Formula Rossa SBNO

[Peet]

I just noticed that according to rcdb, Formula Rossa has been SBNO since 22nd January:

Formula Rossa - Ferrari World Abu Dhabi (Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)

Looking for statistics on the fastest, tallest or longest roller coasters? Find it all and much more with the interactive Roller Coaster Database.

rcdb.com

The Ferrari World website confirms that it is closed until further notice:

Formula Rossa - The World's Fastest Roller Coaster

Experience the world’s fastest roller coaster only at Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi. Enjoy a thrilling ride like nowhere else. Discover Formula Rossa.

www.ferrariworldabudhabi.com

More trouble for the super-fast roller coasters of the world!

 

[JoshC.]

Simple thread, with some news which isn't really news but possibly worth keeping an eye on.

Formula Rossa has been SBNO since 22nd January...that's just over 5 months now. Very little information is out there on what is wrong; the website has displayed "Formula Rossa is unavailable until further notice" that entire time.

I've heard some rumours that the launch cable snapped, but I have nothing to back that up beyond some murmurs. Even then, would a snapped cable take over 5 months to repair Obviously with Intamin moving away from hydraulic launches, it is possible that it'll take longer to create replacement parts. And Formula Rossa pushes the boundaries even further, which could create further issues.

So yeah, not new news at the moment, and very little to go on, but definitely worth keeping an eye on for now...

 

[BobaFett]

I want to visit Dubai and Abu Dhabi this winter, but I am still hesitant to book with Formula Rossa being closed. I sent Ferrari World an E-Mail and got the standard response: "Kindly be advised that we do not have any update about the opening time of fourmella rossa."
So yeah, with no official information around, we can just rely on rumours at the moment. Weird, that there is no official information after 5 months.

 

[Peet]

I did put this in the small news topic a couple of days ago but I guess it got lost:
https://coasterforce.com/forums/threads/small-news-from-the-theme-park-industry.42689/post-1174713

But yeah 5 months is too long to be explained by a launch cable replacement or any other maintenance activity. It is concerning, after TTD and Dodonpa's recent dates.

 

[JoshC.]

I did put this in the small news topic a couple of days ago but I guess it got lost:
https://coasterforce.com/forums/threads/small-news-from-the-theme-park-industry.42689/post-1174713

But yeah 5 months is too long to be explained by a launch cable replacement or any other maintenance activity. It is concerning, after TTD and Dodonpa's recent dates.

Whoops, I did completely miss that!

But yeah, after other issues we've seen with high-speed coasters, along with the extreme temperatures in Abu Dhabi for a hydraulic launch coaster to operate, there's certainly cause for a level of concern

 

[Pokemaniac]

As @Peet said in the other thread:

More trouble for the super-fast roller coasters of the world!

This made me think for a bit. Sure, some super-fast coasters have had trouble recently, but not, uhh ...

Then I realized I couldn't even tell off the top of my head which coaster is the second fastest in the world at the moment, factoring in all the recent news. All the usual suspects are down for the count. So I decided to head to RCDB and find a list of the fastest coasters ever built. And boy was it a fascinating list to go through:

1. Falcon's Flight | Six Flags Qiddiya: 250 km/h - Not yet opened.
2. Formula Rossa | Ferrari World Abu Dhabi: 240 km/h - SBNO
3. Kingda Ka | Six Flags Great Adventure: 206 km/h - Operating
4. Top Thrill 2 | Cedar Point: 193 km/h - SBNO
5. Do-Dodonpa | Fuji-Q Highland: 180 km/h - Demolished
6. Red Force | Ferrari Land: 180 km/h - Operating
7. Superman: Escape from Krypton | Six Flags Magic Mountain: 161 km/h - Hasn't operated at top speed for many years
8. Tower of Terror II | Dreamworld: 161 km/h - Demolished
9. Ring Racer | Nürburgring: 160 km/h - SBNO
10. Steel Dragon 2000 | Nagashima Spaland: 153 km/h - Operating

So we're down to three of the all-time top 10 being in operation at the moment. Four if you don't consider Falcon's Flight yet, but count #11 - Fury 325 - instead.

What's more, among this top three, only Red Force was built within the last 18 years. Only it and Fury 325/Falcon's Flight are younger than 10 years (the former will turn 10 before the latter opens, if they can get it to open at all). And let's not forget that both Steel Dragon 2000 and Fury 325 had some rather nasty troubles for a while. I can't remember off the top of my head whether Kingda Ka has had any extended downtime, but I can't seem to recall it.

So if we set up a new top 10 of coasters currently operating, here it is:

1. Kingda Ka | Six Flags Great Adventure | 206 km/h
2. Red Force | Ferrari Land | 180 km/h
3. Steel Dragon 2000 | Nagashima Spaland | 153 km/h
4. Fury 325 | Carowinds | 153 km/h
5. Millennium Force | Cedar Point | 150 km/h
6. Leviathan | Canada's Wonderland | 148 km/h
7. Orion | King's Island | 147 km/h
8. Project 305 | King's Dominion | 145 km/h
9. Hyperion | Energylandia | 142 km/h
10. Phantom's Revenge | Kennywood | 137 km/h

Interestingly, the Top 10 all-time list is absolutely dominated by launch coasters, which only take up the top two spots on the Operating Top 10. The next one would be Furius Baco at #13.

 

[Crazycoaster]

I feel like Ring Racer shouldn’t even be considered as an operational rollercoaster considering it opened for 4 days.

