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Thorpe Park | Hyperia | Mack Hyper Coaster | 2024

The view from the car park is even more absurd. Looks like it's been built at the front behind the dome!



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As amazing as that element looks, it seems mental that that's followed by just one hill before jumping up into the brakes, and really shows the length issue for me. Considering that it dwarfs both Colossus and Saw's main lifts (and is shaped in a way to imply that it'll keep a lot of speed over the top), there's so much momentum that'll have to be wasted. I'm still incredibly hyped for it, but this does highlight how strange the rides concept is.
 
As amazing as that element looks, it seems mental that that's followed by just one hill before jumping up into the brakes, and really shows the length issue for me. Considering that it dwarfs both Colossus and Saw's main lifts (and is shaped in a way to imply that it'll keep a lot of speed over the top), there's so much momentum that'll have to be wasted. I'm still incredibly hyped for it, but this does highlight how strange the rides concept is.
It's followed by the outward banked death twist, then the stall/dive loop, before hitting the splashdown and final two airtime moments.
 
You know sometimes I'm in the boat of wanting more on a coaster, but based off how much this ride is going to do in such a short amount of time, and with how aggressive it's going to be for the duration, I'm okay with the length of the circuit on Hyperia.

Kind of makes me think back to Maxx Force where it *looks* like a short ride, and it is, but it's so intense, and so much happens so quickly that once you hit the brakes you finally get to catch your breath, and it feels like a complete ride.

This ride seems to be in that same kind of realm, IMO.
 
(Hypothetically speaking, we don't know yet how hard these trims will hit, or if they'll negatively impact the ride.) You can't blame the park, or the budget, for the design of the coaster. (Or Merlin for that matter, though I expect you will try. ;) 🤣 )

I can try and i will :p

Although with caveats since none of us know the exact process of how Hyperia came to be.

But in my experience its more often the case than not that a coaster company will provide a layout to start with that will change over time as the park company makes changes to cut costs, As one example of many I know a B&M hyper in the US that was originally proposed to have an Ampersand turnaround. But the park company decided to cut that to lower the budget, which then resulted in a trim later in the layout.

I don't think its beyond the realms of possibility that what Mack proposed for Hyperia was originally longer and has been cut down throughout numerous later reviews by Merlin until we got to this stunted runt of a hyper that requires some trims to cut the speed down for the latter sectons.

Having said all that of course this is all spectulation and perhaps Mack did just design it badly enough that it required so many trims from the outset.
So maybe you are correct and perhaps, just perhaps im playing devils advocate for fun.
 
I wouldn’t be surprised if the inclusion of trims on the drop out of the Immelmann was just a safety feature integrated by Mack as a “just in case” measure rather than a massive brake that’s intended to sap loads of speed out on every occasion.

Plenty of rides have trims on that sort of basis. Even in the same park, The Swarm has a small trim on its first drop that’s there as a “just in case” trim. As I mentioned earlier, both of the other existing Mack hypers have trims at multiple points during the layout that don’t seem to grab very notably at all, so perhaps it is just a safety feature that Mack integrates into the ride type?

Do we even know whether those trim brackets ever had trim brakes installed in them?
 
On a side note, some of the recent pictures really do put into perspective just how massive this ride is… during the planning application phase, it was all too easy to compartmentalise and forget that this is a 236ft tall ride, but it really does look absurdly massive next to Saw and Colossus!

And that’s before mentioning that we’re not even at the highest point yet…
 
On a side note, some of the recent pictures really do put into perspective just how massive this ride is… during the planning application phase, it was all too easy to compartmentalise and forget that this is a 236ft tall ride, but it really does look absurdly massive next to Saw and Colossus!

Absolutely! To further dwarf Saw and Colossus I badly overlayed some of Hyperia's initial plans over FistedColossus' recent photo. She'll certainly be a big 'un!

Hyperia Plans Overlay.png
 
It does seem a shame to have that massive trim in the fake splashdown near the end. That's a lot of energy going to waste.

Imagine this.

Hyperia becomes a massive hit and brings in more guests than anticipated. Then, using the extra profit, Thorpe extend the layout over the closed season, adding extra twists and hills a the end, making the ride even longer and bringing another marketing opportunity.

Never gonna happen, but we can dream. 😂
 
it makes sense, they would've mounted the trims to the brackets whilst being up there installing the track piece surely..

It's not unusual for a coaster to have faster running speeds than expected, correct me if I'm wrong? (in response to the bad design convo btw)
 
it makes sense, they would've mounted the trims to the brackets whilst being up there installing the track piece surely..

