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Most Promising Manufacturers for the Future

Forgot about Intamin and a couple othera, but I stuck with the general thought of those that only make wooden coasters. While prefabs are nice and smooth (supposedly, never been on one), I just have a feeling they wont give me the same kind of ride as Voyage (almost lost my shirt the one ride lol) or Beast (ouch, but a good ouch). Is Mitch Hawker just a fan pole or does it include those in the business as well, cause Voyage has been ranked number 1 woodie for 5 (possibly 6 now) consecutive years officially.

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As far as Intamin dying out is concerned, I highly doubt it. Their rides are being labelled as troubled with mechanical problems and malfunctions and force problems and brake fins turning into cheese nachos at random and whatnot, but when you look at the "unreliable" rides, you see that these rides are either humongously big and/or exposed to huge forces (I305, TTD, Formula Rossa) or prototypes of new concepts (the ZacSpins, Furius Baco, Pilgrim's Plunge)*. But also remember that Intamin have their tried and true concepts, such as the Pre-Fab woodies, the Mega-Lites and the Inverts, which - as far as I've heard - haven't had many issues and existing models could be customized without taking huge risks. They have something to fall back on after all, and the Zac-Spins and Halfpipes are popular among small parks. Us enthusiasts tend to look at the big and shiny stuff, and scream whenever something happens to it, but we forget the "forgettable".

*I'll admit that Maverick is an exception...
 
gavin said:
That, a blatant mistake, which was then followed by everyone proceeding to compare Blue Fire to B&M inverts, which is just **** ing stupid.
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Nooo.. The first "inverted" might have been a typo but the second clearly isn't:
STC said:
I'd say Mack. It seems to have taken them a while, but they've absolutely perfected the sit-down inverted coaster with Blue Fire. High throughput, beautiful, launched, lapbars and smooth. If they can apply the same formula to other types of coaster, I can see them easily becoming the world's top manufacturer. Who wouldn't love to see a Mack invert take on some of the more forceless B&M inverts of recently?!
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And why bother anyway? I think it's perfectly legit to compare the intensity between different ride types. A good B&M looper (eg Dragon Khan) is equally forceful as an inverted one (eg Katun). So why not assume that if Mack ever produce an invert/SLC type of ride that the intensity would be farily similar to the one experinced on Blue Fire?

Intricks said:
Is Mitch Hawker just a fan pole or does it include those in the business as well, cause Voyage has been ranked number 1 woodie for 5 (possibly 6 now) consecutive years officially.
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If you're referring to the Golden Ticket Awards then it's a poll for a limited number of enthusiasts (and rarely includes non-american coasters) while the Mitch Hawker poll is open for all enthusiasts who want to and is widely considered to be a far mor just ranking. I do want to ride Voyage as well though, it's really high on my wish list! But if you haven't been on a prefab you have to go :wink: The airtime is insane and the overall ride experience superb!
 
Thats what I hear, but the airtime of Voyage is **** phenomenal. When the Timberliners are put on it, they say overall quality of ride increases due to the cars having the streerable wheels.

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Gerstlauer sure seem to be building allot of new coasters lately with a nice few additions this year with Takabisha and introducing lap-bars on to Dare Devil Dive. I sure hope both of them are allot better than Saw anyways!

I'm really interested to see what Mack produce with their Mega coaster or whatever they call them with Etnaland and Sea World getting one next year and the new spinners look pretty decent too.

B&M and Intamin will still be on top... and hopefully S+S sort out their launch coasters or that could lead to some trouble for them.
 
Gerstlauer has been seeing a happy boom in business with the Eurofighter. I'd expect to continue seeing more of these coasters around, as they are cheap, have a small footprint, and offer the same features of larger coasters. (beyond vertical drop, tight inversions, etc.)

The hydraulic launch seems to be dying off, being replaced by the simpler, more reliable LSM launch. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the LSM design is also capable of recapturing energy (I believe?), which could be a good marketing gimmick for amusement parks wanting to go green.
 
^If the LSMs are also used to stop the trains then I'd imagine some sort of energy capure would be possibly. It's an interesting idea, I wonder how many (if any) coasters use it and if not, how soon will it be before we see one?
 
^ The "first" one is currently under construction in Germany (Freischütz). The only real difference between that and other LSM coasters is that it uses LSM units for the brakes instead of metal plates. My guess is that we might see more LSM units as brakes for other coasters with magnetic brakes, I mean why not let all coasters recover energy when they return to the station...
Not sure if the Intamin Reverse Freefalls use it as well, since they also uses the LSM to brake the car...
 
Rocky Mountain Coasters. They yet to build their own coaster from the ground up, just refurb projects as of now, but I know from my experience on Texas Giant I will virtually plan an entire trip around one of their products now. Once the word fully gets out on how epic that ride is, well, they should be pretty busy for years.

Other than them, I think Mack might make a surge, but if I had to put my money on one company to just explode, its RMC.
 