 

[Hixee]

Moderator note: I moved @Peet's post from the Small News thread into this one started by @JoshC.. Hence the slightly janky looking first two posts in this thread.

 

[Rupert]

Not really topic-specific (other than thanks to Pokemaniac’s work I can now say I’ve been on the fastest operating coaster in the world [and it was bad]), but really just wanted to shout out @Pokemaniac ’s more analytical posts like in this topic and many others - always interesting, insightful and often data-driven analyses that the rest of us don’t always think of that add a lot to the forum - thanks!

 

[cocoa]

damn as if phantoms revenge sneaks in there at 10

 

[Crazycoaster]

Almost unbelievably so.. how on earth does it reach speeds of 85mph? It’s shorter than Hyperia, which has a vertical drop, yet somehow faster by 5mph. Something tells me Kennywood have rounded up.

 

[Steely Dan]

Almost unbelievably so.. how on earth does it reach speeds of 85mph? It’s shorter than Hyperia, which has a vertical drop, yet somehow faster by 5mph. Something tells me Kennywood have rounded up.

PR's big 228' drop is actually its second drop. The first drop of 160' leads into a hill that's maybe 120' tall (just guessing here) followed by the epic 228' dive down into the ravine, for a total elevation delta of ~270'.

Being that the train carries some speed from the first drop up and over the top of that second hill, and down into the big ravine drop, 85 mph doesn't seem implausible to me.

 

[dixhuit]

Whoops, I did completely miss that!

But yeah, after other issues we've seen with high-speed coasters, along with the extreme temperatures in Abu Dhabi for a hydraulic launch coaster to operate, there's certainly cause for a level of concern

I wonder how long Falcon Flight will last… I hope we will not witnessing another Ring Racer…

 

[Pokemaniac]

I wonder how long Falcon Flight will last… I hope we will not witnessing another Ring Racer…

Just from reviewing the scope of Falcon's Flight, it would surprise me greatly if they can make it run reliably. It is such a big coaster, with so many things that can go wrong, any of which can put the coaster out of operation for hours, days, weeks, or months. And so much wear and tear, which will make the operational costs extremely high. They are hoping for it to recuperate those costs by attracting millions of visitors, but considering how well the parks in Dubai are doing, I have my doubts that it will play out as planned. I think I'll expect 2-3 years of attempts to keep the coaster running, then partial operations for a while, before going SBNO indefinitely.

 

[Leon_K]

Just from reviewing the scope of Falcon's Flight, it would surprise me greatly if they can make it run reliably. It is such a big coaster, with so many things that can go wrong, any of which can put the coaster out of operation for hours, days, weeks, or months. And so much wear and tear, which will make the operational costs extremely high. They are hoping for it to recuperate those costs by attracting millions of visitors, but considering how well the parks in Dubai are doing, I have my doubts that it will play out as planned. I think I'll expect 2-3 years of attempts to keep the coaster running, then partial operations for a while, before going SBNO indefinitely.

Not even mentioning the fact that this ride with so many technical parts is standing in a desert that occasionally suffers from sandstorms . Can we just honestly admit that this project is just a ridiculous prestige project?

 

[Geeky Pastimes]

If the plans for the F1 track and rest of the Qiddiya resort go ahead, I'm assuming they'll keep pumping the cash in to keeping it running until that all opens, so hopefully we'll get a good few years of it running!
I think the F1 track is meant to be 2030 isn't it?

 

[FogZog]

So I get Falcons Flights is a crazy, innovative, mind boggling coaster project. But aren't these "technical elements" just LSM launches? Which have been used for years. The coaster might get through a few wheels more quickly than the average coaster and have to run in much higher temparatures. But surely a ride like Voltron is much more complicated than this? Idk, I feel like it will be fine.

 

[ViperGTS500]

So I get Falcons Flights is a crazy, innovative, mind boggling coaster project. But aren't these "technical elements" just LSM launches? Which have been used for years. The coaster might get through a few wheels more quickly than the average coaster and have to run in much higher temparatures. But surely a ride like Voltron is much more complicated than this? Idk, I feel like it will be fine.

FF will prob have hundreds and hundreds of sensors throughout the track course. If just one messes up/"senses" incorrect=ride shuts down...

 

[JoshC.]

So I get Falcons Flights is a crazy, innovative, mind boggling coaster project. But aren't these "technical elements" just LSM launches? Which have been used for years. The coaster might get through a few wheels more quickly than the average coaster and have to run in much higher temparatures. But surely a ride like Voltron is much more complicated than this? Idk, I feel like it will be fine.

Yeah, I'm on this trail of thought more at the moment. Yeah, there's a lot of things which could cause the ride to stop, but that's true of any coaster.

I think the biggest issue I forsee is the fact that part of the ride is on a literal cliff, and how do they go about regular checks on that and, more importantly, how do they deal with a shutdown where it's necessary for them to check out that part of the ride? Are they going to use drones?

 

[Hixee]

Are they going to use drones?

Actually a pretty valid idea. It's becoming increasingly more trusted on major civil engineering projects (buildings/bridges/pylons/railways/etc) - much quicker and safer, and the camera technology (resolutions, filters for infrared, image processing algorithms, repeatability, etc) are becoming so good that it's an amazing first step. You can very quickly hone in on "okay, this is the bit we need to send a person up to" - rather than "guess you're inspecting the entire structure by eye".

Not bulletproof just yet, but getting there.