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Intimidator Roller Coaster at Carowinds


swampfox43

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All you coaster junkies listen up!

Media day for the big announcement at Carowinds is tomorrow at 11am, inside the park (which will be closed to the public). The only clues the park has given, besides all the red track laying in the parking lot, is that it will be "record breaking & history making". The manufacturer is B&M, same folks who designed Top Gun. It is likely to have a NASCAR theme from other various hints that have been given over the past month or so.

There are some Twitter feeds from the announcement (for those tweets out there). Just search for Carowinds and they will come up.

Also check Carowinds Connection who will be updating as it happens.

I am sure all the local news outlets will be abuzz with it as well.

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Call me a pessimist, but I'll believe it when I see it. B&M does make this thing VERY interesting though. I've read that Carowinds is spending $11 million for this coaster. I am not sure Carowinds will be breaking any records with an $11 million coaster. I hope I am wrong, but Carowinds has a "track" (sorry I couldn't help myself) record for over hyping mediocre rides IMO.

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Call me a pessimist, but I'll believe it when I see it. B&M does make this thing VERY interesting though. I've read that Carowinds is spending $11 million for this coaster. I am not sure Carowinds will be breaking any records with an $11 million coaster. I hope I am wrong, but Carowinds has a "track" (sorry I couldn't help myself) record for over hyping mediocre rides IMO.
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The cost of the coaster is definitely over 11 million dollars in total. Track has arrived at Carowinds. It has the same tracks as a hyper coaster.

Past Bolliger & Mabillard hyper-coasters Cost....

Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia: 20 Million

Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure: 20 Million

Diamondback at Kings Island: 22 Million

Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland: 26 Million

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^ It can't be a twin in the sense that KD's new coaster is designed by Intamin. I highly doubt Carowinds' coaster will exceed the 300ft mark too but almost 100% sure it will exceed 200ft, which will be pretty nice! Carowinds new coaster will be more "hill" oriented whereas KD's coaster is all about the first big drop followed by lot's of low to the ground transitions.

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well, B&M simply doesn't make mediocre rides so we're safe there. they also generally don't make gigacoasters so i don't think the record-breaking will be for height.

i'd love to be wrong on that, but my hunch is that it will be a looping floorless or vert drop coaster that has a certain type of inversion or other feature we haven't really seen before. maybe even a LIM launch (which would be rare for B&M)?

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it may not be as tall or quite as fast, but i think it will be the better coaster. i prefer the ride of B&Ms to Intamins, and this design is all about airtime hills where the KD version is all about low banked turns (admittedly more appropriate for the theme, but not as fun imo). i don't know the length of the KD version but it looked far too brief for its height and speed from the demo, this one looks like an even better version of Apollo's Chariot in williamsburg.

i am confused by the 2-across cars in the rendering, B&M always uses 4-across, but i think someone just slapped the KD intamin cars on this rendering. if not it could spell trouble for the lines.

it IS kind of lame that they qualified all the hype around it with "in the southeast" not including Virginia, but I'm still very excited.

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It's good for Carowinds, but there is something strange to me. Carowinds website says "Tallest,Fastest, Longest Coaster in the Southeast. Kings Dominion states" Tallest and Fastest gravity driven roller coaster on the east coast. I don't mind the wording, just seems odd. I guess Virginia is only in the Southeast when it needs to be. But, I do like the hills on the Carowinds coaster. It could prove to be a better ride than the taller one at Kings Dominion..I do agree with statement above, it always seems like Carowinds gets the short end of the stick when new rides are added to multiple parks inside of the overall corporation. This new ride is great overall, but adding a taller one with the same name at another park just strikes me the wrong way..I would like to see attendance data for all the parks say east of the Mississippi, or even just Cedar Fair parks. Does Carowinds really lag that far behind. Just my 2cents.

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To hit on a couple points real quick. The B&M train renderings are correct. It's a newer design that is currently in use at Kings Island as well.

The "gravity driven" phrase used by KD is to distinguish it from the 400ft+ launch coaster at Great Adventure in NJ. It's all marketing.

Now, the Carowinds coaster will have over 200ft of extra track. KD track length = 5100ft, Carowinds track length = 5316.

The 2 coasters (Carowinds & KD) will offer a completely different ride from each other so just because one in 73ft taller than the other doesn't make it the better ride, just the taller ride. It will have lots of ground hugging turns and quick directional changes. Word has it that the train will have over the shoulder harnesses which are most uncomfortable.

The Carowinds ride will be tall speed hills with lots of airtime. The open car trains will have minimal restraints so as to add to the excitement. Both rides will be fantastic I am sure but I wouldn't go as far as saying one will be better than the other. That will be the opinion of the riders that have ridden them both.

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To hit on a couple points real quick. The B&M train renderings are correct. It's a newer design that is currently in use at Kings Island as well.

The "gravity driven" phrase used by KD is to distinguish it from the 400ft+ launch coaster at Great Adventure in NJ. It's all marketing.

Now, the Carowinds coaster will have over 200ft of extra track. KD track length = 5100ft, Carowinds track length = 5316.

The 2 coasters (Carowinds & KD) will offer a completely different ride from each other so just because one in 73ft taller than the other doesn't make it the better ride, just the taller ride. It will have lots of ground hugging turns and quick directional changes. Word has it that the train will have over the shoulder harnesses which are most uncomfortable.

The Carowinds ride will be tall speed hills with lots of airtime. The open car trains will have minimal restraints so as to add to the excitement. Both rides will be fantastic I am sure but I wouldn't go as far as saying one will be better than the other. That will be the opinion of the riders that have ridden them both.

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Agreed. I think the management of Carowinds and Cedar Fair should really be ashamed of themselves. The Charlotte area is Dale Earnhardt's true home and where he grew up...and to give the same name and style to a BETTER, TALLER, FASTER coaster at Kings Dominion I consider to be a slap in the face to Charlotte.
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I disagree. I wouldn't say the Kings Dominion one will be better just because it's first drop is taller and faster than Carowinds. It's all subjective and until they open, you can't really make an opinion based on a virtual animation. However, I can assure you, having been on this style of coaster (same manufacturer) before at other parks, that this ride will be awesome. Besides, Carowinds got the original Intimidator name without any numbers and Kings Dominion got Intimidator 305. I think that and the $23 million price tag (Kings Dominion's was only $2 million more) says a lot... we did not get the shaft on this one at all.
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It is smart to coincide this with the opening of the Nascar Hall of Fame next summer. There will be lots of places to go visit in the area for the Nascar-related tourists that hopefully will exist in large numbers again after the recession.

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^Yes, it was a very smart idea. Now, I wonder if the two will work together to provide a shuttle to each attraction. Back in the early 2000's (maybe late 90's), Carowinds had an uptown shuttle bus. I would sometimes meet a friend at the park who lived near uptown and he took that shuttle quite a bit. It only lasted for several years, probably due to lack of ridership but that may be different next year.

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