Kumba v. Wildfire

[BBH]

Kumba was one of the first B&M coasters built and is often considered to be one of the best ever created. Located at Busch Gardens Tampa on the Floridian peninsula, the ride, whose name means "roar" in the Swahili language of Africa, is renowned for being intense, action-packed, and packed to the brim with nonstop thrills from lift to brake run.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzGxsjuq1JM[/youtube]

Wildfire, a B&M sitter at Silver Dollar City in Southern Missouri, features a slightly remodeled train design and a terrain-hugging layout that allows for a 155-foot drop with a 125-foot lift hill. The maneuvers are smooth, the first drop is fantastic in the back seat, and the low-to-the-ground curves and helices are high in positive G-forces. The ride is also fantastically themed to the story of Dr. Horatio Harris, a scientist from the 1880's.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MceVwWm8Opg[/youtube]

So which B&M sitter reigns supreme? Is it Kumba, the first of its kind in America, which roars through the topography at Busch Gardens Tampa with seven intense inversions, or Wildfire, which features a revamped train design and a layout that features 5 inversions that take full advantage of the surrounding Ozark terrain?

 

[Youngster Joey]

Wildfire easily. Better layout, location, trains, so much smoother.

 

[ECG]

I really like Wildfire for all the reason YJ posted, but I have to go with Kumba on this one. It's just much more intense and definitely isn't rough by any means.

 

[insanecoastervids]

Have to go with Kumba as well the classic

 

[Hyde]

It's important to emphasize that Wildfire in all actuality is a floorless roller coaster. The ride seats are mounted high enough for riders to not touch the floor.

Kumba is longer. Kuma is faster. Kumba has more inversions. Wildfire is a top 25 roller coaster, but Kumba is even more so.

 

[BBH]

It's important to emphasize that Wildfire in all actuality is a floorless roller coaster. The ride seats are mounted high enough for riders to not touch the floor.

Kumba is longer. Kuma is faster. Kumba has more inversions. Wildfire is a top 25 roller coaster, but Kumba is even more so.

b - But it still has a floor, now doesn't it? It's a sitting coaster. If they wanted a floorless coaster, they simply could have ordered a floorless coaster with the seat modifications.

i - Statistics mean nothing in terms of the overall ride experience. I haven't ridden Kumba and couldn't tell you if the height, speed, and inversion count make any difference, but 90% of the time they don't. See: Kingda Ka v. TTD.

 

[Hyde]

^

b - But it still has a floor, now doesn't it? It's a sitting coaster. If they wanted a floorless coaster, they simply could have ordered a floorless coaster with the seat modifications.

Hence my use of the word "actuality." Of course it is a floored roller coaster. But the ride experience is far closer to that of a floorless.

i - Statistics mean nothing in terms of the overall ride experience. I haven't ridden Kumba and couldn't tell you if the height, speed, and inversion count make any difference, but 90% of the time they don't. See: Kingda Ka v. TTD.

What I was meaning to imply was the force of inversions for Kumba.

 

[Mike]

For me, Kumba blows Wildfire out the water.

Granted, it was incredibly hot when I went to SDC and I was a bit weary from the heat, but I found Wildfire to be incredibly mediocre and a bit uneventful. Apart from the views it gave, it was an unmemorable and fairly meh ride, and I refused to ride it for a second time.

Kumba, on the other hand, is a fantastic coaster. It's forceful and intense all the way round, yet where other forceful rides have made me feel nauseous in the past, Kumba just blew me away and made me want to ride again and again. Definitely one of the best coasters on the planet, and a benchmark to which all other B&M sit downs (and floorlesses) should aspire to.

 

[Snoo]

^That but I liked WF a bit more then that. Of course, it was a wonderful day when we went and that high coming from Outlaw helped. Of course, I thought it was good a few years ago as well, one of the better B&M machines out there.. on top of being photogenic as hell.

 

[Edward M]

I love old Wildfire, I rode it about 8 times during my visit, but, man, Kumba is just amazing. It is the most intense coaster I've ridden (behind perhaps I305) and certainly my favorite. I rode it about 6 times so it certainly wasn't just a good ride (perhaps a good day). Really, just about every part I love. There is nothing I would add or subtract to it. It's a ride that can bring a smile to my face just thinking about it.

 

[ava1enzue1a]

Kumba just blew me away and made me want to ride again and again. Definitely one of the best coasters on the planet, and a benchmark to which all other B&M sit downs (and floorlesses) should aspire to.

It seems this is what Medusa/Bizarro did @ SFGA (as well as the mirrored clone, Scream! @ SFMM). The layouts between those and Kumba are quite similar; yeah not exact clones to it but still very similar. With that said I wonder if any Kumba fans also admire Bizarro and Scream! for similar reasons..?

 

[Hobbes]

^I'm a fan of Kumba (it sits at my 4 spot), I absolutely love it for its intensity. While Bizarro is definitely very similar to Kumba in terms of its layout, I found it to have less intense forces. It's certainly still a good ride and I definitely enjoyed it, but it lacked Kumba's high intensity, which is one of the main reasons I love Kumba so much. Bizarro is a fun ride, but Kumba stands far above it in my opinion

 

[bmac]

Kumba just blew me away and made me want to ride again and again. Definitely one of the best coasters on the planet, and a benchmark to which all other B&M sit downs (and floorlesses) should aspire to.

It seems this is what Medusa/Bizarro did @ SFGA (as well as the mirrored clone, Scream! @ SFMM). The layouts between those and Kumba are quite similar; yeah not exact clones to it but still very similar. With that said I wonder if any Kumba fans also admire Bizarro and Scream! for similar reasons..?

I like Bizarro but it's nowhere near as high on my list as Kumba is. Bizarro is more graceful with it's approach whereas Kumba just flat out does not give a ****.

 

[ava1enzue1a]

I like Bizarro but it's nowhere near as high on my list as Kumba is. Bizarro is more graceful with it's approach whereas Kumba just flat out does not give a ****.

I see. Good way of putting it.

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

Wildfire was more of the complete package for me. Obviously if it didn't have that amazing setting then it would probably not be too much better than average, but the location and the ride combined made it a more enjoyable experience than Kumba. To be fair, I did have to piss like a racehorse when I rode Kumba which kind of detracted from the experience, but it was still an above average coaster. Just not something that really jumped out for me, whereas Wildfire did for obvious reasons.