[The Smiler] Construction Updates and Ride Speculation

[LiamC]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

As much as I prefer seeing theming and think it improves the ride. A coaster doesn't need it to be good. Expedition GeForce for example, the station looks awful, plays dance music in the station, pop rock around the ride area and has a shipping container shop.

It is still regarded as one of the greatest roller coasters in the world and I would agree.

However theming would make one of the greatest even better. But that doesn't mean it needs it.

If the layout is solid, the ride will be instantly popular extra theming will just improve the experience.

We just need to prey that the layout is solid. And that's mostly in Gersts hands.

I know what you're saying, but Expedition GeForce is just an out and out ride, it does what it says on the tin.

The way that SW7 has been put forward so far in terms of marketing, however much of that has been lacking, makes it seem that this is going to be a more experience based ride (use of the word "advocates," Sanctuary etc) which will rely heavily on themeing. Therefore, come opening day, if it is lacking in themeing, I think we'll unfortunately loose some of the "experience" needed to make it a great ride.

I do, however, have every faith that it will be the finished product come March

 

[delta79]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

I am not going to worry about theming until the station building is up then theming of that area can start.

 

[Rob]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

On a slightly unrelated note, you can see why Towers would never be allowed to built a massive yellow hyper coaster!

It's hard to tell but I'm pretty sure the track that you can see from outside of the park will form part of a cobra roll, or maybe a batwing; it really is impossible to tell at this stage. The piece of track isn't as high as the cobra roll appears to be on the plans but it does relate to a similar height as that of the batwing. But then with the plans being inaccurate you can't say for sure. A lot of the coaster will be visible from outside of the park once it is fully built though.

 

[Image-Ant]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

TST Facebook uploaded this image yesterday:

Wondering what they could be, explaining they could be 'for the ride station building, most likely cladding for the inside or out.' After a little research they're roofing panels.
http://www.kingspan.info/KS1000-RW-1113.html

Then, they also uploaded this:

Saying about the 'Merlin Grey' texture. This is the Merlin Grey texture:
http://www.kingspanpanneaux.fr/FrenchSiteFiles/uploads/merlin_grey.jpg

So they could be more roofing panels except, it's weird to be calling them "FloorDeck Trims"... Probably floordecks that can be cut so that they can fit into a corner or something?

 

[Rob]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

From TowersStreet news:

Is the ‘Washing Machine’ all washed up?

Onto more speculation and rumour now, this time concerning the widely rumoured ‘washing machine’ style element. This was said to involve the ride car and attached track being rotated 360 degrees multiple times in order to achieve an inversion record. The ‘washing machine’ has been subject of much discussion throughout the enthusiast community and our forums since it was first mentioned.

However, the information TowersStreet has received points not just toward this rumoured element not making an appearance, but also to ‘trick track’ not featuring in the ride altogether. In addition to the information we’ve received, there’s so far been no sign of any track which would point to such a feature existing. Although we don’t have official confirmation, we trust the information we have to be reliable enough to say we will not see the element in the finished attraction.

I have a feeling that we will find out for sure either way regarding trick track within the coming weeks. My gut feeling is that there won't be any, but I still have something in the back of my mind telling me that we could see some form of it still.

 

[Martin]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Is anyone surprised? I'll be very surprised if the indoor section is anything more than what most of us predicted when the plans were released; a drop curve into a barrel roll.

 

[Rob]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

I'm certainly not surprised hearing that the washing machine idea is not true. However I'm sure that the indoor section will be more than just a drop and a barrel roll. I personally think all of the pit that they have dug out and lined with concrete will form the indoor section, and that is a large area. The only thing that now contradicts this thought is that in one of my photos from yesterday you can see a piece of track that appears to be coming up from and out of the pit. Though it isn't possible to be sure of exactly where this piece of track is or whether it is yet in its final position.