I feel like there is one roller coaster out there that is using LSMs as a brake system to recapture energy. Also coincidentally not linked to Toyota's recent marketing push of "saying" they applied Prius technology. :roll:
 
I'm thinking Gravity Group are on to a winner with their Timberliners. They've iterated and improved the wooden coaster idea so that whole new experiences can be had, and into parks that considered wooden coasters too big to put in. Granted, I've yet to ride one, so they might be absolute bollocks.
 
They arent. Evem their smallest one they have (Ravine Flyer II) is amazing. The amount of airtime you get on that is astounding. Pus, instead of being pushed into the seat during the 90* banked turn as you do on Voyage, you get this weird floating feeling while never leaving your seat.
 
B&M are an interesting one. From a business perspective, I can't see them going anywhere soon. They build high quality, high capacity rides that consistently please both the parks and the general public. You rarely hear about a bad B&M.

That said, from an enthusiast perspective, I'm not sure I regard B&M as "one to watch" any more. They're capable of building good rides, but from what I hear and what I've experienced, they rarely seem to build anything really great these days. They're more than capable of building something really impressive, so hopefully they will pull something incredible out of the bag sooner or later, but right now the game is theirs to lose.

Intamin are a funny one. Their rides can vary from "mind blowingly awesome" to "ouch" to "meh". The Intamin gems really are amazing though, so I'd never count them out.

Most other steel coaster manufacturers seem to be let down either in the comfort, reliability or thrill stakes. I've yet to ride a really good GCI woodie, and don't think I've ridden a Gravity Group woodie yet, but if their latest creations are as great as they look, they're probably the ones to watch, at least in the immediate future. Now if one of them can build something as awesome as Boulder Dash in the UK in the next few years, that would be much appreciated. Ktnxbye.
 
Im going with CGI, Maurer Söhne, Gerstlauer, and if they produce another awesome coaster, then Mack. I think B&M has seen its heyday and this wingwalker is going to be a short lived novelty. I think people are also getting sick of the garbage Intamin has cranked out recently (especially in terms of downtime) But i can see them doing some nice launched inverted rides, reinventing standups, or possibly crank out an improved ZacSpin. I also find their LIM/LSM rides to be impressive, especially Wicked and Maverick. and S&S Power should just give up allready.

I can see Vekoma coming out with a nice 4D ride or using their new wheels on the outer rail procedure to make some better SLC's in the near future (like the Cylon ride in Singapore).

So I'm going to go with Vekoma.
 
I can't see B+M dying out, especially as they've got a great reputation in virtually every aspect, and I can see their wingriders becoming very popular.

S+S power are an interesting one though, I can see them doing really well as long as all the coasters they make aren't clones!

If Intamin don't work on the reliability of their rides then I can't see them doing particularly well.

For woodies-I think GCI are going to make some great rides since they are very popular at the moment...

I can see Vekoma going bust again if they don't make a new concept since the booster bike's are outdated and only one junior boomerang has ever been built.

Finally, I can see Gerstlauer carrying on getting business from their Eurofighters.
 
^^Wicked is Zierer dude, not Intamin. Second, B&M is going to be around for a while cause they produce top quality with virtual no downtime. 3rd, Intamin isnt producing much good nowadays. They miscalculate everything and with Skyrush, have stolen a train idea (from b&m no less it looks like), modded it and called it something new. Their zac spins would only get a somewhat bigger layout and that would be it for those (a cheap novelty). Intamin may have all these types of rides out there, but only the Blitz, Mega-lites and hypers are their most popular with the rest having only 1-5 made.

^2 junior boomerangs have been built. Ben 10 and then a red one that is just plopped on some land. Same layout and everything. Vekoma has a promising future considering their Big Air has finally been made, plus their Stingray coaster is a unique coaster experience as it does what a flying dutchman does, but in a much more smaller footprint.

Adding to this, I still feel that Intamin is on a downward spiral if they dont get their calcutations done properly. Im sick of them producing a flawed ride that has to be either trimmed or fixed. Downtime is bad as well and needs solved as well.

Gerstlaurer I can see becomming a much wanted company in a park within the next 3-5 years. Same with Mack, Premier and Zierer. These companies have promising rides coming out in the future that could give most others a run for their money easily.

Switching between the hideouts'...
 
I don't see Intamin or B&M dieing out anytime soon because their coasters are so popular.

I wouldn't mind seeing more S&S air powered launch coasters in the future.
 
Most new B&M rides are bs. Im goin with Intamin, S&S, Vekoma, Gerstlauer, Mack, and my #1 pick, Rocky Mountain Coasters, I think they're onto something by upgrading woodies.

I'd love to see more Intamin Blitz coasters like Maverick.
 
What about Giovanola? Haven't they been quiet since 2008? I hope to see new prototypes from them. As for B&M, I believe they have one more coaster type up their sleeves, but won't release it for a bit. Wingriders will be taking over most parks around the world like flyers and dive machines.
 
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