Intarider

Thanks for the feedback! ^Yes, those little launchers are great indeed. One more proof that a roller coaster needn't be tall to be good and thrilling.

As the end of the season approaches, I decided to make a quick trip to Tripsdrill to check out their new Gerstlauer LSM-launched coaster, "Karacho" on October 1st. As it was a weekday after the school holidays, the park was very empty. Tripsdrill is a great little park. It is very family-orientated, but coaster fans will enjoy it nevertheless. One great thing is the total absence of OTSRs in the whole park, as well as no height restriction for any of the main attractions, which is nice as I'm quite a tall guy at nearly 6ft 7 inches (2m). I hope you enjoy the TR! The first thing you notice when entering the park is the somehow weird theming. The park was beautifully decorated for the fall season. All nice and calm in the morning... I spy something in the background! Yes, it's their new coaster. The Top Hat looks really nice from this angle. However, Karacho would not open until 12 AM due to the low crowds. So, time to look around a bit. I'm always impressed by the theming of the log flume and the Gerstlauer Bobsled in this castle. Mammut, their other large coaster. Nerd Shot for all the brake enthusiasts out there Mammut did open sooner, however, in order to dispatch a train they needed at least six riders... which was a problem! So, there was extensive "inverted queueing". It's a nice and fun coaster, but very tame compared to a GCI, for example. Feels much like the wooden equivalent of a new-school B&M - smooth and fun and very reridable, but not very intense or thrilling. G'sengte Sau, their Gerstlauer Bobsled is also very fun. You can even get decent airtime on the bunnyhops when the car is full... which was a rare sight. Another Nerd Shot These tight turns are also very nice. Yes, Karacho is open! And it's great! Unlike quite every other attraction at the park, it is clearly not aimed at families, but at thrillseekers. In my opinion, it's the best launcher in Germany. Blue Fire, while a good coaster, is a bit too tame and Desert Race and Fluch von Novgorod suffer from their OTSRs. The clamshells on Kracho are great. It really is an awesome feeling going upside down with a lapbar only. Especially as you get great hangtime in all of the inversions. And there is airtime, too! Who can spot the coaster porn? Karacho does this to you. This is what the theming will look like when it's finished next year. Seriously, if they build an Intamin Mega-Lite in the next few years, their coaster lineup will be quite perfect Time to look around a bit more. This is the Altweibermühle ("Old Womens' Mill"), which has got a carpet slide in it Random halloween decoration Inside this house there are several devices that make you feel drunk. Like this turning barrel. The bathtub log flume is one of the highlights of the park. Not only has it a decent layout and a great drop, but it is also probably the only family ride in the world to feature naked bathing women. The Top Hat towers over the park Donnerbalken, their very weird free fall tower The maypole ride A nearly full train was a rare sight. However, the OPs always allowed to stay seated until the next ride as long as no other guest wanted to ride in your seat, which was great. Some more rides on Karacho... Nerd Shot #3 The ride does have a slight rattle, especially in the outer seats, but it's not really uncomfortable. The entry to the Dive Loop is just insane, especially on the left side of the train. Random Theming One last look at the Swabian Village And me trying to do an artsy shot Thank you for reading!

That overbanked netting in the overbanked turn officially makes no sense at all

^ In my opinion, the tubular supports are visually more pleasing than the rectangular ones. Especially with the triangular track, which is already edgy enough. I think the decision which kind of supports will be used is made by the park, als the multilooper in Cinecitta uses the "new style", rectangular ones, for example.

If this is really going to be a giga - no matter if from Intamin or B&M - I would bet that it will be exactly 307 feet in height Anyway, I'm quite excited about the project. Reminds me a bit of the time in 2009 when the first rumors about an Intamin Giga at King's Dominion were coming up. And yes, even though I have only ridden EGF and Silver Star in terms of comparable coasters, I think an Intamin would be a MUCH better choice in this case (even though my stomach tells me it will be yet another cookie-cutter B&M).

The only good thing about this poll is that they finally put EGF into the top 3 (albeit with much less points than either MF or Bizarro). And the second place for Europa Park is at least a step in the right direction IMHO... Apart from that, Robb summed it up quite well earlier.

Great that Intamin has finally decided to use lapbar-only restraints on inverting and/or launched coasters. I presume they will also be much more accomodating to tall people (I'm nearly 6 feet 7 inches). The over-the-shoulder part of their Over-the-shoulder-lapbars like used on most of their recent installations (e.g. Desert Race in Heide Park) hurts my shoulders badly...

For me, it's definitely Expedition GeForce. To be precise, last row to the left. Feels like you're being thrown out every single time.

I'm very happy that Expedition GeForce once again ranks as the best Steel Coaster outside the USA- for the 11th consecutive year! Also, as an Intamin fan, it's nice to see El Toro finally in the top spot. Still wondering why so few Intamin woodies have been built. However, it seems like Skyrush and i305 are just too intense for some people... After the enthusiastic Skyrush reviews of most riders, I expected it to rank at least in the Top 20.

Looks amazing. From the looks of it, RMC have outdone themselves on the New Texas Giant and with the cliff and the barrel roll Iron Rattler has the potential to be even better in my opinion. I hope the guys also start rebuilding European coasters soon, some of them are in desperate need of a RMC treatment (Anaconda at Walygator, for instance although I seriously doubt this park spends any money to keep their coasters in good condition...)

Looks great from the POVs. One of the very few remarkable coasters in Eastern Europe. But i wonder why the support structure is so massive. It reminds me of Jetline at Gröna Lund a bit, but in that case the supports were originally built for adding an enormous Alpine theming as far as I remember. However, for some reason the coaster stayed unthemed. And so, the supports are so strong that they can support Jetline and Vilda Musen at the same time Does anybody know if any kind of theming was planned for this ride? (I'm sure He would know the answer )

To me, this splash section looks very similar to the B&M splashdown areas on their Dive Machines or Diamondback. I wonder if B&M has any sort of patent for their splash sytem? In this case, such a splash would make a lot of sense as it creates a big wave without braking the boat too much.

I'm sorry to disappoint all Vekoma fans here, but according to rcdb and other sources, it is a knockoff made by Golden Horse http://rcdb.com/m/10045.htm Well, at least the Intamin LSM coaster will be made by Intamin.

Looks like they're selling out Dubailand. The "Triple Launch Coaster" sounds like the Intamin LSM coaster still rotting away in the sand in Dubai. Well, at least it might now be bought and built somewhere.

Actually, on the artwork the restraints look a lot like the system Mack uses on Blue Fire, don't they? If the restraints were basically i305-style without the OTS-part, they could indeed be painful for some riders.