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SFMM | West Coast Racers | Premier Quad Launch Möbius Sky Rocket

John Knotts said:
^ Well...Nothing lasts forever, so we can only hope that sometime in the next 5 years the chain sees a major shift in leadership. Someone who recognizes that SFMM was once pace for pace, right up there with Cedar Point, and needs to be there again. But who makes smart choices, not just big rides for the sake of big rides. Untill then, at least SFMM will have diversified it's offerings with a few flats and rides for the entire family.
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I think they can simply forget about matching Cedar Point any time soon. They were neck-and-neck in 2006 or so. Since then, Cedar Point has built Maverick (Great big multi-launcher), Gatekeeper (Great big Wing Coaster), Valravn (Great big Dive Machine), and had a massive RMC conversion of an existing ride. SFMM, meanwhile, has built Apocalypse (medium-sized woodie), Green Lantern (Big-ish gimmick spinner), Full Throttle (Big-ish gimmick launcher), two kiddie coasters and a big-ish RMC conversion of an existing ride. Cedar Point has built more of those massive rides that will draw guests in over the coming decades, where SFMM is relying on its existing line-up to do the same for the foreseeable future.

SFMM's problem isn't competition with Cedar Point, they're too far apart to compete for the same market. It's managing to maintain the current scale of its lineup. Small coasters are being built while the big coasters get older. One day, the big coasters will be too old, and those days will come in much quicker succession than Six Flags can afford to replace them. If SFMM wants to have a comparable lineup in 2030 to the one it had in 2010, the coasters built in the 2020's need to match the scale of those built in 2000's. And since they can't afford a construction boom like they had in the 2000's, they have to spread the replacements out over a longer period of time - i.e. they should have started already.
 
Pokemaniac said:
I think they can simply forget about matching Cedar Point any time soon. They were neck-and-neck in 2006 or so. Since then, Cedar Point has built Maverick (Great big multi-launcher), Gatekeeper (Great big Wing Coaster), Valravn (Great big Dive Machine), and had a massive RMC conversion of an existing ride. SFMM, meanwhile, has built Apocalypse (medium-sized woodie), Green Lantern (Big-ish gimmick spinner), Full Throttle (Big-ish gimmick launcher), two kiddie coasters and a big-ish RMC conversion of an existing ride. Cedar Point has built more of those massive rides that will draw guests in over the coming decades, where SFMM is relying on its existing line-up to do the same for the foreseeable future.

SFMM's problem isn't competition with Cedar Point, they're too far apart to compete for the same market. It's managing to maintain the current scale of its lineup. Small coasters are being built while the big coasters get older. One day, the big coasters will be too old, and those days will come in much quicker succession than Six Flags can afford to replace them. If SFMM wants to have a comparable lineup in 2030 to the one it had in 2010, the coasters built in the 2020's need to match the scale of those built in 2000's. And since they can't afford a construction boom like they had in the 2000's, they have to spread the replacements out over a longer period of time - i.e. they should have started already.
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It's not about matching Cedar Point though. It's about building big, long rides again (like CP still can). Right now they cannot afford to do so, so I'm not sure what you want them to do. When those big rides get old, they're going to be replaced by cheap, short rides that break one record they can market the **** out of. You've already seen that with Full Throttle. That's the future unless the leadership changes hands.
 
Sorry for the no-news bump, but I think I've finally figured out what bugged me the most about West Coast Racer: The inversions.

It is not a very impressive coaster stat-wise. Top speed of 90-ish km/h, a little over a kilometer of track, ride time of a couple minutes, racing for added fun, it's bigger than the kiddie rides at the park, but smaller than the headliners, and all in all a good stepping stone to the big coa-

...oh, hold on, that's Gemini at Cedar Point. West Coast Racers does mostly the same, but with four inversions. That places it firmly outside of stepping stone territory, as the mere presence of an inversion makes any coaster more daunting for new riders. RCDB has it classified in the Extreme category, whereas Gemini is Thrill. West Coast racers is clearly meant to be in the "big league", a job at which it fails spectacularly, as per the reactions in this thread. It doesn't have the raw size of Scream, Goliath or Riddler, not the white-knuckle factor of X2 or Tatsu, or even the speed of Full Throttle or Superman. Whether or not it has the forcefulness of Twisted Colossus remains to be seen, but at best it's redundant with that coaster.

As far as its stats go, it is more in line with Cedar Point's Gemini, or possibly Verbolten at BGW. Those that are smaller than the big thrill machines at its park, but definitely not kiddie rides. They're the ones you take the kids on when they're big enough to ride the big coasters, but still scared of going upside down. Essentially high-caliber family rides, but no teen would be ashamed of being seen on them either. They go fast (but not too fast), they have some of the markings of high-intensity coasters, but no sheer drops, nor do they throw you heels-over-head.

Except West Coast Racers does. The inversions put it outside the category of stepping stone, in which it could have excelled, and into the Extreme category where it doesn't impress. It seems too small to stand out among the powerhouses of Magic Mountain, yet too "scary" to be a treat for the families. It falls between chairs in a slightly awkward way. As such, it doesn't fill a niche, it doesn't do more than what other coasters at the park do better, and it fails to do the job it could have been really good at. I think it would have been much better received if it hadn't tried to pass off as a white-knuckle ride.
 
The park doesn't even advertise it as a family coaster, so I'm not sure where that idea came from. On the park's own website it's listed under "extreme" thrill. It's a thrill coaster, just like Twisted Colossus...just like Full Throttle.

A ride doesn't have to be large to be thrilling...so this is more on par with a small-ish RMC, or Maverick, although certainly not as impressive because...Intamin. Even Premier's own spaghetti launchers only launch 0-60 mph with 4 inversions.

Now, whether WCR succeeds as a thrill coaster will certainly be up for debate. But it's still a thrill ride through and through.
 
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EpochEmu said:
Wow! Did you know it was the world's first racing launch coaster?
https://www.travelandleisure.com/at...ks/six-flags-magic-mountain-west-coast-racers
Don't worry... these guys say "Some coasters drop further than 90 degrees, curving inward at the top of the lift hill, like on Valravn in Cedar Point." (https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/amusement-parks/roller-coaster-physics)
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Uuhhh nooo i didn't. Battlestar Galactica is also a dueling (racing) launched coaster...?
 
EpochEmu said:
I know that. I was joking about the fake news.
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I wasn't having a go at you, I was just confirming Skip's point. :p

Racing/duelling is one at the same in many ways. Chiller and this have about the same levels of variation per side, as far as I'm concerned.
 
I've heard rumours from multiple sources that the reason for the coaster's delay is due to some design issues that needed to be addressed, delaying the project.

Here is a recent construction update by Theme Park Obsession to give this post more of a purpose:-
Also, has there been any confirmation bad to if this will have vests or not, since the concept art and animation show different restraints?
 
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CrashCoaster said:
I've heard rumours from multiple sources that the reason for the coaster's delay is due to some design issues that needed to be addressed, delaying the project.
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Where's the source for that?

I wonder if they realised the ride is a bit naff, and so are just redesigning it to sort that out...?
 
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