KCForce

The person who tweeted this IS a reporter for Fox 4 Kansas City. And she hasn't removed her tweet about it being a decapitation. So sad and I'm sending good vibes to his family.

Actually, the EXT opened on May 31, 1983, a year before Railblazer. I know this because I was on the first public ride of the EXT that day. I have pieces of an original press kit, which I'm posting to share. As for the ride on EXT, it was surprisingly smooth up through the first drop and turn. The lead in and the exit of the corkscrew were pretty rough. The thing that freaked me out (and it took at lot to freak coaster-crazy 14 year-old me out!) was at the tops of the corkscrews, your feet actually lifted off the floor a couple of inches (!) when you were upside down for a brief fleeting moment. Braking was kind of hard on you too, your belly seemed to bulge out between the shoulder harness and leg restraints. It was a good thing there was a seat belt around your middle section, but your mid section wanted to squeeze between the restraints when it hit the brakes. I worked at the park in 1984 and BEFORE the accident at Six Flags, the EXT trains were returned to sit-down style. The train was so heavy and it was causing excessive wear and tear on the track and structure. Except the lead car was missing when they changed it back, so you had a flat nosed 6-car sit-down Arrow train. It looked so weird at first, but we got used to it. The standard Arrow lead car was returned at the start of the 1985 season, my second season at the park, when I worked on the Orient Express. Ah, memories. And finally a working model of the EXT that I built, along with one of the original car bodies that was on temporary loan to me.

I've kind of skimmed through. Has anyone speculated on what the un-revealed element to this coaster is? I'm thinking that enclosed elevator lift could take you up to the top, then free-fall all the way back down before shooting you back to the top to do the ride. Kind of Tower of Terror meets a Eurofighter extreme. My 2 cents for the day. Something is going to happen in that massive enclosed lift structure. Otherwise, why enclose it?

Cyclone, Crystal Beach: -One of three near-identical coasters built by Harry Traver (Lightning at Revere Beach, MA and Cyclone at Palisades Park in NJ were the other two) -Ran with 2 bench seater cars (4 passengers per car) -Parts of the ride structure were incorporated into the Comet which still runs today at the Great Escape in upstate New York Next Coaster: Race Thru the Clouds, Venice Beach, CA

They put a picture of the shirt on Facebook and people are already making comments about how they can't believe HW would use a phrase off such a (and I'm quoting somebody off FB) "pornographic" show to advertise one of their products. People take this stuff way too seriously sometimes. I just ordered mine, no shame. It's called Pop Culture. Even if you don't watch "Orange is the New Black" on Netflix, chances are you've at least heard of it (like me). Parks have done Pop Culture things as long as I can remember and I'm pretty damn old, just not as old as Jeff Johnson.

I definitely do most of my watching on my desktop. However, we stream often to the TV as we have Google Fiber (internet) and it's an option now to watch YouTube on our TV. And, yes, the TPR videos have great quality on our TV. (and yep, I answered the entire poll too).

it's not a racer...it's one track with 2 lift hills. so, i hope there is something that can sync the trains on the lift. The press release says That length doesn't match up at all with it being one long ride, wouldn't that mean it's staying the same as a racer with two sides? Pay very careful attention to the video at 1:21 this is where the blue track turns green and then goes up the lift hill. It is ONE track that races. Each track goes around the old footprint once instead of twice when it was a wooden racer. Hence 5,000 feet of track. The layout has been shortened.

Adventureland from Worlds of Fun is about 3 hours non-stop. From Wichita it's about 7 hours non-stop driving.

Well, according to the RCDB the Rye Airplane was 92 feet tall. And there was that GCI video showing an Airplane coaster at SFFT. Regardless, it will be very interesting to see what they have up their sleeve. I just visited on the 14th and 15th this month, much better than my first visit on opening day back 12 years ago, all the coasters except for the Road Runner Express and Boomerang were open on my first trip, so I was able to ride 5 new coasters. It really is a beautiful park. And the Lone Star Nights was unique and very well done. Loved Iron Rattler and the other coasters. Looks like I may have to venture back next spring...

Staff testing of Verruckt today. Wow, 3 point car seat belts, that's a first on a water slide. At least they have the speed over the second hill looking pretty decent now. Great Video here: www.kmbc.com/news/Some-brave-people-plunge-down-Schlitterbahn-s-Verruckt/26845230#!ba4dVx

I can confirm I was on the shoot last year at Worlds of Fun for Mamba, and we were told it would most likely be featured in season 3. So if Big Max is also going to be on, I'd say one of the categories may be hyper coasters.

Awesome. I've been following this thread somewhat close, but does the train not have a polyurethane coating on the wheels? It sounded very loud. Which actually I liked. And the person filming appeared to be a decent distanceaway. Better name could have been Medusa's Roar.

I'm curious about the "empty barrel" reference from day 6. It seems to just be tagged on the end and vague. Or maybe I'm just missing something The empty barrel part made me curious. It does seem very random. Um, barrel roll on a coaster? Would love for it to be a Project Helix type coaster. We'll know soon enough.

And here's a picture in the story of the before and after re-profiling. Verruckt Reprofiled Perhaps this is where the rumor of folks becoming air borne on the second hill came from (holy hell!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_U2NoG1Lag&app=desktop

I had heard rumors that it was delayed due to the rafts becoming air borne on the second hill. Which kind of made me go, you'd think they'd of seen that one coming on the second hill, but according to this, reportedly the test riders became air borne at the BOTTOM of the FIRST drop. Wonder if the flatness of the raft has anything to do with it? Hmn, maybe some spoilers ala Formula One race cars are in order, or upstop wheels. I'm sure they'll get it all figured out soon enough. And, yes, I'm still riding when it opens! Verruckt Delayed