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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

zerogravity said:
Anyone know what the latest news for "project 2020" is?
For some reason October rings a bell for planning permission being submitted
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Nothing as of yet. Signs have been seen at Thorpe with "MMXX=?" written on them, but other than that, I'm not aware of anything. A reputable theme park page who said that their source was reliable (Attraction Images) also said back in April that they had been told that Thorpe was planning a B&M hyper as their next major investment, but in answer to your question; no, we haven't heard anything regarding 2020 yet.

Also, I think the reason why October may ring a bell for you is because DBGT's application was submitted around that sort of time in 2014.
 
zerogravity said:
Anyone know what the latest news for "project 2020" is?
For some reason October rings a bell for planning permission being submitted
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I have close sources telling me that Thorpe have looked into getting a hyper coaster, an RMC as well others such as a multi launch and hyper. Market testing came to the conclusion that people wanted a hyper but this has proven too big to fit in Thorpe Park and the next best thing that was popular with market research was a B&M Dive Coaster.
 
How can a B&M hyper be too big to fit? You literally just have to find a spot to build the station and then you can take the layout pretty much anywhere you want (within reason of course).
 
My top 3 choices for Thorpe would probably be as follows in the following order:
  1. A hyper coaster, preferably B&M, but any hyper manufacturer would be good, in my opinion!
  2. An RMC of any form.
  3. A GCI woodie like Wicker Man.
But I'm sure Thorpe will wow us with whatever they put in!

As for the comment above about a B&M dive; while I'm sure I would love it to bits and it would be an outstanding ride, wouldn't it be a tad redundant at Thorpe, as they already have Saw that does a similar thing but steeper, if you get what I mean?
 
A dive coaster really wouldn’t be a very wise investment in my opinion, for a number of reasons. I am actually struggling to understand how the market research has led to this conclusion.
 
Bert2theSpark said:
next best thing that was popular with market research was a B&M Dive Coaster.
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This is exactly what I'm expecting - typical boring Merlin safe option. Hope I'm proved wrong of course.

There's such a huge opportunity here for them to build a real world class coaster. You've got RMC's going up everywhere in recent years all with rave reviews, Intamin/Mack Hypers, and multi launches etc. Marketing gimmicks are not needed! Build an amazing coaster and people will keep coming back for more.
 
However, do take into account that Merlin can be risk takers; Wicker Man, for example, was a huge risk! All of Merlin's market research was dissuading them from a wooden coaster due to them having a reputation for being dangerous and unsafe, but Merlin still went ahead and spent £16million on Wicker Man! And that £16million risk seems to have paid off massively for Alton Towers, if you ask me; Wicker Man has been extremely popular among many Alton Towers visitors and has bought on what looks to be the park's busiest season since before the Smiler crash!
 
SheiKra and Oblivion are both brilliant, so if Thorpe builds a B&M dive, I'm sure it'll be amazing! I would admittedly be a little concerned about a dive coaster being a bit redundant at Thorpe with Saw being in the same park, but Valravn seems to work fine at Cedar Point, where it is surrounded by other vertical and beyond-vertical drops!
 
Matt N said:
However, do take into account that Merlin can be risk takers; Wicker Man, for example, was a huge risk! All of Merlin's market research was dissuading them from a wooden coaster due to them having a reputation for being dangerous and unsafe, but Merlin still went ahead and spent £16million on Wicker Man! And that £16million risk seems to have paid off massively for Alton Towers, if you ask me; Wicker Man has been extremely popular among many Alton Towers visitors and has bought on what looks to be the park's busiest season since before the Smiler crash!
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Ha ha thought that myself instantly after posting.

WM was a ballsy step in the right direction and has clearly been a success, so fair play to them.

Honestly though Thorpe just build average coasters. They look the part for the first year or so but lack the wow factor.

I'd take a B&M Hyper, but an RMC would be phenomenal.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
[QUOTE="Matt N, post: 240801, member: 3781" if Thorpe builds a B&M dive, I'm sure it'll be amazing!
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Have you been to Thorpe‽[/QUOTE]
Yes; 4 times, actually! Swarm's my favourite ride there, closely followed by Stealth and Nemesis Inferno! Detonator is also an amazing drop tower, and I quite like Samurai and Rush, too!
 
I thought a dive coaster was ruled out years ago because essentially, Thorpe is build on reclaimed land and generally when you dig a hole, it fills with water fairly quickly? (Yes I know a dive coaster doesn't have to go underground, but we know what Merlin are like with their world firsts etc.).
 
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