Project 2028 (?): Italian Le Mans

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I would love to see this concept, but do you really feel there's enough space for a viable Le Mans-like ride? Someone cited a manufacturer with a 1000-1200' length attraction... IIRC, Le Mans was three tracks of ~2000' each. Granted, it may be smaller, 2 tracked, and obviously a different layout, but I tried to overlay a grainy Le Mans aerial from back then in this space and... no way is my guess. Not without removing Pompeii that is, then... maybe.

Has anyone attempted an overlay a design on a topo map to see how long of a track could fit? They also have some pretty steep borders to the space that would be problematic.... My initial take was that the bridge would have to double as the queue... can't imagine lots of little feet walking over that long of a bridge, then thru a plaza, and then getting in another queue, which would further eat up the space that I don't think they really have.

Now if you were to put a kiddie ride there--maybe like a Safari Trek from LegoLand or one of those Mini-SUV rides--those could probably fit as they're often much shorter.

(edit: I tried roughly overlaying LegoLand Safari Trek on the space, and it seems to work. Therefore, versus Italian Le Mans... I'm going with the working idea this is a "da Vinci Self-Propelled Cart" kiddie ride, which would fit nicely with the Garden of Invention and the flanking Gliders & Balloons--all three transportation themed. Utilizes a location where not much else would work. Relatively small investment. Requires minor Glider & Balloon queue reconfigurations. Don't need to move those rides--leave the vacant Garden flat spaces available for more intense flats. Adds another younger guest flat for those who aren't Sesame FoF fans or in general, and makes the kiddie offerings of San Marco a better destination, etc. Makes sense to me.)
 
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True, but I'm not focused on the vehicle. Personally, I think the da Vinci self-propelled cart theme works well, but it could be antique cars, or sports cars, or the mini-SUV that I mentioned originally.

My point is that I simply don't see this space as accommodating the longer, family-oriented (i.e. that would hold the interest of all ages) type of ride. They all seem to be much longer (from my knowledge of Le Mans, searching, trying to fit various aerial images in the space, etc.). I think this will be shorter, for those of shorter statue and attention span, kiddie ride that would pair nicely with the two kiddie rides already there. Could it be a shorter version of an Antique Car ride? Sure. But I think the space is really constrained for what people seem to be envisioning.

(Assuming of course that it doesn't involve removing Pompeii, or expands north of the "plaza" otherwise, but the brown (temporary) shadings on the RPA seem to limit that outside of Pompeii's plot... but if they were considering pushing further north or removing Pompeii, the bridge is unnecessary cost/complexity. It's almost like they want the entrance connected w/ Gliders/Balloons, otherwise, why not just tie in a path further north (smaller bridge) or where Pompeii "was"?).
 
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Update!

The JCC Chesapeake Bay Board met, discussed, and voted to approve BGW's RPA impacts plan last week. If you want to see the discussion of the plan, it starts at about the 1 hour mark in the video below.

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The report by staff wasn't very enlightening, but the VHB rep provided some super interesting development insights that are worth listening to.

Final approval letter is attached below.

Hopefully we'll see a complete site plan filing soon!
 

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If the ride can cross the right of way, there looks to be as much or more space between the top
of the valley and the Pompeii building than where Griffon sits.

Terrain might be a factor but antique cars can handle some terrain gradients and are more interesting if they do.

If anything goes here they need to preserve every tree possible since the right of way has already made that part of the park look bad.
 

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wyldbill said:
I got it! Kings Dominion is going to sell them the Back Lot Stunt Coaster, ya know cause they have a hot nut to shut down rides right now, and their going to replace the Mini Cooper trains With Fiat Trains. That's it mystery solved.
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I believe you 100%.
 
cb0355 said:
Interesting that nothing but silence about this project;
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Construction of this shouldn't take that long I honestly am not suprised that we haven’t seen much yet.
qdeathstar said:
Maybe they thought they would get the variance but didn’t get it
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The variance for the support work for the project was approved back in June by a 3 to one vote.
 
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Bring Back Questor 87 said:
They need flat rides so badly its not even funny. Anything to *help* justify to the $90+/day ticket prices, please.
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I was thinking the same thing! I would have thought that replacements for Cradle and Flying Machine would have been higher priority than breaking ground on a new expansion; is it possible that we may be getting an entire upgrade for the hamlet and this ride the new flagship attraction? What’s the likelihood of having three attractions at one time?
 
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Zachary said:
Great idea with "detour!" Detour perfectly describes a car trip with a new twist replacing the previous midpoint of the ride. Absolutely perfect. I prefer it without the article though, personally. One of these variations maybe:

Verbolten: Dark Detour
Verbolten: Darkened Detour
Verbolten: Darkest Detour

There are also other adjective options that could keep the alliteration (which I'm also a big fan of):

Verbolten: Deadly Detour
Verbolten: Deathly Detour
Verbolten: Dire Detour
Verbolten: Dreadful Detour

Deadly or Deathly would probably work best to emphasize thrill enhancements. Dire is nice because it adds urgency—maybe if part of the story involves being forced onto a new path through the forest? Dreadful and Dark both play to a more spooky, maybe even magical angle.

I do think, depending on the theme, "Verbolten Umweg" could work too. Umweg just sounds inherently dark, spooky, and sorta evil to my English-adjusted ears and then you'd essentially have the "bad, fake German" for "Forbidden Detour." I think it could definitely work.

Depending on the exact theme, maybe there's some slant rhyme possible here? Verbolten: Obscure Detour? It's not good—just spitballing here.

Ultimately it's really hard when we don't know the theme. If it's still going to be focused on the nebulous unknowns of the Dark Forest, maybe there's something better there? If they're going to focus in on one specific monster or story, I'd hope they'd rename the ride accordingly.

What I do know though is that "Verbolten: Forbidden Turn" is bad. "Verbolten" is already a play on "Forbidden"—"Forbidden: Forbidden Turn" is downright stupid. Plus, even ignoring that problem, the name just sounds boring and lethargic. Turn hardly conveys movement and forbidden conveys very little risk or stakes—especially if you already know verboten. I really hope BGW does better than this initial idea—I sorta think it's exceptionally bad.

So yeah, really like "Detour" in the name of we're talking about generic options like the one BGW trademarked, but there's probably even better out there if BGW has a full attraction retheme treatment to work from (at least I'd hope...).
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Zachary, what happened with the Italian Le Mans project? It got approved already and even markers could be seen between Loch Ness Monster's second lift hill and the woods next to San Marco.
 
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