I absolutely loved Ka. I also paid physically most times I rode it, especially not being able to resist jumping back on the roughass back rows for a reride. But I don't see how a ride so clearly perpetually on its last legs, visibly and otherwise, could have continued much longer, or been suitable for a conversion.
News Project 2027/Skyland/Purple: Bakunawa (Mack Giga Shuttle Xtreme Spinner)
- Thread starter Zachary
- Start date
How does a ride like KA get rougher over the years like that? The trains go through maintenance every year and replace wheels ect, i wouldnt think the track gets warpy over the years because that could be a real hazard. So how don't rides like that stay feeling new for pratically ever?
I always hoped they would take out the hard over the shoulder restraints for the soft ones that Storm Runner has, never happened but I feel like Ka would've been much more rerideable. I figured out how to avoid the neck banging towards the end but that was after riding it for years.
^^ Never noticed neck banging, the vibration came up through your body and into your brain like demon's roar. Possibly just wheels, since don't have time to melt, and rust. Every ride felt similar than I305 just before it goes down for a bad wheel and anything but the front row was worse. It was awesome.
Ka's launch section was underengineered to an extent, since there was no lateral bracing on the supports. That didnt help the roughness and track wear, also rumor has it they switched to cheaper wheel assemblies which probably helped make it rougher.
Not a rumor. Fact. And cheaper wheels, too. Every time there was a roll back, they would have to replace the wheels that day. Ka became an operational and maintenance nightmare in its later years. $1 million or so in annual parts and TLC, year after year, isn't nothing. And that's just to have it operating as it was, i.e. going down as much as it did and running only a single train.
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El Toro Ryan visited today. Update on "Project Purple" starting at 5:42. Not much but good looks at the support and launch pieces; fun speculation on how they'll all fit together.
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
I had trouble locating another overhead in the thread, so using this one: from the top of El Toro today, it looked like there was another footer + support starting in/near this circled area off to the left. It overlapped with the old parking spots:
Hopefully we can get another set of eyes on it to confirm I wasn't hallucinating.
There are several updates and maps on this. There are two outer footers, one where you roughly put it, the other opposite to the upper right of the yellow support locations. It's a four-point tower with two tapering A-frame structures that will connect with cross supports along the way up and merge together at the top. So a triangular spire. They attached the lower supports to the outer footers about 3 weeks ago. Waiting on the big crane to do more.
Check out this recent one from Colin, starting at 16:15 to see the tower and outer footer progress....
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
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Thanks! This is the first time I saw the support, but most of my Toro rides prior to this were at night.
Could it be the transition piece going from the straight rise up the tower to the wrap around the tower?
I’m genuinely trying so hard to see how and believe that this ride is longer than Ka but I just cannot see it.
Idk what Ryan meant by that or if perhaps when he said this the tower was the 400ft + version and maybe plans changed? Idk
Idk what Ryan meant by that or if perhaps when he said this the tower was the 400ft + version and maybe plans changed? Idk
The distance from the station to the base of the tower is ~1,170ft not accounting for changes in height of the track. Add the assumed 375ft for the tower and you get 1,545ft. Multiply by 2 for the return trip and you get 3,090ft which is 28ft less than Ka's 3,118ft. The changes in track height will make up for and pass that 28ft.
SweetBabyJames
Conservative Coaster Connoisseur
That would be sick if the cars inverted at the top of the tower. I literally had a dream about this ride 2 nights ago and the top of the spike had a rolling inversion. (However project purple, in my dream, was at Carowinds for some reason instead of Great Adventure
).
We've wrestled over this before. The distance traveled from station start to station stop will be longer than Ka. But Ryan has been a little sloppy at times, saying "more track than" a few times. It's simply not going to be true in that way. The ride experience will be longer, but not the physical ride structure itself. It'll be about half the total ride track of Ka. It will, though, be "bigger than" Ka in a footprint sense. It'll end up using more sq ft of ground than Ka, apparently. So, some technically correct claims/titles/records even if they aren't exactly what first comes to mind when you hear them.
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The only other for which I've heard "occupied area" as an attempt at a marketable metric is Dragon Mountain. Maybe they'll start measuring length laterally along the outline of the crossties to make it longer. It would "technically" be the world's longest, with a super useful exciting new stat like "combined length of tubular steel members traversed"
That would make this ride so much better. Hanging upside down with only a lap bar 300 + ft and then gliding into an outer bank on the top.That would be sick if the cars inverted at the top of the tower. I literally had a dream about this ride 2 nights ago and the top of the spike had a rolling inversion. (However project purple, in my dream, was at Carowinds for some reason instead of Great Adventure