Re: Skyrush is closed for this season:
I don't think Intamin are innovators as such, but they are willing to push boundaries more than Vekoma and certainly more than B&M.
If you look at the standard installs.
Vekoma-SLCs and Boomerangs (and even the GIBs), they're not great rides in terms of comfort. They fit comfortably in a set, flat area of land and are mediocre/
B&M-The majority of their installs are across greenfield sites. They may not be flat (such as Nemesis and Black Mamba), but they rarely are crammed into an area where they have to interact with other rides or environmental obstacles. They're not all the same as they do follow different routes, but the actual pressures on B&M to force the coasters into something a little extreme, they just seem to avoid doing.
Intamin-Megalites? Rides like the Superman coasters and Expedition GE Force? Millennium Force? These are standard Intamin models and like B&M, they are working with a very open and easy path to route their coasters through. They simply don't have any issues with these coasters, they run as maintenance free as a B&M. Even the rocket coasters, which tend to put things under a lot of pressure, are pretty reliable- there's a payoff there for a serious 'popular' thrill ride against an extra bit of maintenance and the occasional cable snap.
Then look at the custom installs, the one offs or the special requests
Vekoma-Absolutely fantastic. They supply Disney with a great range of reliable coasters. RnR and EE you would never guess are made by the same company that produce Mind Eraser. It's almost as though they're slapdash in their standard production, but because they need to pay attention to special orders, they get it perfect. However, how many of those installs really push boundaries?
B&M-I can't think of anything they've done that really fits here. Daemonen? Nemesis as mentioned above? Even there though, they're working in a tight space, but not a particularly awkward one. Leviathan may fit in here, but they made the coaster just a larger version to sweep over things, that's an oddity I admit.
Intamin-This is where they seem to get it wrong. Or right, depending on your point of view. The flexibility of the company to produce what the park wants, and to cram in a coaster where they like is fantastic. However, pushing the boundaries means that they're always going into new territories in coaster design. So even if they are using a "standard" kind of model (like with i305, which kind of is), they're being asked to fit in a 300+ft coaster into a space that can't handle one. So they do their best. Volcano is a "dream" ride, in that it's the kind of ride somebody dreams about and thinks "this would be so cool" and it IS a cool ride. So yeah, I think if you look at the rides that are shoehorned in, or specials, they're doing the opposite of Vekoma, they're just not quite getting it right, but they are almost back to the drawing board each time.
It's all quite interesting I suppose, but if you ask somebody to push the envelope, then don't expect it to be smooth sailing all the way.
