To sum up ride procurement for a car ride nowadays...
There's two other mainstream manufacturers off the top of my head that actively make these, Mettalbau Emmeln and Zamperla. Both are overseas, the former hardly ever works on US soil, and while United Parks can/could easily engage both I'd imagine there'd be a fair amount of customization involved that maybe would devolve into a multi-year project with all things considered.
Zamperla this past weekend actually oversaw the opening of Hot Wheels Turbo Drive, a major car ride project at Beto Carrero World in Brazil. Considering that it replaced a go-kart track and is extremely well presented I'd say this was a great attraction, but it took WAY too long to build. Work began in June 2024, and by November the ride was completed (minus landscaping and some theming elements) as well as being in the early stages of commissioning. I couldn't tell you whether that delay was a failure on the park's end (they were also allocating resources to multiple different refurb projects), a skirmish with local inspection, or whether Zamp was having a tough time delivering hardware. Might even have been all three.
Another point to raise about Zamperla specifically is that their factory production works in waves. They like to fabricate similar groups of attractions at once, as its easier to produce a bunch of the same parts at once. A custom or very different attraction will enter a waitlist on their schedule, while buying something that a bunch of other clients purchased might allow the ride to be delivered quicker. I.e. the primary reason why Kings Island chose a half-capacity version of an Endeavor was because the larger version would have meant waiting another season, but other variants of the smaller version were scheduled for production and the team wouldn't have to pivot. My thesis in all of this is that Zamperla could have said that they needed more time to deliver what would obviously be a very custom attraction.
I don't know how much or if any of what I've said were actual reasons, am literally just spitballing. Getting hardware into the States might have ballooned the cost/timeline beyond feasibility for what it's really worth, maybe there were also better projects to prioritize (rethemes) that were more interesting/easier to pursue, who knows. A major non-coaster investment like this is certainly a choice though, I hope they pursue it again someday.
There's two other mainstream manufacturers off the top of my head that actively make these, Mettalbau Emmeln and Zamperla. Both are overseas, the former hardly ever works on US soil, and while United Parks can/could easily engage both I'd imagine there'd be a fair amount of customization involved that maybe would devolve into a multi-year project with all things considered.
Zamperla this past weekend actually oversaw the opening of Hot Wheels Turbo Drive, a major car ride project at Beto Carrero World in Brazil. Considering that it replaced a go-kart track and is extremely well presented I'd say this was a great attraction, but it took WAY too long to build. Work began in June 2024, and by November the ride was completed (minus landscaping and some theming elements) as well as being in the early stages of commissioning. I couldn't tell you whether that delay was a failure on the park's end (they were also allocating resources to multiple different refurb projects), a skirmish with local inspection, or whether Zamp was having a tough time delivering hardware. Might even have been all three.
Another point to raise about Zamperla specifically is that their factory production works in waves. They like to fabricate similar groups of attractions at once, as its easier to produce a bunch of the same parts at once. A custom or very different attraction will enter a waitlist on their schedule, while buying something that a bunch of other clients purchased might allow the ride to be delivered quicker. I.e. the primary reason why Kings Island chose a half-capacity version of an Endeavor was because the larger version would have meant waiting another season, but other variants of the smaller version were scheduled for production and the team wouldn't have to pivot. My thesis in all of this is that Zamperla could have said that they needed more time to deliver what would obviously be a very custom attraction.
I don't know how much or if any of what I've said were actual reasons, am literally just spitballing. Getting hardware into the States might have ballooned the cost/timeline beyond feasibility for what it's really worth, maybe there were also better projects to prioritize (rethemes) that were more interesting/easier to pursue, who knows. A major non-coaster investment like this is certainly a choice though, I hope they pursue it again someday.
