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Thorpe Park: What could the future hold?

toofpikk

Mega Poster
this has been and remains the best 'prediction' or 'concept' for the next thorpe coaster

as much as I love the idea of a woodie at thorpe, its gonna be a dive machine right?
 

Ethan

Strata Poster
I've just stumbled across this awesome B&M hyper coaster concept for Thorpe Park created by lancehutch:-

Definitely looks like a potential hyper coaster for Thorpe Park in the near future.

Does it though? I don't think the person behind this idea thought about cost/location much at all to be honest. Not saying it's a bad coaster, but it's just a cred plonked over water tbh.
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
this has been and remains the best 'prediction' or 'concept' for the next thorpe coaster
I'd love this but lets be realistic here. There's a few reasons why this won't be built.
  1. It's massive, meaning extremely high cost, and that's just on hardware, not to mention the groundwork and theming
  2. It's a MULTI launched RMC, and we know how reliable those are right now...
  3. This has block brakes, meaning multiple trains, potentially 3. You know we are discussing Thorpe right? o_O
  4. We've just had a multi launched ride built in the UK, where's the Merlin Marketability?
Again, I'd love this, but it's a pipe dream.

Edit - On the Hyper - That amount of supports in the water would be crazy expensive, and the land in that area is hardly stable. Much more likely to run along the railway behind Inferno if this gets the green light.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
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Since when are random, fantasy (that many supports over water, multi-launches), NL2 creations by fans considered to be anything more than that? Both the hyper and RMC are laughably unrealistic, and that's without bringing Merlin (and Thorpe) in to the equation.

They're nice pieces of NL2 work, but that's it. Let's be real, kids. C'mon.
 

Howie

Donkey in a hat
I've said this before, but my money is still on a GCI woodie.
It would only have to be 3350ft long, 90ft tall and go 50mph to claim the title of "UK's Longest, Tallest, Fastest Wooden Roller Coaster", and that record/tagline has got Thorpe Park written all over it. Would be an awful lot cheaper than a B&M hyper coaster too. In fact, it baffles me that they haven't done it already. o_O
 
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FarleyFlavors

Mega Poster
Didn't I read somewhere a long while back that Stealth had to get special planning permission because of its height? I can't find anything with a quick search, so maybe I dreamt it.
 

reed2play

Roller Poster
Yes there was, I believe although I maybe wrong it was something to do with Thorpe’s proximity to Heathrow airport.
 

Ethan

Strata Poster
I think it was about the view from local residents too, hence why the coaster is white after a certain height. If I remember correctly, Stealth was originally going to be 111ft tall (might be slightly off there) however they managed to push and get it to 205ft, however they couldn't build anything taller until 2018 or something like that?
 

Howie

Donkey in a hat
^Yes ^^yes and ^^^yes - all kinda true. I don't think it was "special planning permission" as such, there was no pre-existing height limit on new builds, it's just that Thorpe included lots of 'reassurances' in their application to keep the neighbours sweet and minimise the risk of refusal - things like painting the top half white to blend in with the skyline and promising not to build anything this tall again... at least for a while.
I'm fairly sure that time limit has passed now though, so in theory a hyper coaster taller than Stealth is not impossible, but it would still be subject to all the planning procedures as normal, not to mention the grumpy locals.
Mind you, around that same time period wasn't it also concluded that a wooden coaster would not be 'in keeping with the aesthetic of the area', and was ruled out? I wonder if that's still a thing, cos that would throw some doubt over my earlier theory of a GCI...
 
^Yes ^^yes and ^^^yes - all kinda true. I don't think it was "special planning permission" as such, there was no pre-existing height limit on new builds, it's just that Thorpe included lots of 'reassurances' in their application to keep the neighbours sweet and minimise the risk of refusal - things like painting the top half white to blend in with the skyline and promising not to build anything this tall again... at least for a while.
I'm fairly sure that time limit has passed now though, so in theory a hyper coaster taller than Stealth is not impossible, but it would still be subject to all the planning procedures as normal, not to mention the grumpy locals.
Mind you, around that same time period wasn't it also concluded that a wooden coaster would not be 'in keeping with the aesthetic of the area', and was ruled out? I wonder if that's still a thing, cos that would throw some doubt over my earlier theory of a GCI...
I'm surprised that Stanies/Chertsey even consider themselves to have an 'aesthetic'. What kind of aesthetic do they think they have?
If we are saying that there is a current aesthetic then I also struggle to see how a modern wooden coaster like a GCI would be anything apart from an improvement.
 

sandgrown

Mega Poster
I've said this before, but my money is still on a GCI woodie.
It would only have to be 3350ft long, 90ft tall and go 50mph to claim the title of "UK's Longest, Tallest, Fastest Wooden Roller Coaster", and that record/tagline has got Thorpe Park written all over it. Would be an awful lot cheaper than a B&M hyper coaster too. In fact, it baffles me that they haven't done it already. o_O

I tried starting a debate about this before. I'll try a final time. Surely the National is 6,604 feet long if you only count each side as 0.5 of a cred.
 

henryjwillis

Mega Poster
Yeah a hyper would be lovely (Mack or Intamin please, B&Ms look a bit bleh to me), as would an RMC but I'm putting my money on a mini dive. I'd welcome one like Valkyria but wouldn't be surprised by a mediocre OTBH/Krake style one. Would much prefer a mid sized snappy GCI, which doesn't seem too unrealistic either, especially with Wicker Man's reasonable success.
 
Yeah a hyper would be lovely (Mack or Intamin please, B&Ms look a bit bleh to me), as would an RMC but I'm putting my money on a mini dive. I'd welcome one like Valkyria but wouldn't be surprised by a mediocre OTBH/Krake style one. Would much prefer a mid sized snappy GCI, which doesn't seem too unrealistic either, especially with Wicker Man's reasonable success.
Summed up my thoughts exactly. I feel a B&M hyper at Thorpe would be a very predictable, out and back, classic Behemoth style layout. Whilst i'm sure that would be a good ride, the diversity that both Intamin and Mack have with their rides have the potential to make this project very interesting indeed.
Alas, I think you're right to suspect a 'meh' mini-dive like Krake or OTBH, as both those coasters are already at Merlin parks. RMC I just can't see coming to Thorpe as I don't think Merlin would spend the money on a ground up hybrid or woody and a raptor wouldn't have the put through that they want. Mid-sized GCI or Mini-dive i'll agree are the most likely. It's really gutting as Thorpe is my local park and i'd love to see something that could really be considered a top 50 coaster, or even top 25. Crossed fingers are all I have for this one.
 

Peet

Giga Poster
I'd be extremely surprised if it's a dive coaster - "New for Thorpe Park 2020: basically the same ride that Alton Towers got 22 years ago"! It will not bring in the crowds and Merlin won't be foolish enough to think that it will.

I can't decide what would be better out of a B&M hyper, an RMC, or a GCI - any would be worth the wait. However I shall prepare myself for a disappointment - I believe the Fabbri spinner at Gardaland has proved very popular!
 
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