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Easiest major coaster record to beat?

Howie

Donkey in a hat
World's tallest (456+ft) and world's fastest (150+mph) sound like complex and expensive records to try and beat... but world's longest? Piece of piss. Don't forget the world's second longest coaster is/was The Ultimate at Lightwater Valley. Surely a slightly longer version of T'Ultimate wouldn't break the bank?
I mean, in theory, the world's longest coaster could easily be nothing more elaborate than a 1.5 mile long wacky worm, right?
 

Hixee

Flojector
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Administrator
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World's tallest (456+ft) and world's fastest (150+mph) sound like complex and expensive records to try and beat... but world's longest? Piece of piss. Don't forget the world's second longest coaster is/was The Ultimate at Lightwater Valley. Surely a slightly longer version of T'Ultimate wouldn't break the bank?
I mean, in theory, the world's longest coaster could easily be nothing more elaborate than a 1.5 mile long wacky worm, right?
I'm just here for the 151mph Wacky Worm.
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
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Administrator
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Surely a slightly longer version of T'Ultimate wouldn't break the bank?
Arguably, the existing version of T'Ultimate broke the bank of Lightwater Valley, though ...

But yeah, a park with better finances might be able to break the length record handily. Let's not forget that there existed an even longer coaster than The Ultimate: Daidarasaurus at Expoland in Osaka. It was a Möbius coaster made by combining two of the five(!) tracks of a racing coaster, and it wasn't even 30 meters tall. It might have been mightily expensive to maintain, though. The maintenance of five kilometers of track was probably why they redesigned the original version. Still, the total track length of coasters like Steeplechase at BPB might be more than that of Steel Dragon 2000, and it appears BPB can afford to keep that coaster running. The expenses wouldn't change much if they combined all the tracks into one.

Very long coasters can be a little boring, however. From what I heard, Daidarasaurus was a bit of a snooze-fest.
 

Niles

Giga Poster
world's longest? Piece of piss.
I know not everyone counts them but the longest Mountain coaster is 5,300M long https://rcdb.com/13054.htm , over twice Steel Dragon 2000 length so it is feasible to have a coaster that long, say Wiegand built a mountain coaster but put a coaster train on it, that would be pretty fun weaving down a mountain and it should be relatively cheap in comparison to Steel dragon. Or maybe a longer version of Zierers Rock runner coaster https://rcdb.com/12791.htm could be built as that's along the lines of what I'm thinking.
 
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Trax

Hyper Poster
Maybe not, considering that the real steepest drop on a coaster is 130 degrees?

View attachment 12152
This is Sky Explorer at Double Stream Park in Hangzhou, China.
Cool & Fresh aka Migfer has 135° drop, but for some reason those do not seem to count. Officially, the record is currently held my TMNT Shellraiser, and no one is arguing about that.
Btw, I was able to get the cred on Cool & Fresh in it's half year of operation on a german funfair. It was so bad and rough, that even I as a little GP child had no intentions at all to every ride that piece of garbage again. That brake was no brake, it just got the train to a standstill in a fraction of a second.

Btt: As no other park claims the record, TMNT Shellraiser is the one to beat - and SBF Visa has shown us, that it is possible to beat that record by a decent amount.
 

Peter Immelmann

Mega Poster
Maybe not, considering that the real steepest drop on a coaster is 130 degrees?

View attachment 12152
This is Sky Explorer at Double Stream Park in Hangzhou, China.

WTF, I wasn't aware of this coaster. Have you had a look at the transition from the loop to the straight track? :oops:Or the profile of the loop altogether. Also, the drop doesn't have any trims on it. Just look at the video linked on RCDB. I guess, Migfer/Cool&Fresh feels like a very gentle ride in comparison. 😵
 
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KommissarLT

Roller Poster
Probably anything regarding to the Suspended records, Vekoma could just make a massive Family Suspended Coaster (They count as suspended on RCDB) with like 3 lifts and claim the longest suspended coaster title.
 

