I guess this way they can re-use most of the old footers so they don't have to pay for much new groundwork. Also there seems to be 4 areas in which they are using old Gwazi wood (first inversion, hill after that, wave turn (or whatever you call it) and then the last third of the ride), so that'll save some cost as well.
Certainly when the ride opens it'll be quite strange seeing lots of the brighter new wood with bits of older darker wood here and there.
Agreed with his point. And to be fair, the IBox track is very expensive, which is why most of the ground up RMCs are Topper Track, which is cheaper. Zadra being the first RMC IBox from the groundup, and at 200+ feet, is probably from that EU money.
For reference:
• Iron Rattler, NTG, and Outlaw Run were all around 10 million USD. And that was in 2011/2013
• Wicked Cyclone and Storm Chaser were both 10 million in 2015/2016
• Wildfire was 12 million in 2016
• Lighting Rod was 22 million in 2016, although that was also because of launch system and terrain
Those were both Topper Track, which is cheaper
Now the new one:
• Hakugei was about 25.5 million USD, and that's in 2019!
So it's comparable to B&M Prices, if not more! For reference:
• Fēnix was 14.5 million USD in 2018 and Fury 325 was 30 million in 2015
B&M has the advantage of years of rock solid name brand as well as excellent reliability and superior capacity.
I think now that
RMC has had some years to prove the technology, and is delivering some of the best coasters worldwide, with excellent maintenance,
parks are starting to see them as similar to investing in a B&M.
I hope we will see more ground up RMC's in the future, but man, I can't imagine what Zadra costs!
I think that's also why only the Raptor track and not the T-Rex track is out, it's just so expensive to manufacture the track. But you get the smoothest track in the industry!