Drachen Fire

[andrus]

Hey everybody!

I've heared of Drachen Fire before but never known exactly what it was until I stumbled upon a video of it on youtube and thought it looked really cool! Here's a couple of pictures for you who don't know what it is:

My questions are:

The coaster looks good with som funky elements (like the one in the second picture) but how did it ride? Was it as good as it looks or was it the usual rough Arrow experience?

Why was it closed after only 6 seasons of operation? Techincal problems maybe?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Venom2053]

Never rode it, but it had a reputation of being quite rough.

I think the main problem with the coaster was that B&M was hired to design it but then sold the project to Arrow as they couldn't deal with the work load of designing Kumba at Busch Gardens Tampa , Batman at SFGA, and Vortex at Carowinds, at the same time. Arrow attempted to use B&M's existing layout for the ride, which turned into a disaster. The 6th inversion (a "diving corkscrew") was removed in 1994. It was also Arrow's first time trying to design interlocking corkscrews and a cobra roll.

To sum it up Arrow tried to use B&M's layout and it didn't work to well and just lead to a rough coaster that was not what Busch Gardens ordered. It opened in 1992, closed in 1998 and was removed in 2002.

 

[CoasterCrazy]

Does this help? Just to sum things up...

History:

Originally built with 6 inversions. A "diving corkscrew" which immediately followed the brakerun was removed after the 1994 season.

The Drachen Fire was shutdown in July 1998. Initial plans were to modify the roller coaster. It was then decided to sell the roller coaster. No buyer was found and the Drachen Fire was taken down so the steel can be recycled starting in the fall of 2001 completely removed by March of 2002.

 

[Martyn B]

I've heard a lot of good things about that coaster. Thats about it really.

 

[spicy]

I believe it was closed due to being unbearably rough.

Wikipedia explains it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drachen_Fire

 

[Martyn B]

Here's a picture of the corkscrew that was removed (even thought its stamped as 1999):

Here's the post-corkscrew layout:

Looks like it was replaced with a gentle downward slope with a trim.

 

[spicy]

Fun fact: The cutback that featured on Drachen Fire was the first in the world. The only other coaster to feature the same inversion is Space Mountain at DLP.

 

[Venom2053]

Another fun fact:
Drachen Fire and Dragon Fire from Canada's Wonderland are the only Arrow coasters to have a counter-clockwise turning corkscrew.

 

[gavin]

^Crazy Coaster at Nanhu also has them.

It was designed and started by Arrow, but Vekoma took over and finished the job when Arrow went bust.

 

[Snoo]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R187nxbsjA[/youtube]

Pre-Cork removal POV. You can just FEEL the roughness as it goes around.

 

[furie]

Here's a picture of the corkscrew that was removed (even thought its stamped as 1999):

Nobody ever looked at that and thought "that's a really well designed element" :lol:

 

[Jake]

To be honest, I think this coaster is only highly regarded because it got spited ages ago, and the few who did get chance to ride it bang on about it because it's such an exclusive cred. If it still existed now, everyone would think it was disgusting like most other large arrow loopers...

Granted, the first 'drop' was quite unique, but take that away and it's just a gross arrow.

 

[MouseAT]

To be honest, I think this coaster is only highly regarded because it got spited ages ago.

I think that's definitely a part of it, but there's also the fact that on paper it has what should be a very solid, B&M-style layout. Looking at the PoVs, I definitely think "ouch!", but I also think that if B&M had actually built a ride with that layout, it would have been nothing short of amazing.

I look at it and see real potential. Then Arrow got their hands on the project and well... lets just say that thing was clearly closed for a reason.

 

[Josh73]

I would like to see if B&M could pull that layout off though.

 

[MouseAT]

Point taken. I don't know the full details of how much involvement each party (B&M, Arrow and Busch Gardens) had into this. That said, there does seem to be a fair bit of resemblance between Drachen Fire and many of B&Ms designs (although whether they came before or after I couldn't say - I don't know my US ride history all that well).

Whether the park had some initial ideas from discussions with B&M, or whether Arrow decided to look to other existing B&M rides when designing, or even whether it's just complete fluke, it certainly looks to me like there was some B&M influence in the design of Drachen Fire. I certainly don't remember any of their other coasters before or since that had a layout anything like this one. In any case, I stand by my core point - had that layout been built by a more competent manufacturer, it could have been great.

 

[Venom2053]

Whether the park had some initial ideas from discussions with B&M, or whether Arrow decided to look to other existing B&M rides when designing, or even whether it's just complete fluke, it certainly looks to me like there was some B&M influence in the design of Drachen Fire.

They whole layout was pitched with B&M in mind for the designer. They wanted B&M to make a drop with a curve that went into a loop that went around the lift hill. This idea would eventually make it's way onto Kumba.

Arrow couldn't get it to work for some reason and replaced it with the strange diving corkscrew and drop.

 

[MouseAT]

Yeah, and I think that's the important thing to notice - you haven't seen anything before or since, because it was essentially a failed experiment.

A failed experiment for Arrow, yes. We've seen similar ideas from B&M since, which in turn raises a really interesting thought...

This wasn't Arrow copying B&M - remember, B&M had yet to build anything but Stand-Ups, and they were working on an Invert, when Drachen Fire was built. Kumba was still a year away.

That's something I'd neglected completely in terms of timing and the sorts of rides that B&M were building at the time.

So let's turn the question on its head and consider an idea I'd never thought of until now - what if it was the other way around? If this was very much an Arrow driven project, did B&Ms designers draw ideas and inspiration from what Arrow did with Drachen Fire? They could have done so either knowingly ("that ride had some really cool, unique ideas - we can incorporate some of them and do it properly") or even without realising it (just having the layout for Drachen Fire in the back of their minds when trying to come up with new ideas). Maybe Busch Gardens Tampa liked some of the ideas used on Drachen Fire, and wanted something similar from B&M when they commissioned Kumba.

Do the likes of Kumba and Dragon Khan owe a part of their greatness to what Arrow did with Drachen Fire?

 

[XYZ]

Fun fact: The cutback that featured on Drachen Fire was the first in the world. The only other coaster to feature the same inversion is Space Mountain at DLP.

Sky Rocket at Kennywood has a cutback, only coaster operating with a cutback in North America.

 

[Ben]

^Um, did you read what you quoted?

 

[Antinos]

Sky Rocket's is actually an overbanked turn. It doesn't quite get to what I(Read: and many other people as well) consider an inversion; 135 degrees.