Mäch Tower

Manufacturer

Moser's Rides

Model

Gravity Tower

Hamlet

Oktoberfest (Germany)

Opening Date

August 18th, 2011

Closing Date

January 8th, 2023

Attraction Height

240ft

Duration

About 90 Seconds

Riders Per Cycle

30

Height Requirement

48in

Mäch Tower was a Moser's Rides Gravity Tower located in the Oktoberfest section of Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

Originally planned to debut in the spring alongside Beste Brezeln und Bier and numerous other alterations to the Oktoberfest hamlet, Mäch Tower faced months of delays throughout the first half of 2011. Ultimately, the attraction did not open to the public until August 18th, 2011.

Mach Tower was typically converted into an observation tower named Nächt Tower for the park's annual holiday event, Christmas Town.

On December 16, 2022 it was announced by the park that Mäch Tower would close on January 8th, 2023. The ride did not operate in it's typical Nächt Tower mode in 2022, in order to have final sendoffs in the normal drop tower mode.

When it debuted, Mäch Tower featured an onboard audio system which would play music throughout the ride's ascent and a seat vibration effect that would trigger immediately before the drop. A POV featuring the on-ride audio can be found below.

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Direct Link to Embedded Media Source

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Sources:

1. Mäch Tower Announcement Press Release
2. Official Statement Regarding Opening Delays
3. "Waiting for the Mach Tower to Drop" via The Virginian-Pilot
4. "Busch Gardens opens towering drop ride after 3-month delay" via The Virginian-Pilot
5. First Ride Video & Opening Day Photos via BGWFans
6. Early Mäch Tower Ride Impressions via Theme Park Insider

 

[Crackel]

I can see the park bringing in intainm to fix it...

 

[Irishman]

^



6. Good idea... now what could they do though? I wouldn't want something like Windseeker; that is far too intrusive to the night sky.

I agree with you, I was thinking up some simple lighting or maybe have the light on the ground like griffon

 

[Brandon]

To be honest, if they tore the ride down (no matter how embarrassing it would be for them) I wouldn't shed a tear.

 

[PayneTrain]

I love Larry Giles to death, but the irony of this charade is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Pass up Intamin because they weren't reliable partners after EfP, and now you have a giant, inoperable pole next to your newest ride. Intamin can build a very reliable roto-drop, but this is a disaster.

 

[I305Evan]

Even if Intamin's ride's break down a lot. There break downs are fixed mostly by just resetting the system and bam its fixed. Mach Tower actually has to bring out the latters and tool boxes and work on it. Intamin one or 2 workers reset the ride, test, and then open in 10-20 minutes.

 

[Bryant]

They won't light up somthing that's useless. Please let us know when the baracade walls return around Mach.

 

[I305Evan]

Well no one has posted the blog post link anywhere but http://bgwfans.com/mach-tower-is-now-closed/ Zachary has just updated it. It seems from the update that Mach Tower has a Virus and they cannot get rid of it.

 

[pandorazboxx]

I didn't see virus mentioned anywhere. Sounds to me like they are going to get Moser to come in and do a major overhaul.

 

[Party Rocker]

I could see them completely re-doing the ride and gettin to the core of the problems.

 

[Party Rocker]

In the article it said to review manufacturer recommended changes to the rides parameters. What exactly could that encompass?

 

[BuschGardener]

It's a shame they didn't go with an Intamin drop tower. I rode the one at Kings Dominion Monday (sorry purists, shoot me - I've been a BG snob for the past 30+ years and visited KD for the coaster variety/numbers, and was REALLY impressed with the whole experience) and I gotta say, minus the daunting slow ascent, it's superior to MT in every way... It actually drops you, well over half way down. After being gently lowered to the ground by MT for the past year this thing really thrilled (borderline scared) me for a couple seconds...

I'm not sure what the maintenance record for this tower is, I really haven't paid much attention to KD up to now, but Intamin has a pretty good name for building solid rides, right?

 

[b.mac]

they should've gotten something similar to morey's atmosfear:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y06R9I1j7Zg

sound, vibrations. everything MT has bar rotation, but I don't think Kingsmill will like the lights.

Manu. is ARM by the way.

 

[Unagi]

but Intamin has a pretty good name for building solid rides, right?

No.

 

[Party Rocker]

Intamin built Escape from Pompeii which when it opened suffered problems and issues like Mach Tower but got past them.

 

[netdvn]

To the best of my knowledge, the ride has gotten an overhaul. The park is just waiting on some paperwork that needs to be filled out before the ride can run again.

 

[Zachary]

Front page story has been updated with some more information: http://bgwfans.com/mach-tower-is-now-closed/

 

[geoffreyfox99]

Article this morning, shut down is to prevent future down time. :huh:

http://hamptonroads.com/2012/07/busch-gardens-closes-mach-tower-review

 

[I305Evan]

Those articles have been up since yesterday. Check the post above you and there's some better explanation than what the articles are giving you.

 

[Party Rocker]

I think it is not opening soon but indefinitely until things are solved and finished. After all they've said it was opening soon last time and look how long that was?

 

[Bryant]

Mach Tower has now re-opened.