(5/2/10) I’ve heard an interesting rumor claiming that the rumored prototype B&M coaster going to Gardaland may end up being even more of a “test track” than I had thought. The location of the park itself has come into play since it is only about a 4.5 hour drive from B&M’s headquarters Monthey, Switzerland. This close distance will allow for B&M to come onsite often as they work on this new concept, which may be done in two phases.
The first version of the new ride concept is still said to be somewhat like an S&S 4th Dimension coaster, but without the spinning seats, so I’m guessing it may end up being more similar to Intamin’s WingWalker design that so far has only been built once at PortAventura as Furius Baco. In B&M’s case, I’ve heard that they may very well want to produce their own version of the 4D concept, complete with spinning seats, but wanted to build a non-spinning prototype version of the train first. The goal here is to not only perfect a new train/track pairing design, but to also gather all the practical G-force and Accelerometer data from this new train deisgn before trying to implement any kind of crazy spinning seats.
So what is Gardaland getting out of this special arrangement? Not only do they get to have B&M’s first new prototype coaster design and all the eyeballs around the world that will follow it’s development, but I’ve heard that the park will be getting this ride for a cost not too much more than the cost of materials and labor. Of course this last part is only a rumor, and nothing anyone would ever likely verify as these kinds of deals are very secretive.
And these quotes may be outdated, but it could happen...
Speaking of B & M: 2011, there might be among the Swiss, a European Jubilee: Among other things, seems to be the Merlin Group Three Großachterbahnen the Swiss have purchased, including a new roller coaster for the Italian Gardaland genus as well as the English, Thorpe Park, the trains are based on those of the Senkrechtachterbahn Oblivion, with mean squares omitted. Instead, the inverted car seats are left and right to offer the rail. In addition, also seems to be finally secured the Bolliger & Mabillard-coaster for the Heath Park.
More interesting were rumours of a new coaster style for Gardaland (Castelnuovo del Garda, Italy). It would be similar in nature to Intamin's Wing Rider, Furious Baco at Port Aventura (Salu, Spain). B&M sort of already has this design with its Dive Machines. If the middle seats - those over the track - are removed and the outer seats lowered, you have a ride very similar to what was being described to us. This is a very interesting move by B&M, and we sincerely hope it is true as both of the above examples never really set the world alight for various reasons. Maybe it takes B&M to make the idea work. We also heard that following the Gardaland prototype, another version may make its way to Thorpe Park (Chertsey, England), Gardaland's sister park, sometime shortly afterwards. Finally, we understand B&M is working on a launched coaster for a surprising park in Europe...
And that leads us to another quote from Screamscape about Thorpe Park:
2011 to 2016 - 2 Coasters and More - In Planning - (7/11/10) Some interesting maps show off just where Thorpe Park is planning on putting their next two coasters, posted over at Total Thorpe Park. Don’t read too much into the layouts however, I’m sure those are mainly placeholder artwork, as it’s too soon to have final layouts for both rides just yet.
(7/2/10) According to this article Thorpe Park is planning on building two new roller coasters at the park between now and 2016, which was submitted to the local council outlining the next 5-years of growth for the park. In addition the park wants to add 5 new “round rides” (aka: Flat Rides) up to 25m tall. Of the two coasters, one is said to be up to 40m tall and the other up to 50m tall, so both would come in under Stealth’s impressive 62.5m top hat.
http://www.totalthorpepark.co.uk/features/future.shtml
http://egham.stainesnews.co.uk/2010/06/thorpe-park-plans-new-rollerco.html
And as for my Alton Towers SW7 post... why do I have this strange feeling that the B&M 4D will make it's way to Alton Towers as SW7...?
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