 

[Dave]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Based on TT picks you can see a lot of supports for track in the pit, if it was just for a single barrel roll they would have dug a trench rather than all of that excavation. Even if they then had the run-ins to inversions as well it would have been cheaper to dig a number of trenches rather than a huge re-enforced pit.

I think we will see a few indoor elements before the main coaster.

 

[James]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

I'm throwing this theory out into the mix. What if there was a secret element planned initially but over the past few months they came into problems with the hardware, leading to the element now being dropped. Now with the secret element not planned to be built Towers come into a few problems with the track design in the indoor section, resulting in the plans for the ride having to be altered to fit in with there being no secret element.

This would fit in with the somewhat confusing marketing and the mixture of world-first and world-beating being used in various pieces of marketing (world-beating being a more prominent word in the latest pieces of marketing).

This would also fit in with the different ground levels, as the new ground level does not match up with the plans. It could also fit in with the ride being delayed, as last minutes design changes needed to be made.

Now I'm by no means suggesting this has actually happened, as it would be carnage on Alton's part. But just one little crazy thing I'd like to throw out there.

 

[DiogoJ42]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Interesting theory James. It certainly would explain a lot. Of course, I doubt they would ever admit to such a cock up. If it's true, then I suspect all the plans for the original idea are probably being burnt / wiped from disks as we type...

 

[Fredward]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

It's what I've said since the beginning, no surprise from me, just some mild smugness for not getting my hopes up!

The worlds first will be first roller coaster to duel with itself without stopping, worlds first two coasters in one essentially, difficult to explain quickly to someone... but so is worlds first horizontally dropping rollercoaster, I'm sure Merlin marketing have a nice team thinking of best way to explain it.

 

[Andrew]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

The design wouldn't have been to hard to construct, considering Maurer Söhne did it a few years back.
Maybe Alton just decided that it wasn't a great idea.

Or maybe it wasn't even planned in the first place!

 

[Fredward]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Maurer Sohne only did that idea to show how the restraints work. I'm pretty sure all they was place a train on a rotating platform. It wasn't automated and made to be used with any coasters... I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't hand powered anyway!

 

[DiogoJ42]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

I thought they just used a crane to suspend a car upside down for that demo?

 

[josht]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

It's a good theory James really does make you think about it, we will see if they did mess up if they don't use gerstlauer again

 

[Tim]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

I thought they just used a crane to suspend a car upside down for that demo?

Originally yes but they they constructed a proper rig for it so they could let people experience the seat design at conventions ect.

Personally if it is true that this element doesn't exist I would be more than happy as I thought it was a fairly terrible idea. It's kind of novel experience the first time you hit the 4 barrel rolls on Colossus but just having that while not actually moving and repeated a ludicrous amount of times doesn't appeal to me at all.

 

[Martin]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Personally I just think it's because they've dug down more than the plans suggested. Maybe the elements on that side turned out to be too high so they redesigned them to be lower.

 

[Rob]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Personally I just think it's because they've dug down more than the plans suggested. Maybe the elements on that side turned out to be too high so they redesigned them to be lower.

That definitely isn't the case. If they were merely moving what was on the plans lower then they would have not dug a pit with solid vertical walls; they would have dug down like shown on the plans but just further down, so it would be more of a gradual slope downwards which would level out then a gradual slope upwards. I'm pretty confident that all of the pit will be covered over to form an indoor section.

 

[Dave]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

See I don't think trick track was ever planned, I think small rumours (similar ones which we ourselves heard a while ago) have been given more weight by enthusiasts out of "over thinking". Essentially because the last SW had trick track the next has to have it (even though the previous three didn't).

I genuinely think the plans where submitted slightly off because legally they could and it would hide the "secret" to do so. Maybe in the very early days of planning something like this was considered but then dropped. After all they where never going to just plan one idea out.

 

[Fredward]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Perhaps they have dug to greedily and to deeply and have unleashed the Durins Bane; The Balrog of Khazud Dum.

Would explain why everything is late.