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Vekoma SLC's - Europe Only

CoasterNostalgie

CoasterNostalgie

Roller Poster
Hello! I am so extremely curious about the subject of Vekoma SLC's and I would love to hear anything you know about the models in Europe. I've only found rankings about American SLC's but now I want to collect some information about the European ones! I want to know how they feel - individually and compared to other ones. Tell me anything you have from experience or from what you know about European Vekoma SLC's.

The ones I am mostly curious about are Toxic Garden, Jaguar, Titánide, Vampire and Condor. But I will be super interested about any other ones you've tried!
Plus - if I've already ridden the Blue Tornado at Gardaland and found it traumatizing do you have any idea how the others compare to it?

It might sound crazy but I sometimes have a dream of building one of those coasters in my home city. I have only ridden one and I purely hated it but there is something that makes me very intrigued, this huge curiousity about those models. They are such and old vibe and so nostalgic.
 
They are horrible, pure torture, and should be torn down. They are all bottom tier with a few exceptions:
Mayan and Jaguar have the best restraints and are therefore a tiny bit less bad.
Condor is bottom of the bottom tier, even with new trains.
 
I’ve only done Infusion at Blackpool Pleasure Beach of the standard 689m models, but that is truly the bottom of the barrel and deserves every ounce of criticism it gets; it really is vile, and so, so rough!

I’ve also done Kumali at Flamingo Land, however. Kumali is a Shenlin model, and that was genuinely not bad at all; it’s a bit rough in places, but nothing terrible, and it actually has a relatively good layout with some fun bits! It’s not an absolute favourite of mine, but it’s not that rough at all and is certainly a fine, if not mind blowing, ride!
 
There is definitely some variation in quality between them. I haven't found them all to be dreadful, but most are at least a bit unpleasant.

I genuinely like Kumali. I think it rides well and has a nice layout (albeit short) with good inversions. Of the standard SLCs in Europe, I enjoy Roller Coaster Mayan the most, due to a mixture of relatively decent tracking and vest restraints.

Regarding the ones you asked about, I haven't ridden Jaguar or Titánide so I can't comment on them. I rode Toxic Garden back in 2012 when it was Limit, and I found it to be awful even by normal SLC standards. Worse than Condor, but that too was pretty bad. I haven't done Condor since it received the vest restraints, but I'm not sure I'll ever bother re-riding it with how much else there is to do at Walibi Holland. Vampire is the fairly normal level of SLC unpleasantness in my experience; not too bad if you hold your head to one side, but hardly much fun.

I personally thought Blue Tornado was fine but I'm aware that does not align with the consensus take at all; I think it's generally considered one of the worst SLCs.
 
I was riding oddesey this weekend and it's worth riding, but only maybe once or twice. It's the largest SLC ever built and he's a surprisingly steep drop. It's not the roughest, but it's far from smooth!
 
I rode Toxic Garden at Heide a couple weeks ago and thought it was just fine. As a rollercoaster experience discounting any theming elements, I enjoyed it more than anything at Hansa Park the next day. But I did ride the front seat every time and I've not ridden a single other SLC anywhere else.
 
Vampire gives me a headache and I choose not to ride it despite being a passholder at the park. It is nicely themed at least.
 
I've only done Infusion and Mayan, and honestly very different rides lol. Infusion is utter torture and everything wrong with Vekoma. Restraints that give you whiplash, heavy hard padding, and awkward transitions. Mayan is not butter smooth but feels a lot more refined. The restraints are good and the roughness is only a small fraction of Infusion.
 
Condor at Walibi Holland actually rides really well with the new trains in my opinion! It's the original one, for those who didn't know. WIll reride if no queue.

Mayan at Energylandia is okay but I still find it odd that someone built an SLC that late. It's not smooth. Will not reride.

Iron Claw at Movie Park Germany is the worst SLC we've ridden, sorry Movie Park but that entire end of the park needs flattening, and this is from someone who rode Elitch Gardens' SLC with a sunburn. Will categorically never, ever reride, even if you paid me.

Infusion at Blackpool is very middle-of-the-road for an SLC. WIll reride if no queue.

Kumali at Flamingoland is pretty smooth on the whole, with a few sudden jolts that spoil the smoothness, but nowhere near a bad ride. The fact it's the Shenlin layout helps it stand out a little too. WIll reride.

Oddysee (the only custom-layout SLC) is rough, but I kind of give it a free pass due to the sheer scale of it. I'd love to have seen them get the original approved height of 265ft which would have given it the title of Europe's tallest coaster* until Red Force came along, but people complained about sightlines, despite the fact it's on the Lincolnshire coast which is notoriously flat, and you can see the thing from miles away regardless. WIll reride.

Vampire at Walibi Belgium sucks, we will probably stop it on future visits. Will not reride.

That's all the SLC's in Europe I've ridden, plus the other one in Colorado, which I also will not reride.

* And world's tallest invert by a clear 70ft!!
 
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In my experience:

The Good
Kumali
Roller Coaster Mayan

The Bad
Infusion/Tramatizer
Vampire
Iron Claw

The Ugly
Condor
 
I like the layouts and quite enjoy the ones with vest restraints. Even if they're a bit rattly.

Won't go anywhere near those with the old restraints.
 
Now that T3 is dead for good, Limit and Condor are tied for worst SLC for me.

At least Limit contributes to Heide Park's fun skyline of white coaster track, but there's nothing redeemable about Condor.
 
I really don't think Infusion at BPB is as bad as enthusiasts like to make out. I think it's fun! Especially front row. I'm not as well travelled as most here though, so I haven't had a chance to get bored of the cloned layout. I wouldn't even call it rough, but maybe I have a higher tolerance to everyone else. Workin' class lad, can take a punch init ;) 😂

Odyssey at Fantasy Island was great, in the middle of the (hot AF) day with a full train. I was also on the last train of the day with about 3 other people and the thing shuffled and crawled around the layout, and was a bit more spiteful. That first drop is genuinely quite intimidating in the front row. I loved it!

Hopefully getting Kumali on the 16th June! My other half wouldn't go on it back in '16 as he doesn't do any kind of inverted ride but we're going with other people this time. Excited to finally get on that and Sik!
 
There are abismal SLCs all over the world. Anyone travelling could easily find their personal worst ever and have it so traumatic that everyone would have to agree. I've got my eager eye on the 2nd ever somewhere in Japan - that's gotta be a turd show.

Infusion isn't the worse worldwide to me but easily the worse in the UK (yes, I know). It's location will help it be called out here often.

You can also get lucky or find a passable SLC. So could someone else on one you particularly despise. I went on Kong thinking I found the bottom of the barrel. Then a friend who knows his creds told me about having a good ride on it a few years back. Inconceiveable to me but it still happened.
 
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