It's not unusual for a coaster to have faster running speeds than expected, correct me if I'm wrong? (in response to the bad design convo btw)
Looking at you 13, now that was an dreadful blunder
 
So take with a big pinch of salt as im not sure where they got it from, but "Thorpe" seem to have confirmed in a response the brackets have been added as a precaution and trims may be added after testing 🤔

This was from the comment section of the most Hyperia update on Thorpe's Annual Passholder Group on Facebook. I have an annual pass and took this screenshot myself; it's definitely legit.

We can throw that pinch of salt over our left shoulder as it was indeed the real Thorpe Park who replied.

In the meantime, fingers crossed for no trims!

1705621561966.png
 
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this is a 236ft tall ride

So Goliath @ SFMM has a 255 foot drop, into a tunnel, so I'd imagine it's about 236 feet tall when you stand on the ground. And THAT is MASSIVE considering what this ride is actually doing. It's definitely nothing to yawn at, this is going to be quite an intense ride!

it makes sense, they would've mounted the trims to the brackets whilst being up there installing the track piece surely..

It's not unusual for a coaster to have faster running speeds than expected, correct me if I'm wrong? (in response to the bad design convo btw)

Definitely not surely...usually they'll test the ride to see how it's circuiting - first they want to make sure it doesn't valley and makes it all the way through so letting it go as fast as possible is OK initially.

Then through the testing phase if it's going faster than intended, they can install those trim brakes on the brackets at some point down the road before opening the ride. Hell, sometimes they'll even wait until after opening the ride to have the trim brakes installed.

The process is really not all that complicated to install, and it can happen at any point down the road during the life of the coaster. The longest part of the process is probably waiting for the rental company to bring the cherry picker :D
 
I can try and i will :p

Although with caveats since none of us know the exact process of how Hyperia came to be.

But in my experience its more often the case than not that a coaster company will provide a layout to start with that will change over time as the park company makes changes to cut costs, As one example of many I know a B&M hyper in the US that was originally proposed to have an Ampersand turnaround. But the park company decided to cut that to lower the budget, which then resulted in a trim later in the layout.

I don't think its beyond the realms of possibility that what Mack proposed for Hyperia was originally longer and has been cut down throughout numerous later reviews by Merlin until we got to this stunted runt of a hyper that requires some trims to cut the speed down for the latter sectons.

Having said all that of course this is all spectulation and perhaps Mack did just design it badly enough that it required so many trims from the outset.
So maybe you are correct and perhaps, just perhaps im playing devils advocate for fun.
Maybe, maybe not... Though I doubt it... We already know that multiple designs were submitted by multiple manufacturers. Those manufacturers would have been given a brief and budget before submitting.

Also, we're talking about a (potential) trim before the very second element here, not a trim in the second half of the ride, due to the layout being shortened (although we have those too!) I'm going to go out on a limb here and say "no way was an element cut before that..."

Either way though, my point was that, as the manufacturers, ultimately it's their name on the product... If they thought for one minute there was a major problem with the design, they shouldn't have manufactured it. If a ride turned out to be terrible through bad design, or worse, dangerous, an established and experienced manufacturer like Mack couldn't go running around shouting "We knew it was bad, but they made us do it!"

Again, this is purely hypothetical, AFAWK there isn't a 'major' problem with the design...

it makes sense, they would've mounted the trims to the brackets whilst being up there installing the track piece surely..

It's not unusual for a coaster to have faster running speeds than expected, correct me if I'm wrong? (in response to the bad design convo btw)

Nope, it's happened plenty of times before. Doesn't really mean anything in relation to the bad design convo though, if a ride has trims added after being built, that's bad design...

Put it this way... Big One's drop needing reprofiled... Bad design! i305's first turn needing altering... Bad design! Maverick's heartline roll needing removed... Bad design! A coaster needing lots of trim brakes to stop it running too fast, especially if it's after construction... Bad design!

These things do happen, more often than we probably even know. Mistakes happen. But just because it happens, changes nothing, ultimately it still comes down to poor design, mistakes being made and / or miscalculations.

Maybe it's impossible to fully and accurately calculate these things, it's certainly well beyond me! But with computers these days, you would have thought it would happen less and less. Or could it be that, as manufacturers push the limits in terms of extremity, it might actually happen more and more?

Anyway... I'm saying no more of the matter now, I'm bored of it, and I'm sure everybody else is... But just remember, if you don't make mistakes, you don't have to fix your work later... :)
 
My personal take is that the trims are there purely for rider comfort and optimising the experience of the outer-bank roll. Mack, nor any other company have ever really produced an element like this before, so no-one will truly know how it will feel. I have full confidence it has been designed well within safe g-force limits without trims, but I'm guessing the brackets are there as an option if they feel the element needs toning down slightly. These brackets have nothing to do with cutting the layout in my opinion - if the layout was reduced in any way, it would've been after the splashdown I'd imagine, explaining the vast number of trims there.
 
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