If you look at the Air car park then that's fine, it's perfect space for a new coaster and associated area. But to do that they would need to asphalt some of the fields to compensate. That or go multi storey.

Similarly there's loads of space inside the park. It's one of the biggest theme parks in the world. Some of it can't be built on and there's the tree line to consider. There's room everywhere but it's not about building a coaster over existing areas for the hell of it. They'd need to remodel or remove something else. Plenty of space, but it requires Nemesis/Oblivion style thinking.

The air car park, if done right, is big enough for a second gate never mind a new area! You could easily fit a smaller indoor/outdoor second gate there. A “Studios Park” or something of the ilk.

With properties from BBC (Top Gear, Doctor Who, Planet Earth, Sherlock) Sony Pictures (James Bond, Jumanji, Ghostbusters, Spiderman) there’s more than enough to go at.

Obviously as discussed the parking would need to be moved. Adding a second story to the main car park would alleviate a lot of this if allowed and provide all the needs for AT until further expansion


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[Matt N]

Interesting… I wonder what a Flair Loop will look like? There’s already so many different types of inversion, so I can’t quite imagine it!

I guess that implies a thrilling ride?

 

[Rob]

Interesting… I wonder what a Flair Loop will look like? There’s already so many different types of inversion, so I can’t quite imagine it!

I guess that implies a thrilling ride?

I would not read too much in to that Tweet personally, likely just some fun and games rather than anything genuine.

If SW9 is being planned, anyone involved will no doubt be subject to a non-disclosure agreement.

 

[MakoMania]

I would tend to agree, however when leaking things this guy (not exactly sure who he is but I think he works in the industry in some capacity) has been bang on the money more times than I can count.

 

[Matt N]

If true, however, I do think that it provides an indication that SW9 is at very least in the advanced planning stages (things like specific element names wouldn’t be known if the ride was only in early stage planning… that would suggest that a manufacturer and layout have been picked already), and might be coming sooner than we expect.

This post also implies some sort of inverting thrill ride, which would rule out a number of coaster types. Unless they’re doing some sort of world’s first (for instance, the world’s first inverting water coaster, as that’s been quite a commonly mentioned ride type)…

 

[QTXAdsy]

...what's a flair loop? Is this a 4D coaster by chance? Which honestly seems like it is the only coaster that would suit such an inversion.

That said I'm still speculating a water coaster will arrive one way or the other.

 

[Matt N]

...what's a flair loop? Is this a 4D coaster by chance? Which honestly seems like it is the only coaster that would suit such an inversion.

Could be an S&S Axis, which is sort of 4D-like… S&S did say that they’d sold one to an unannounced European location, and it would be a world’s first (in spite of the aforementioned, no park has yet announced one). Come to think of it, I do seem to remember Flair Loop or something similar being mentioned by S&S as an Axis coaster element name, although I could be totally misremembering that…

 

[Skyscraper]

Could be an S&S Axis, which is sort of 4D-like… S&S did say that they’d sold one to an unannounced European location, and it would be a world’s first (in spite of the aforementioned, no park has yet announced one). Come to think of it, I do seem to remember Flair Loop or something similar being mentioned by S&S as an Axis coaster element name, although I could be totally misremembering that…

There is an S&S Axis coaster coming to a European park... Would be amazing if it turned out to be Towers!
Would make sense as it would be a world first.

 

[Matt N]

I’ve got to say, the idea does make a lot of sense; it would live up to Towers’ history of doing world’s first or Europe’s first ride types for the SWs, and it would also be one way for them to tangibly add a new type of experience to Towers’ already very diverse and complete coaster lineup (the lineup has no glaring holes now, in my opinion).

The only red flag for me, though, is that going with an all-out prototype would be going against Merlin’s recent philosophy somewhat. In the last 5 years, they seem to have focused on doing unique, different things with tried & tested ride hardware (e.g. Wicker Man, Project Amazon, Project Exodus, to a lesser extent Smiler) as opposed to pushing the envelope and premiering brand new ride types like they did a few years back.

