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The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread


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http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/index.php/superman-magic-mount-7321/

 

Six Flags Magic Mountain has quietly closed the Superman free-fall coaster in preparation for a makeover of the ride scheduled to reopen in spring 2011.

 

A sign posted outside the ride promises “something BIG is happening” to the Superman: The Escape coaster, according to photos posted by Screamscape.

 

The $20-million magnetic launch shuttle coaster opened in 1997, boasting a top speed of 100 mph, a gravitational force of 4.5 Gs and 6.5 seconds of weightlessness, according to Roller Coaster Database.

 

Magic Mountain officials have released few details about the planned overhaul, saying only that the Fortress of Solitude ice cave entrance will remain and the Superman figure will return to the top of the 415-foot tall ride.

 

Amusement park officials quickly denied Internet rumors that the ride would receive a Bizarro retheming based on Superman’s evil clone.

 

Roller coasters at two of Magic Mountain’s sister parks — Six Flags New England in Massachusetts and Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey — received Bizarro makeovers in 2009 that added fog, fire and sound effects as well as garish purple color schemes.

 

The Valencia amusement park will also add a kiddie coaster in spring 2011, relocated from a now-shuttered Six Flags park in New Orleans. Mr. Six’s DanceCoaster was announced as a new addition for 2010 and later postponed because of construction delays.

 

The junior coaster will keep the current red and black color scheme and stay in the same planned location in the northwest corner of the park but will likely receive a new name and theme, officials said.

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Theory:

 

Superstucture, track, and station are to remain mostly unchanged.

 

Notable rennovations include re-vamped launching system to increase efficiency and uptime, new carriages, and new paint.

 

Pièce de résistance - The new launch system is designed to overshoot top of tower with markedly improved acceleration and top speed. Superman 2.0 will introduce speed reduction magetic fin breaking system at peak of tower.

 

New ride program sequence calls for lauch to speeds in excess of 100 mph, vehicle to approach peak of tower with ample speed to clear the tower but is slowed to a stop (think X-Scream at Stratosphere), held for several moments, then is allowed a static freefall release back to station.

 

What the ride *should* have been at opening.

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New ride program sequence calls for lauch to speeds in excess of 100 mph, vehicle to approach peak of tower with ample speed to clear the tower but is slowed to a stop (think X-Scream at Stratosphere), held for several moments, then is allowed a static freefall release back to station.

 

What the ride *should* have been at opening.

 

if it is held for several moments, then it won't be as good of a ride feeling.

 

And if it is DESIGNED TO OVERSHOOT THE TOWER. then wow.

 

i would not want to ride it over and over again, I will just leave it at that.

Edited by fnnyman
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New ride program sequence calls for lauch to speeds in excess of 100 mph, vehicle to approach peak of tower with ample speed to clear the tower but is slowed to a stop (think X-Scream at Stratosphere), held for several moments, then is allowed a static freefall release back to station.

 

What the ride *should* have been at opening.

 

if it is held for several moments, then it won't be as good of a ride feeling.

 

And if it is DESIGNED TO OVERSHOOT THE TOWER. then wow.

 

i would not want to ride it over and over again, I will just leave it at that.

 

aaaaaaaawwwww. why not???

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^When you really think about it, it isn't as cool. Sure, it would be different, but don't you think it'd be a wee bit uncomfortable? Pretend you're in a car. You're driving really fast and you see some lockers crossing the road. You probably won't want to crush them, so you'll hit your brakes really hard. Imagine that feeling. Now think about doing that for several seconds. Plus, instead of having a seatbelt, you have a lap bar. Cool yes, but pretty uncomfortable. Another thing to think about is aerodynamics. The vehicle is pretty bulky in the back, and it would probably take more force to accelerate it. Finally, there's the fact that they'd have to pretty much redo the whole vehicle in order to get it to work perfectly. I wouldn't be surprised if everything didn't line up exactly if it was simply turned around and set back on the track.

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the forces of take off on a backwards running car would play havoc on the neck and upper body and require a custom restraint to assist in holding everything in place. For those who've been on Ka, or Dragster and sat in the back of the train, when it takes off you are plastered to the seat and can feel it throughout your body, now, imagine that backwards, you would be bent over so far forward you'd for sure pull a few things in directions they weren't meant to pull. If I were the park operator, I wouldn't want to take the chance of someone claiming a back and/or neck injury just so I could have something that a few people thought were "cool". After all America as a whole has slowly become lawsuit happy, in other words, the risks outway the benefits. Now, if they pulled you to the top of the tower, then shot you down towards the station at 100mph, turning the car backwards from it's current configuration would be acceptable with the proper restrains.

