New for this season

The new year brings a whole new set of coasters to be ridden. 2010 brings us one of the smallest classes of coasters in recent years, highlighting the economic downturn as of late. But it’s not all a loss; there’s some great stuff on the way. Here’s what to look for in 2010:

10. Monster (Walygator Park, France)

This one might be a little suspect since it’s not exactly new, but I was having a hard time getting 10 real quality attractions. Monster had its first life as Orochi at Expoland, Japan before the park closed in 2007. Walygator snagged the coaster and will now give France its first B&M and probably one of, if not the, best coaster in the country. While sharp eyed and possibility even blind enthusiasts will note that the ride is a clone of Cedar Point’s Raptor, that’s hardly a bad thing. 6 inversions and a bunch of intensity in a huge layout now gives people a reason to stop at Walygator aside from collecting some bruises on their Cobb wooden or Vekoma hurricane. Word on the street is that Walygator also picked up Expoland’s Mack mouse to be set up in 2011. While slightly odd due to the fact that the park has already had a Mack Mouse (2003), it’s still another +1 for the park and a coaster that might not suck. Good for France.

9. Flying Turns (Knoebels, Pennsylvania)

Maybe this year? I remember checking out the park in 2007 and seeing a mostly complete structure waiting for some cars. Fast forward 3 years and we have a several times reprofiled completed track waiting for another iteration of trains that hopefully don’t flip over this time. But it’s impossible to be mad at Knoebels. They’re bringing back a coaster type that hasn’t been built since Herbert Hoover was president. So long as they can figure out the whole cars flipping over thing, this is bound to be a great coaster and a good addition to Knoebels, an amazing park in its own special way. Fun fact: while Flying Turns was being built, Knoebels installed a replacement for High Speed Thrill Coaster (rest in pieces) and bought PTC’s only steel coaster from Dinosaur Beach. If all goes as planned, Knoebels could increase their offerings by 3 in the last 2 years.

8. Thirteen (Alton Towers, England)

I’m really unsure where to post this one, but I think 8 is a good spot. Massively overhyped by Alton and fanboys alike, the Intamin family coaster should still provide a decent ride. Amid speculations of world’s firsts and 18+ age limits, the outdoor section of the coaster has popped up, showing some great turns along the ground and a lot of airtime hidden in some tight little hills. Theming is sure to be fantastic, with its creepy something or another façade and a storyline most guests will probably miss. Indoors, a section of track will drop with the train, creating a controlled freefall effect. While sure to be interesting, I can’t help but wonder how unreliable something like this is going to be. Still, the forwards, backwards, airtime, train-dropping coaster should be a pretty cool addition to Alton, and a good replacement for corkscrew. That said, the term “Psychoaster” is retarded.

7. Battlestar Galactica (Universal Singapore, Singapore)

In most any other year, this might not have made a list, but it’s a slow year, and I think this looks cool. Vekoma introduces a new track style and 4 across train style on a dueling sitdown/invert launched coaster. I’m sure nothing will go wrong. Early indications show that the coaster will average at least 5mph with assistance from the wind and a couple of people pushing. Not to be all mean, though, the layouts for both rides are pretty cool looking, especially the inverted side, which launches over a hill into a cobra roll. The dueling aspects should enhance the ride and take people’s minds away from the fact that they’re barely moving. At the very least, the inverted side is one look forward to since it has a pretty nonstandard layout and a loop around 2 lift hills (stick it, Kumba). Since it’s Universal, you know that the theming will be top notch and the overall experience is sure to be a good one. The jury is out as to how fast it’ll go with people loaded on, but hopefully Singapore has some fat people to give it a good pace. Good luck, Battlestar!

6. Unknown (World Joyland)

B&M doing something different? Maybe. Actually, I know almost nothing about this flying coaster aside from some renderings and a few stats. What we do know is that the ride will be about 2800ft. long, slightly over 130ft. tall and go about 55mph. Not too shabby for a flyer, for sure. But the really interesting stats are the inversions: inline twist, vertical loop, and a double corkscrew. We’ve never seen B&M try a loop on flyer, which begs the question as to how accurate this stat is. Then it makes you wonder what kind of loop? Inside like Vekoma or something crazy, like an outside loop. We’ve seen Vekoma throw half of an outside loop onto their stingray coaster, but B&M would be the first to complete the circle. The double corkscrew is also something B&M has never done (ever on anything, actually). I suppose that’s not terribly special, but it’s still unique. Either way, about 5000 question marks make this a hard ride to comment on. Hopefully we’ll hear something once the park goes up, as China seems to be pretty quiet until somebody suddenly gets a lot of news at once. Judging by the renderings, World Joyland should be pretty cool. Let’s hope so.

5. F1 Coaster (Ferrari World, UAE)

First off, we’re going to have to hope this one actually opens in 2010. At this point, I’m not really sure with the way stuff is going over there. The cleverly named F1 Coaster (please that be a placeholder or bad translation) is like a Rita or Desert Race layout on steroids. A lot of steroids. Word is that the coaster is capable of 150mph, which would crush the current speed record. There has been some reports that the coaster will be operated at a lower speed, although here’s hoping it’ll still be fast enough to take the speed record. It’s going to need that speed too with the first hill and corner being ridiculously drawn out. The first instance of Intamin’s new track system makes for some impressive spans around the whole layout. With the hills as shallow as they are, the airtime might be questionable in the beginning, although the ending 3 bunny hops should throw you out of your seat. The entire Ferrari World Park is thoroughly impressive, not only for what’s in the park, but also for the fact that it’s the first big UAE theme park to get done. In an industry where the trend has been better rides in smaller packages, F1 coaster goes in the other direction and doesn’t stop walking for a few miles.

