TPoseOnTantrum
Giga Poster
VERY big crane sighted moving across the Causeway... spike construction happening soon?
I love how they had every opportunity to make it 500+ and get the record and instead they just made it 420....LmaoTOP THRILL 2 will have a 420 ft spike!
Exactly what it says. Its a switch moving back and forth. Which i assume will be the switch between the station and the launch track.As the video is blocked, could someone who saw it explain and give an assessment of what it implies? I personally find it very hard to believe they are not taking the height record with that spike. Makes absolutely no sense to me.
ElToroRyan included some of the footage in his video on the leak. You can see the switch track in action at 1:18:As the video is blocked, could someone who saw it explain and give an assessment of what it implies? I personally find it very hard to believe they are not taking the height record with that spike. Makes absolutely no sense to me.
Regardless of the final spike height - 400+ ft is (honestly) more than I thought we’d end up with, and would still be an impressive feat.
I'm a firm believer that, with a record like that, you really only need that first year of marketing to create a long term buzz. Qiddiya isn't opening until late 2024 at the earliest, so CP would have had a decent chunk of 2023 and the entire 2024 season to market that they have the tallest in the world. The general public would have continued to think it's the tallest for years to come, and CP would still have been able to brag that they have the tallest in the US/North America/Western Hemisphere/whatever. I worked on Millennium Force in the mid-2000s and had people come up to me on numerous occasions and say something along the lines of, “this is the tallest in the world, right?” even though TTD was literally right behind them (and also not the tallest). You only need a short amount of exposure for a major record of that nature for it to be burned into the brains of the average park goer.What's the point in going for the height record anyway?. It's only a matter of months before falcon tops off and you can guarantee as soon as that happens the Saudis will push it like mad. And it will be all over the news everywhere in the world. Regardless if it's open or not.
Whatever hype they would have got for TTD2 will be obliterated before it even opens.
I remember MF being announced only to be trumped just weeks later by Nagashima. MF only held the record for a couple of months.
Perhaps once bitten twice shy.
I suspect while that was true in 2000 I very much doubt it will be true now. Back in 2000 when MF opened there was no social media, no meme culture, no influencers and very little 24/7 news coverage that needs filler content to get through the day. No one outside the USA beyond goon culture really knew about MF.I'm a firm believer that, with a record like that, you really only need that first year of marketing to create a long term buzz. Qiddiya isn't opening until late 2024 at the earliest, so CP would have had a decent chunk of 2023 and the entire 2024 season to market that they have the tallest in the world. The general public would have continued to think it's the tallest for years to come, and CP would still have been able to brag that they have the tallest in the US/North America/Western Hemisphere/whatever. I worked on Millennium Force in the mid-2000s and had people come up to me on numerous occasions and say something along the lines of, “this is the tallest in the world, right?” even though TTD was literally right behind them (and also not the tallest). You only need a short amount of exposure for a major record of that nature for it to be burned into the brains of the average park goer.
In all likelihood, they won't actually need to use the old unload turn if the 3-train operation from the leaked website is to be believed. The station canopy can still service two trains for loading/unloading (and the leaked train specs are roughly the same theoretic length of the old trains), with another train running the cycle. So if anything, that might just be catwalk for the final brake run, nothing more.
From a marketing perspective, 420 ft is amazing. Ohio is one of the next states likely to get recreational cannabis legalizedFrom a marketing perspective, going for a 420 ft spike just makes as little sense to me as spoiling those news one day before the big announcement. So either this is an odd choice for getting some extra publicity (and they will actually announce to crack the 456 ft tomorrow) or it's... well just very consistently screwed up. Anyway, we'll find out tomorrow.