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b.mac

huh?
May 14, 2011
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BFE, Virginia
The long rumored GCI Woody from waaaaaaaaay back in 2006 is finally coming to fruition. Now that Cedar Fair and the San Fransisco 49ers have settled their issues CGA is finally ready to get some love, in the looks of a gigantic GCI Wooden coaster.

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Construction has already started, too. Sadly the ride hasn't been officially announced yet.

CoasterForce's own EastCoasterGeneral was nice enough to put in some insight on what's been going on and also has some construction photos:

ECG said:
California's Great America is supposed to make an announcement for their new coaster on or near August 29th, but construction is already well underway. Why would a park that was up for sell not long ago be building a new coaster?

Earlier this year Cedar Fair signed an agreement that will allow for the San Fransisco 49er’s NFL team to build their new stadium in the park’s overflow lot, as well as park in the main lot on game days. In return the city of Santa Clara will give them a lease extension deal on the land under the park. The existing deal will see Cedar Fair pay the city $5.3 million a year through 2039, afterwards the park will only pay between $5.7 to $6.3 million annually through 2074. The park will also be able to keep it’s profits until it exceeds $64 million in revenue provided that the park makes at least $10 million in capital investments, so Cedar Fair now has the incentive to invest in a new attractions for the park.

I'm not the person to be able to guess as to what the new coaster could be, but here are photos I was able to take today that might give some of you an idea of what it could be. The ground shots are terrible due to the huge wall surrounding the area & I couldn't get any closer where there was no wall due to the sky coaster, but the overhead shots from the observation tower came out ok.

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RE: GCI Wood Coaster - 2013

Hasn't been announced yet but the name "Gold Striker" has been pinned out by some people with an inside scoop for a few weeks now.
 
RE: GCI Wood Coaster - 2013

I'm impressed. CGA has needed a solid addition for a while now. This hits the target perfectly.
 
RE: GCI Wood Coaster - 2013

Sucks that there's no station fly-through, there's ample opportunity for one. Guess GCI is trying to differentiate themselves.
 
RE: GCI Wood Coaster - 2013

To be honest, I thought the curve out of the drop was the best part- especially when it a second dive down to ground-level.
 
RE: GCI Wood Coaster - 2013

Zachary said:
To be honest, I thought the curve out of the drop was the best part- especially when it a second dive down to ground-level.

That part still looks pretty boring. If they were gonna put a curve on the drop they should've just made a curvy drop from the top to begin with and not accelerate you down a ramp then send you on a wide right turn down to the ground.

The rest of the layout is comprised of basic GCII elements. Nothing new and nothing exciting about it.
 
B.Mac said:
Mind you these are similar elements to that of Thunderhead, don't judge a coaster by the PoV.


I've ridden practically every GCII in this country and a few overseas. I can pretty much gauge Gold Striker from the POV animation and can tell there is nothing in that layout that interests me.
 
Looks like a cool coaster, but that logo is awful. Take out the miner and it'll be an improvement.

CGA definitely needs a new anchor attraction to draw people away from SFDK and this seems to be it. Hopefully it'll attract enough people to convince CF to keep investing in this park like SF did with their Great America.
 
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Cedar Fair has a lease contract with Santa Clara showing that by investing in the park will be worth it. They get to keep ALL the profit to a certain point as long as they continually invest in improving the park.
 
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courtesy of Great Coasters International

The entire first drop will be enclosed in a tunnel for what appears to be noise reasons.
 
It's like I was just at this park a few weeks ago ... hmmm .... yup. It's a big woody. Also has an enclosed drop as well which, as they say around these here parts, is a first of it's kind - a complete darkened drop. I could have sworn there was another "black drop" woody somewhere else - I'm thinking Europe perhaps - but I'm too lazy to look into that. It could very well be the first in the country, that I'd bank on a bit.

Ah well ... just throwing my $0.02 in there.. gimme change back if you don't want it - gas is over $5 here. :0(
 
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Viper at Astroworld is the only coaster I can think of with an enclosed first drop.

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I'd personally rather keep the first drop open and stick a tunnel at the bottom. The enclosed first drop would ruin any potential view at the top. Then again the park probably stuck the tunnel there because of the neighbors.
 
Viper is also defunct, along with Astroworld. So CGA technically has the only enclosed drop coaster in North America (besides indoor coasters).
 
As far as enclosed first drop goes, does the stupid canopy on Ghostrider at Knotts count?
 
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