4. Sky Rocket (Kennywood, Pennsylvania)

It’s been 9 years since Kennywood got a coaster and even then it was just half a new coaster. But now they seem ready join into the coaster wars in probably the strangest way possible. Premier has always been a company of feast of famine. Their spaghetti bowl LSM coasters, Revenge of the Mummy layouts, and Mr. Freeze types were all hits, while the Italian Jobs, and the more recent ventures at the former Hard Rock Park were less than stellar. Ignoring Premier’s recent stuff, Kennywood decided to add Sky Rocket, one of the more unique coasters of 2010. All has been quiet since the ride was announced, except for a layout released during the Euro Attractions show. The coaster is an LSM launched ride, reaching 50 in 3 seconds. That’s pretty slow for these days, but at least there’s a layout to follow. Sort of reminiscent of the Zierer Tower Coaster model (hopefully this time with correctly welded joints), the ride pulls up and over a tophat, through an overbank, and around a barrel roll. The train then dives down the ‘cliffhanger’ element, otherwise known as a steep drop. After a corkscrew, it seems they started to run out of ideas as the ride has a few ‘surf curves’ (zig zags) and some small bunny hops. Although it doesn’t look like terribly much, Sky Rocket gets placed high for the shear ‘where did this come from!?’ thoughts behind it. I think it’s safe to say that this one could really go anywhere (metaphorically).. from a great underrated ride to an unreliable piece of mediocrity. Let’s hope it’s the first.

3. Intimidator (Carowinds, North Carolina)

We’re into the top 3 now, which means they better darn well be good. If B&Ms recent hypers have been any indication, this should be pretty excellent. With Intimidator, Carowinds gets it’s first real worthwhile coaster since Afterburner in 1999. The ride does what pretty much all B&M hypers do: go out for a while and then come back. While sometimes we might hope it would go out and not come back, Intimidator throws 7 hills in there along with a nice big drop (B&Ms second biggest) and a turnaround. The ride will use the weird offset cars seen on Behemoth and Diamondback. With a length twice as long as the old style trains, there’s sure to be some pretty strong airtime on the train extents. I’m sure somebody will go out and complain about how it’s not going to have ejector airtime and as a consequence be horrible, but I suspect the airtime will be pretty nice no matter what kind it is. The layout is a little strange in that the mid course brakes are so far along in the layout , but if it gives them the ability to run 3 trains then I’m all for it. I’ll be mentioning this again, but I’m not sure I understand the idea of theming it to a racecar driver whose been dead for 9 years. I guess it’s not like there’s going to be much theming in the first place aside from a giant sign and some checkered flags in places. Hopefully they’ll prove me wrong. But either way, the ride itself should be pretty excellent.

2. Joris en de Draak (Efteling, Netherlands)

In 2007, Efteling won the ‘retarded decision of the year’ by contracting Kumbak coasters to give them a combination dark/coaster/water ride. Now they’re finally redeeming themselves by going with GCI to design their new dueling, racing wooden coaster. After removing the family wooden coaster Pegasus to much applause all around, the space is clear for over 5000 combined feet of wooden track. The oddly specific 72ft. 5in. track height leads to a twisted series of hills and corners not seen since Lightning Racer a decade back. The first drops will be side by side in between the lift hills leading to a fast pass over top of the station. At this point, I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t make it a double station flythrough, but perhaps there’s only so much amount of awesome you can have in one ride. For the most part, the layout is racing, although it splits at several points to duel. The rendering shows some pretty excellent theming along the coaster, and I wouldn’t put it past Efteling judging by their previous ventures. The coaster is themed to George and the Dragon, a story I can only assume is European since I’ve never heard of it (maybe I’ve just missed an important part of my childhood). No matter what the theme, the world could always use more wooden coasters that don’t suck. Enjoy your wood, Europe.

1. Intimidator 305 (Kings Dominion, Virginia)

If you’re familiar with coaster things (which I suspect you are since you’re reading this), then this shouldn’t be much of a surprise. The world gets its 2^nd Intamin gigacoaster, coming in at 305ft. and a speed of 90mph. For the Millennium Force haters, 305 throws in some more hills in between the high speed ground corners the ride focuses on. The lift hill uses a giant (and I do mean giant) truss to get up to 305ft. with only two supports on the entire hill. An 85 degree first drop leads to a ground corner reminiscent of the much smaller mega lite models. An airtime hill bigger than the lift of most coasters sends the train into the high speed corner section. This is the ‘make it or break it’ part of the coaster. It will either be 20 seconds of perfectly engineered high speed awesome, or 20 seconds of side to side neck smashing pain. I’m going to hope for the first. Unfortunately, this is also the point to bring up the over the shoulder restraints. There’s still argument as to whether they’ll be the standard over the shoulders or over the shoulder straps as seen on Bakken’s Intamin spinner that opened last year. Of course, I’d much prefer their T-bars, but they have a habit of disliking fat people. It’s a moot point, though, since 305 will have over the shoulders, whatever type they end up being. Judging by the layout, this will probably be a hit or miss for a lot of people, but I can easily see Intimidator 305 being one of the top coasters in the world.