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What are your theories/thoughts on Alton Towers' SW8?

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TLARides

Hyper Poster
There's been a lot of talk about the SW8 coaster Alton Towers is opening in their 2018 season. People have said it could be a GCI woodie, which seems unlikely because one of the blueprint photos showed what appeared to be a heartline/360 roll. I don't recall ever seeing a GCI coaster do an inversion of any kind, so it's more likely an RMC Hybrid (there could, or could not be topper track).
There's also the thought of it having a magnetic lift hill, much like Lightning Rod at Dollywood. This seems more likely since the park has several restrictions on it. Such as, no coaster can be seen over the treeline and the coaster lift hills must be somewhat quiet.
Someone told me they might be doing what they did on Smiler. Where they spray painted the ride logo on sheep in the surrounding area and projected the ride logo on Big Ben in London. All the SW rides at ATR are some large and exciting ride. What's funny is that there was no SW1 or SW2. They both were going to be Arrow Pipeline coasters (thank God that didn't happen) when the park decided it wasn't what they wanted and went to B&M to build Nemesis, which was SW3 I believe. But that's not what we're here to talk about.
I've heard some things about the ride having a 50-130 second preshow for 50 guests. As well as themed tunnels on the first drop, and other assorted sections of the ride. I'm not sure how that'd turn out. Why theme a tunnel when you're just going to fly right through it at speeds of God knows how fast.
The SW branding at ATR isn't something each of their coasters get. Rita and Spinball were never labeled with SW when they were being made. Just Nemesis, Oblivion, Air (now Galactica), Thirteen, and Smiler. Those were all big, fancy coasters that have a lot of theming around them. This one seems to be pirate themed. Which makes sense because it took the place of the old log flume ride that stood in that spot. But with a park that has a lot of height, sound level and a lot of other restrictions labeled on it, I hardly see it being a record breaker.
Sountunnel.jpg
Full plans for the ride. (Source: TowersStreet)
 

davidm

Strata Poster
Hi - theres (unsurprisingly) already quite a lot of discussion about SW8 on the forums (link below), perhaps you could have a look there and join in that rather than starting a new thread.

Alton Towers - SW8
 

Hixee

Flojector
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Administrator
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Agreed, let's try to keep all of the SW8 discussion in one place.
 
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