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^Honestly, the acceleration of Superman is no more powerful than the deceleration of say, Top Thrill Dragster. And that isn't uncomfortable by any means. It would feel like going into a really long brake run in all actuality. I don't think it would be at all uncomfortable.

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No Bizzarro overlay makes me doubt its going to be just turning the cars around. It would improve only some of the rides flaws.

 

Look at what they've been doing with all their other rides recently. They're finally been taking what was a vast yet mediocre coaster collection and turned it into truly world class. They've eliminated the dead weight in Psyclone and Flashback, and have with the recent painting of many rides, experimenting with Scream!, and X2 makeover, really improved their collection with relatively minimal investment. (relative to cost of new coasters)

 

Now take Superman. Still has potential and it always has; plus its an iconic structure in the park. Think back to its biggest selling points when it was first released: tallest coaster, first to break 100 mph, and 8 seconds of weightlessness.

 

We all know that it never lived up to its billing. And being the first of its kind, no one really knew what kind of ride it gave. Unfortunately, while visually intimidating, its rather tame with a slow launch, mediocre top speed, forceless ascent/descent, and lack of visual stimulus to truly display its staggering height to passengers. The 8 seconds of weightlessness was a bit overblown too.

 

I don't think they're looking to shatter any records or blow anyones mind, I think we should keep our expectations low. They're just trying to make the ride good and balanced against the rest of their collection, and it really wouldn't take much to improve the experience. Make it go faster, introduce some physical forces, and find a way to get more visual impact from it, both on and off.

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see the same thing happen to Colossus in the next 5 years, just gotta wait on how the whole Texas Giant thing pans out.

Edited by willthethrill
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Just as a comparison to the launch forces of Superman and Top Thrill Dragster, Dragster averages about 1.37 G's during the launch (0-120 in 4 seconds). Superman averages .65 G's (when launching to its full 100 mph in 7 seconds). I can't confirm this, but I've heard that Dragster is still traveling around 100 mph when it hits its brake run and for the sake of this comparison, let's just say it takes a similar amount of time to slow down as it does to launch since the launch track and brake run are very similar in length (I know this isn't exact, but it's close enough). Decelerating from 100-0 mph in 4 seconds is the equivalent to about 1.14 G's of acceleration. Even if it takes 7 seconds to stop (the same as Superman takes to launch to about this speed) those G forces are very similar. This is why I feel that a backwards launch on Superman would not be a problem. The only thing that would possibly be a problem would be the initial jolt of acceleration since that is generally when the strongest forces are exerted and this could easily be avoided by varying the force of acceleration to be smaller at the beginning of the launch.

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^ Is this feasable? Probably, but they'd have to install otsr restraints if they were considering it at all. The problem is, it doesnt matter if there are enough forces to hurt anyone or even cause discomfort, a person simply has to say my neck hurts after riding and any PI attorney worth his salt could make a plausable case that it was caused/aggravated by Superman's setup - BAM! settlement. Not even worth it.

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^But how is this any different than stopping in the brake run? It's not. If it was there'd be lawsuits about this same problem on plenty of coasters such as Top Thrill Dragster. That would have a much greater force being applied in the forward direction than Superman ever would. OTSR aren't necessary for such a prolonged launch. I still don't see how launching backwards would ever be a problem for Superman.

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Theory:

 

Pièce de résistance - The new launch system is designed to overshoot top of tower with markedly improved acceleration and top speed. Superman 2.0 will introduce speed reduction magetic fin breaking system at peak of tower.

 

 

If the launcher is re-done and designed to overshoot the tower, and they must relies on magnetic breaks that need power their is little chance I'll go on it again.. since if those breaks fail I would be crashing into superman/top of the tower and possibly have the car derail and fall over 400 feet to my death.

 

 

No thank you.

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^^^I think you are forgetting that your body's reacts differently when traveling backwards, at no time on dragster are you traveling backwards, therefor you really don't know what types of forces would be placed on the human body, only a slew of scientific tests would do that. You would still need ots restraints going up the tower backwards, regardless, it would be like going up a boomerrang backwards with nothing more than a lapbar, and we all know how much our bodies lean against those restraints going up. But when it all comes down to it, thats not what they are going to do with the ride apparently, so I suppose I will shut up.

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^^ Wouldn't they need to use something other than magnetic brakes? wouldn't that just stop the car dead in its tracks? Maybe something like Mr. Freeze.

 

 

OR not do that at all. Just make it launch to the top. That's the bare minimum of this whole renovation.

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