Nitefly

Hyper Poster
According to the list of record breakers on this website, Gatekeeper has the tallest inversion. So I’m going with that as being the easiest to beat 🤔
 

Matt N

CF Legend
According to the list of record breakers on this website, Gatekeeper has the tallest inversion. So I’m going with that as being the easiest to beat 🤔
Isn’t it now Steel Curtain? I could have sworn that first drop was something like 197ft…
 

oriolat2

Giga Poster
I would have guessed that the Drachen Fire Dive Drop at Kennywood's Steel Curtain had the record. After all, the overall height of the ride is 220 feet and that element doesn't seem that much smaller than the peak of the lift hill, so I am guessing around 180 feet, which is a bit more than Gatekeeper's.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
Sorry to bump this thread, but I’ve thought of another one; most inversions in North America is a fairly easy record to grab.

Currently, the record holder is Steel Curtain at Kennywood, with 9 inversions officially, but only 8 inversions according to RCDB. If SC only has 8 inversions like RCDB says, then it’s actually joint with Avalancha at Xetulul in Guatemala for this one. Compared to the likes of Europe and Asia, that’s surprisingly low-hanging fruit for a continental record!

It always surprises me that no park in America has ever gone for one of those new Intamin 10 inversion coasters. They’re a cloned design, so I’d imagine they’re fairly cheap, and they’d give an instant American record for relatively little money! Not to mention that very, very few park guests would ever have ridden a coaster like it!
 

roomraider

Best Topic Starter
I would have guessed that the Drachen Fire Dive Drop at Kennywood's Steel Curtain had the record. After all, the overall height of the ride is 220 feet and that element doesn't seem that much smaller than the peak of the lift hill, so I am guessing around 180 feet, which is a bit more than Gatekeeper's.
Officially the inversion is 197ft I think. Which beats the inversion on Falcon at Sunac Wuxi by a whole 0.1 of a foot.
Nothing like scraping the record by the tiniest of margins.

According to the list of record breakers on this website, Gatekeeper has the tallest inversion. So I’m going with that as being the easiest to beat 🤔
I guess that list is a little old as Gatekeeper isn't even the tallest wing coaster with a dive drop. As mentioned above Falcon smashed that by over 30ft a few years ago.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
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*See First Page* ;)
I’d actually just go for a straight world’s tallest inversion. Cedar Point ironically got it with Gatekeeper's first dive drop, and then beat themselves with Valraven's large Immelmann. While Kennywood currently has the record with Steel Curtain; any coaster above 200 only need work in a simple barrel roll to take the cake.
 

Nitefly

Hyper Poster
@Matt N RCDB is definitely overzealous / prescriptive / dogmatic with it’s element/inversion classifications. Steel Curtain observably goes “upside down” 9 times, to the point where I’ve found myself re-watching a POV over and over, struggling to identify the ‘fake inversion’.

Apparently, the ‘fake inversion’ is the so called ‘banana roll’, which according to RCDB can only ever invert once… despite that element (regardless of what you may call it) clearly inverting twice on Steel Curtain 🤷‍♂️
 

Eyebrows

Hyper Poster
@Matt N RCDB is definitely overzealous / prescriptive / dogmatic with it’s element/inversion classifications. Steel Curtain observably goes “upside down” 9 times, to the point where I’ve found myself re-watching a POV over and over, struggling to identify the ‘fake inversion’.

Apparently, the ‘fake inversion’ is the so called ‘banana roll’, which according to RCDB can only ever invert once… despite that element (regardless of what you may call it) clearly inverting twice on Steel Curtain 🤷‍♂️
I agree, RCDB needs to separate it into two separate inversions. Maybe “Banana Roll (Single Inversion)” and “Banana Roll (Double Inversion)”?
 
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Lori Marie Loud

Giga Poster
RCDB explicitly states that the Banana Roll being a single inversion in their count is because, before Steel Curtain, the only other coaster that had the Banana Roll was Takabisha, which Fuji Q stated had 7 inversions, thus counting the Banana Roll as one inversion.

So don't blame RCDB, blame Fuji Q 😆
 

Eyebrows

Hyper Poster
RCDB explicitly states that the Banana Roll being a single inversion in their count is because, before Steel Curtain, the only other coaster that had the Banana Roll was Takabisha, which Fuji Q stated had 7 inversions, thus counting the Banana Roll as one inversion.

So don't blame RCDB, blame Fuji Q 😆
Right, but Steel Curtain's is different in that it goes back below 135 degrees at the top, and thus inverts twice, necessitating further distinction between the two elements, such as what I suggested above.
 
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