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When Oblivion opened, was it the world's steepest...

Hard to say really, since RCDB don't let you search for steep drops...
The only one that I would thin could challenge it would be Tower of Terror but it didn't open until 2001. So Oblivion were most likely the steepest full circuit coaster in the world at that point.
I can't think of any other that would match it at that point...

Posting on the go...
 
^Opened from 2001-2005, then was closed until 2007
 
It was the steepest full circuit coaster in the world yes.
Followed by Diving Machine G5 with a 89 degree drop and finally Gravitymax is 2002 with a 90 degree drop.
 
^I don't buy that G5 is any steeper than Oblivion to be honest. It's a mirror clone; I don't see why B&M would redesign it to be half a degree steeper, if rcdb is to be believed. It just doesn't make any sense.

They ride exactly the same anyway.
 
^^ Also Tower of Terror (in South Africa) opened 2001 with a 90° drop so gravity max is out of the question...
 
gavin said:
I don't see why B&M would redesign it to be half a degree steeper, if rcdb is to be believed. It just doesn't make any sense
Just throwing it out there, but S&S has done the above...twice.
 
loefet said:
^^ Also Tower of Terror (in South Africa) opened 2001 with a 90° drop so gravity max is out of the question...

The question was full circuit. ToT is a shuttle. Is everybody forgetting the question here?

Joey said:
...full circuit roller coaster? Or did that title belong to Tower of Terror in Gold Reef City? Or something else?
 
^ You are thinking about Tower of Terror at Dreamworld in Australia which is a Reverse Freefall Coaster (shuttle). Where as I and Joey are talking about Tower of Terror at Gold Reef City in South Africa, which opened in 2001.

Link > Tower of Terror - Gold Reef City - RCDB

So I know exactly what we are talking about...
 
Gazza said:
Just throwing it out there, but S&S has done the above...twice.

True, but only because the parks buying them requested it so that they could go after the steepest coaster record.

That wasn't the case for G5; as far as I'm aware it was never sold as the world's steepest coaster. Nor was Oblivion come to think of it. It was always advertised as the world's first vertical drop. Ok, so it amounted to the same thing, but it wasn't until the "beyond vertical!" eurofighters that anything was ever made of the steepness again.
 
Eurofighters used the beyond vertical drop as their major marketing point. I'm not sure if the parks that first got them were going for the "world's steepest!!!!!!!!!!" angle with advertising though.

Thorpe were going to take that approach with Saw (UK's steepest), but Flamingoland basically pissed on their chips with Mumbo Jumbo in the same year, which they kept fairly quiet and then announced right after Thorpe had made a big deal about Saw.

The S&S El Locos have basically added 1 degree each time to try and go for the "steepest" record:

Steel Hawg - 111 degrees
Mumbo Jumbo - 112 degrees
Timber Drop - 113 degrees

But now Gerstlauer has brought Takabisha, a Eurofighter with a 121 degree drop and basically destroyed them all.

Personally I think it's all a bit stupid. The beyond vertical drops are nowhere near as good as a vertical drop anyway; it's just a "cheap" record to go for since nobody's going to go for height/speed anytime soon.
 
You mean the Togo - Ultra-Twisters??

They are just 85°, but I would guess that it was they who were the steepest before Oblivion...
 
As far as I'm concerned, vertical as in 90° is the steepest of anything it is possible to have. "more than vertical" drops are in fact less than vertical, and less steep than vertical. This record reached it's ultimate end point with Oblivion, or G5 to be pedantic.
 
Yes Sam I agree. If you are going to go by the Steel Hawg and Eurofighter logic then where does it stop? An S&S Screaming Squirrel?
 
khanage said:
Yes Sam I agree. If you are going to go by the Steel Hawg and Eurofighter logic then where does it stop? An S&S Screaming Squirrel?

Screaming squirrels don't count because they use brakes to slow the car down preventing high negative g's a true coaster drop allows the ride to reach its full potential speed
 
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