Intimidator 305 - Kings Dominion Giga coaster

[Snoo]

As Lance at Screamscape pointed out.. I don't think that the OTSR's are for the brakes.. because you are perfectly safe and comfortable on TTD hitting the brakes going 120mph.. and even with the short brake run, you won't be traveling THAT fast. Hell.. hitting the brakes on MF going 40-50mph (not 60.. jesus).. you hardly go too far forward. And even when you do, it is only for 2-3 seconds.

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

[quoet](not 60.. jesus).. you hardly go too far forward. And even when you do, it is only for 2-3 seconds.[/quote]

I heard Millie's speed never falls below 60 besides when it's cresting hills .

Either way though, the brakes on the newer Intamin coasters are usually pretty gradual, not like on older Arrows or even some Vekoma SLCs where you get like, whiplash.. Double Loop being a good example of that .

 

[A-Kid]

Those restraints can only be there to support you for those mavvy turns.

This ride is a giant dissapointment... One of Millies best features was the amount of freedom you get, which makes it very fun. You'd get none on this.

 

[Gazza]

Those restraints can only be there to support you for those mavvy turns.

Dunno, I mean, Jet Rescue has Maverick type transitions with lapbars and without any sort of upper body support.

 

[Dave]

This ride is a giant dissapointment...

As if! Its a great announcement, great drop, great turns, great swooping turn, why invest £25m in a big dissapointment, if you wanted that then look at SAW . I think its great for the park and bring in customers from all across the state and other states. Will be a great year for Kings Dominion! Shame about the name

 

[A-Kid]

Saw wasn't dissapointing though, its fine. I got what I expected. I.e a half arsed ride.

This however is a waste...

 

[tomahawk]

Alright, so I have three opinions on this coaster

First off, I have to give a standing ovation to Kinzel. Way. To. Go. You. Arse. I really should NOT be surprised by this low blow move, in which you virtually gave every park, except CP of course, the bird. With this BLATANT stance of, NOBODY gets anything taller than anything at CP, you once again, show your true colors.

Second, I must tip my hat to you as well. You have just reached out to an 80 million+ person fanbase by touching up with NASCAR fans. Now, it may not be popular to us, but there is so much more marketability to it! Each race, I will all but expect to see a sign for this coaster somewhere. It is pure marketing genius. I would not be surprised, I will be surprised if it does not happen, if NASCAR/Cedar Fair run a promotion, in which you attend a race, you get a discounted ticket to any Cedar Fair park, and KD is a lower rate. I can see NASCAR themed coasters coming to almost every Cedar Fair park in the next 3-5 years. Marketability is at the top, NASCAR is the fastest growing sport, and yes I classify it as a sport, because it takes skill to drive at those speeds, that close to each other etc. (it will be a scary day when there are women driving in NASCAR, besides Danica Patrick if she ever makes the jump.) All kidding aside, NASCAR is only second to UFC in growing fanbase, so great move.


Third, and final point, the actual coaster. With the ultimate b-slap by Kinzel to KD, at 305 feet I expected more. The track length which is what disappoints me most really. 5,100 feet is really not much at all for a coaster of this size. Now I am a hater on MF, as it is forceless, but I have a feeling this will have some strong forces, but with minimal airtime. The drop will be amazing, but I don't know what I was expecting, but it was more than this.

Could it be good? I expect it to still be a good coaster. Great? That may be a stretch. World class? No.

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

This however is a waste...

Kay, nobody can call it a waste or say in a surefire manner that "this ride is going to suck". You can say "I think I am a bit disappointed by it and don't THINK it will ride as good as I hoped", but to say matter-of-factly that it will suck or is a waste, makes you look stupid, because NOBODY here has ridden the thing. Hell, I thought Maverick looked like a waste when it was first installed at Cedar Point.. Boy was I wrong, and I hope this is another case of "looks disappointing, but rides good".

 

[Martyn B]

This must surely have been based on being a Mega-lite, the comparison is uncanny. This is obviously a Super-Heavy.

One thing though, the layout seems rather short for such a large coaster...trims?

And I wouldn't judge this ride by the POV, the first hill is like half the height of the lift hill, it should fly over it quicker than shown in the video's.

Overall verdict of what I see, it seems odd, I dunno why. Its too short for how big it is, with too many twists for my liking. But, at the end of the day, I'd be over the friggin moon if this was being built near me

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

^ That's exactly what I was thinking, about how some people from the UK are putting it down, but oh jeez if this was being built at Thorpe or Alton (which obviously will never happen but still), everyone would say it was the best thing ever!

 

[gavin]

^True dat.

