Any creative ideas for new kinds of roller coasters?
Ever since I was a kid and learned what a "mobius strip" was, I always thought it would be awesome if there was a "mobius strip" roller coaster.
Ever since I was a kid and learned what a "mobius strip" was, I always thought it would be awesome if there was a "mobius strip" type of roller coaster. One where the riders would actually end up riding on both sides of the tracks. Not sure of all of the challenges (physics-wise), but I've always thought that would be an outstanding roller coaster ride.
Also, while some roller coasters briefly go underground, it would also be very cool if you had a roller coaster that was underground at least half of the time... briefly coming out of some dark dungeon into the bright sunlight for a while... it wouldn't be in the dark underground all the time... it would be fun to play with the changes between inside/underground/dark with the outside/above-ground/light environments... maybe even have it have the world's highest hill and only half the hill was above ground?
Well, since people have been clamoring for more trackless dark rides, how about a trackless roller coaster?
You should have been following this years TPA. Some of the entrants this year would have met your criteria.
There is actually a mobius coaster operating in the US and 4 others around the world. Now, these aren't coasters where you ride on the top and later the bottom of the track, but instead a track that appears to be a dueling/racing coaster, but instead is one continuous track. Racer at Kennywood is the only one in the US.
Dueling Wing Coaster anyone??
Seeing as the dueling invert concept went kaput, that probably wouldn't pass muster either. Having just riden my first wing coaster last week (Gatekeeper), I wasn't overly impressed with the concept. It's a fine coaster, and the signature element (threading the needle over the entry gate) is pretty neat, it's not as good as I anticipated. Riding was like moving in slow motion with long transitions between elements and an overall lack of intensity. If B&M is going to eventually evolve this design into a 4-D coaster, I'm concerned that the result will be miles below the ride offered on X2.
From Tony Duda
Posted August 7, 2013 at 3:03 PM
Russel, I knew there were some coasters that you load on the 'left' side and unload on the 'right' track. I think I rode one long ago but I have never been to Kennywood. Maybe I just dreamed it and thought I did. I remember it as a wooden coaster.
Dueling Wing Coaster-
A really good idea, but add less space between features. Something like Dueling Dragons at IOA maybe only not inverted? And what the heck is a Mobius strip????
I've seen a 'mobius strip' defined as a "continuous closed surface with only one side; formed from a rectangular strip by rotating one end 180 degrees and joining it with the other end". Escher use to draw these things in some of his images... probably one of the few 'impossible-looking' things in his drawings that were actually possible.
As to the coasters they currently call "mobius"... yeah, I don't really think that counts IMHO. The magic of the mobius is that there is ONLY one side. In these cases (like the one in Kennywood)... its just a normal roller coaster designed so that you only ride half the track as you "duel" with the other train riding the other half of the track.
Alan, any links about TPA and some of these entrants?
A roller coaster that rides BOTH sides of the track would be phenemonal! :-)
Full Throtle rides on both sides of its signature top hat/loop. That's probably the closest you're going to get unless someone decides to build a double-sided track that allows inverted and sit-down trains to traverse together (not-connected to each other, of course). It would be quite an engineering feat if it could be pulled off, but either the trains would need to be really light or the track would need to be very strong in order for trains to be dispatched simultaneously.
I designed exactly that roller coaster in this years theme park apprentice. Round 4 or 5 I think it was if you want to scroll through the posts to find it :)
This discussion has been archived, and is not accepting additional responses.