 

[Danscott22]

I'd be pretty pleased if it was Alton, I don't think it will be but it's unique at least (for now).

 

[QTXAdsy]

If they are going for a World/European first then you bet your bottom dollar if SW9 is an axis coaster.

After looking at the ride system in question, I must say I'm impressed though could you imagine something that like in a enclosed building (Coaster Corner again uy built in a big pit) with a lot interactive and immersive features for the riders?

If done well then good grief...that would be something really special. Seems to good to be true though...

 

[JAperson]

The axis coaster that S&S confirmed has been sold in Europe is apparently going to open in 2023 here is it's TS thread: https://towersstreet.com/talk/threa...-europe-in-2023-where-could-it-be-going.5950/
In terms of what SW9 could be I think it'll be made by B&M. Likely in a package with project amazon and the nemesis retrack. Maybe it could finally be a B&M 4D concept. Over the years the only coaster's that are first of there kind that Merlin have bought have been from B&M example of this is the wing coaster.

 

[Matt N]

If they are going for a World/European first then you bet your bottom dollar if SW9 is an axis coaster.

After looking at the ride system in question, I must say I'm impressed though could you imagine something that like in a enclosed building (Coaster Corner again uy built in a big pit) with a lot interactive and immersive features for the riders?

If done well then good grief...that would be something really special. Seems to good to be true though...

Who says it would necessarily have to be enclosed? They could use a different area to Coaster Corner if they wanted.

Talking of packages; could some sort of Mack coaster be a possibility, now that Thorpe are all but confirmed to be getting one?

 

[JAperson]

Talking of packages; could some sort of Mack coaster be a possibility, now that Thorpe are all but confirmed to be getting one?

Maybe but I think a B&M package is more likely. Mainly because of what Chessington is building, I'm sure if they wanted too something like that could've been build much better and cheaper by another company who are more experienced in those types of rides like Vekoma. I think the only reason is because it's at a discounted rate which would make sense with the retrack of nemesis.

 

[Matt N]

Maybe but I think a B&M package is more likely. Mainly because of what Chessington is building, I'm sure if they wanted too something like that could've been build much better and cheaper by another company who are more experienced in those types of rides like Vekoma. I think the only reason is because it's at a discounted rate which would make sense with the retrack of nemesis.

The thing worth remembering about Chessington’s, though, is that Merlin also bought a few of the same ride type, along with a few B&M family inverts, for their Chinese Legoland parks, and one of the Chinese parks is missing a family wing coaster compared to the others, so Chessington’s may well have been a spare from that particular bulk buy (hence why one Chinese Legoland is missing a family wing coaster compared to the others, as “their” wing coaster went to Chessington).

As for the Nemesis retrack; my suspicion is that that would have likely happened anyway regardless of any deals Merlin had with B&M. Varney has previously expressed great personal passion for Nemesis and has supported the notion of keeping it alive using whatever means necessary.

I’m not saying that SW9 won’t be a B&M by any stretch, as it could well be one, but personally, I’m not sure if they’re necessarily any more likely than any other manufacturer nowadays. To me, Exodus at Thorpe not being a B&M poured cold water on the idea of the RTP-wide bulk deal that had been previously talked about, as you might remember that one of the key stipulations of that rumoured deal would have involved Thorpe getting a B&M Hyper.

Do you get where I’m coming from?

 

[JAperson]

Do you get where I’m coming from?

Yes I get what you are saying, but I'm not sure you've got the full picture. The LEGOLAND parks are also owned by Merlin and there is nothing saying they're rides aren't part of the bulk deal. I was speculating about a bulk deal before that video came out about it. I actually think what you've said makes it more likely. I think there's a likelihood that project exodus was planned before the pandemic but was pushed back although that's just a personal speculation and there isn't any evidence of that.

 

[Danscott22]

This might've been asked previously - but this thread isn't one I keep up with too much, but I'm just wondering how long in advance the planning application would be submitted/we'd be able to see it before the ride (whatever it will be) opens?