I think some people are being slightly over critical, but, at the same time, I can understand the disappointment. We haven't seen anything built on this scale for a long time. It's natural to want to be blown away by it. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like any of us have been as yet.

The more I look at it, the less I like it to be honest. Obviously, we need to wait until it opens. Obviously, a few pictures can't come close to giving us the ride experience. I really want this coaster to work, but most of those hills don't look like they'll do a lot. I'm reminded of Thunder Dolphin's low "airtime" hill, which is taken very quickly, but doesn't have enough height difference to give any airtime, other than a bit of floater if you're very lucky.

Saying that, some people on here insisted that the Megalite's S-bend hills would give no airtime, which we know couldn't have been more wrong. Hopefully, we're wrong about the hills here, too.

 

[marc]

I loved the s-bends on the megalite, well all did . Tbh I was shocked by the Megalite that coaster left a very good impression on me, it had a good mixture of force and airtime.

Taylor we can not even have a coaster of this height in the UK . If you look at my posts about Thorpe and Alton you would see that I do not praise the coasters there at all.

 

[Tony]

At first I was a little bit disappointed with the layout but after watching the off-ride videos I think it looks pretty awesome actually. I don't really mind the Intamin OTSR's so I'm not too bothered that it has them even though I would prefer lapbars but oh well...

 

[bob_3_]

I think this ride will have a lot more air-time than people expect.

 

[Ollie]

The layout is pretty **** but it does have a good pace. Not too bothered about this coaster really. It's nothing to get excited about.

 

[Comet]

I've been looking around RCDB concerning the history of Intamin restraints and I thought this was interesting (I could be completely wrong and may have missed a coaster or two that ruins my theory but anyway...)

Xcelerator and Top Thrill Dragster were built in 2002 and 2003 back when they were still doing hypers which used the T-Bar, and the modern day Intamin OTSR had not even been used yet. That is why I believe these two coasters are the only accelerators with T-Bars. Then ever since 2004 when they came out with the OTSR for Storm Runner, Intamin has used that on pretty much all of their coasters and never looked back. This is probably because they believe that they are not restricting restraints at all and are actually comfortable.

Anyway, I don't really think there is a reason that this new coaster has OTSR (Same for Kingda Ka, Stealth, and Rita) other than the fact that Intamin actually prefers them.

Not too sure how to explain how Mega-Lites got lucky with the T-Bar though, haha

 

[coasterdude_1]

I think this ride will have a lot more air-time than people expect.

I agree... unless any of you designed this, I don't think you're in a criticism to penalise a supposed lack of airtime yet.

I mean, look at the megalites- they start off with a comparatively (to their own layout) large hill, then provide a ton of airtime all the way through, and the layout does bear a few key resemblances.

The transitions look pretty wicked and like they'll give some awesome pops of airtime as you go through them... in fact, one of my favourite moments of Rita is straight after the launch as you suddenly bank to turn right- if you're sitting on the right hand side of the train, the seat literally drops out from below for a few moments in a quasi-airtime feeling- and the transitions here look like theyll do that...

Besides, even if the drops the only awesome bit, it's nice to see designers attempt a longer large-coaster layouts again...

 

[Mark]

In terms of Airtime, I remember certain members saying that the Mega-Lite would have no airtime on the smaller airtime s-bend things.... They were vastly wrong.

This is probably going to be the same. I think it is likely to have quite a lot of airtime.

 

[Snoo]

I've been looking around RCDB concerning the history of Intamin restraints and I thought this was interesting (I could be completely wrong and may have missed a coaster or two that ruins my theory but anyway...)

Xcelerator and Top Thrill Dragster were built in 2002 and 2003 back when they were still doing hypers which used the T-Bar, and the modern day Intamin OTSR had not even been used yet. That is why I believe these two coasters are the only accelerators with T-Bars. Then ever since 2004 when they came out with the OTSR for Storm Runner, Intamin has used that on pretty much all of their coasters and never looked back. This is probably because they believe that they are not restricting restraints at all and are actually comfortable.

Anyway, I don't really think there is a reason that this new coaster has OTSR (Same for Kingda Ka, Stealth, and Rita) other than the fact that Intamin actually prefers them.

Not too sure how to explain how Mega-Lites got lucky with the T-Bar though, haha

Lets not forget all their woodies!

 

[MouseAT]

Well, after my visit to Kings Dominion last year, I had no desire to return. Now they're building this and I can safely say I've still no desire to go back to that park.

The layout looks decidedly "meh". There are very few decent size hills, it hugs the ground far too much, and although I don't mind the Intamin OTSRs too much, those snappy high speed turns are almost certainly going to be uncomfortable if you've got your arms in the air.

No thanks. I think I'll give KD a miss if I'm back on the East Coast.