Velocicoaster wasn’t formally announced until it was nearly fully built, and Hollywood Drift hasn’t been formally announced yet despite lots of progress being made on it
Publicly, Ryan E has said several times the new coaster is not a Ka replacement. Practically, it is since it's so similar in operation and tower height, with this one being theoretically far more reliable and less maintenance-intensive long-term.
This alternative timeline is difficult to imagine. It would be interesting how they would dismantle Ka being so close to new coaster. I wonder if public opinion in coaster community would have been better having phantom spire built first. I previously speculated that this was that giga coaster meant to complement KA, not necessary the replacement. But it does seem strange to build a 400 ft strata next to KA like almost too good to be true. It would make sense for KA be dismantled a year later in this timeline. Regardless of what would happen, having a shorter coaster to succeed Ka would be seen negatively by coaster fans. But with falcons flight, it never really would have mattered and we still don’t know height, with 450 ft crane it could technically be taller than dragster to be tallest in North America.
I don’t think this new coaster is going to be anywhere in the 400 range. Just seeing these photos make me believe it’s around 300-350 feet. I was suspecting taller when I heard the crane was announced, then considered they rented what was available at the time for such a short duration project. Tormenta in Texas also used a 450 ft crane but it’s only a 309 foot coaster
2-3 months puts it around/after the Shoreline Pier opening which they might want to wait for so they can have uninterrupted marketing focusing on each area separately.
From what I've personally heard, no. That giga was a B&M project dreamed up by Mike Spanos as his big contribution to the Six Flags chain, and it died with him when he left the role of CEO for Selim. Lore has it that it would have seated two riders across, started where the amphitheater near Medusa is, and gone south of the lake.
The tower coaster concept started out being pitched for various Cedar Fair parks and they probably had signed a contract with Mack to book a production slot ahead of time. Mack tends to have a couple years' waitlist for big projects so if in 2024 they wanted a major coaster delivered for 2026, that would have had to be inked before the Ka closure call was made, the earliest of which I can pinpoint it to was September 9, 2024 (not elaborating). A few weeks prior in August they had a refurbished Ka train return to the tracks, so on the park level at least they weren't prepared to ditch it so soon. That Fall they would have not been able to begin a conversation with Mack about delivering Project Purple within 24 months, they had to have signed off something sooner. You can do that with Premier Rides and Gerstlauer, maybe B&M, but big coaster projects generally take a lot of planning especially because those manufacturers have other clients to contend with.
I’m not sure if this was confirmed but it is most likely for storage tracks and the maintenance area
As promised:
As promised:
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
It does look quite nice in purple! Note that the entirety of the tower (structure design, how many times it circles around the tower at the top, the theming, etc) is purely a guess, impossible to tell from just a footer placement map, so hopefully this gets close
As promised:
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
It does look quite nice in purple! Note that the entirety of the tower (structure design, how many times it circles around the tower at the top, the theming, etc) is purely a guess, impossible to tell from just a footer placement map, so hopefully this gets close
