If Alpengeist becomes too rough and the park figures a new ride would have a better ROI than a Hulk style retrack (I have a bad feeling Alpie will reach this state by 2030), maybe a suspended would be a good replacement. When Verbolten replaced the Wolf, it inherited the cars from Le Mans which was replaced by Griffon. Alpie's replacement would then inherit the swinging from the Wolf. None of this barely-swinging mess like the current generation Vekoma SFC, I want full swinging like the trains Vekoma made for Vampire at Chessington World of Adventures. Comparing Vampire to Dragonflier, Arrow suspended track looks so dinky compared to Vekoma SFC track, no wonder the Wolf tore itself apart.
It'd easily be the world's tallest suspended coaster. a selling point. But the layout would be rather tricky, Alpie has a long linear return with the zero-G roll. I guess a wave turn is the only thing to do?
Who am I kidding, they'll probably go with a flying coaster, because that's more marketable, especially if Batwing and Nighthawk also bite the dust. VA's first flying coaster and drawing MD and NC because they lose their flying coasters. Assuming we keep the same height and have a layout similar to before, it'll beat Tatsu and be the world's tallest flying coaster.
Note, I am not calling for Alpie's demise, I'd be very happy with a Hulk style retrack. With the rough spots smoothed out and assuming we fly through the MCBR, Alpie would beat Afterburn as my top invert. Alternatively, 2022 will be Alpie's 25th, and fixing up the cobra roll and the MCBR turn alone would go a long way.
