The Really Sad Part About Top Thrill 2's Closure - This Sucks
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- Опубликовано: 21 ноя 2024
- Cedar Point just announced that Top Thrill 2 will remain closed through the rest of 2024 and won't reopen until 2025. I have some thoughts about a really sad comparison between Top Thrill 2 and Top Thrill Dragster.
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I feel really bad for Zamperla. This isn’t looking good for them from a public relations standpoint.
Oh no poor multi million dollar corporation not being able to fulfill promises. They prioritized money over capability of actually being able to do it properly. Shame on them. Corporate greed buddy. Grade A example.
If they actually pull this off then your comment will mean nothing.
@@Sonic-gy7kq "Prioritizing money" as if they didn't want this to be a success and it's failure would probably bankrupt them or ruin their image and future work at the very least. You sound a like a commie screaming muh corporate greed but could never be able to call the shots or man a company a 1/100th of it's size.
To be honest. Zamperla never build any top tier coaster. so why would you go to them? I mean the Volare Coaster are the worst. there Bike coasters are OK... The Looping Coaster in Coney Island is Terrible. The one in China that open 3 years ago is also a headbanger. so why would you go to them and not Intamin? because they have beef, because of the Watercoaster? Maybe... still zamperla would be the last company i go to. they are now what Vekoma was 20 years ago.
@@Vinny52300if they could pull it off, that'd be great for them and I'd have to tip my cap, but they won't. This was an extremely ambitious project based off them re-constructing one (1) low-to-the-ground Accelerator and immediately deciding they can do anything. This project is simply out of their scope. I've worked on a fair few Zamperla rides and both the quality and quantity is just not there for a ride like TT2. Unless their coaster department is leaps and bounds ahead of their flat rides departments, it will not go the way they want it to
0:40 those look very much like strain gauges. put extremely simply: by attaching them to the surface of a material you can measure the tiny amount the material compresses and stretches under load. From this you can learn a lot about the loads on each particular area as well as how well the material will hold up in the long term.
These trains used a lot of unique materials and manufacturing methods. Zamperla definitely wanted to innovate their train designs and they did so on a train that goes faster than the vast majority of coasters. They have sophisticated models to predict how the design holds up to the forces but computer models are only as good as what the engineers put in them. They're not perfect either and sometimes they miss things. Luckily, we're not talking about a catastrophic failure and I'm certain these problems were caught long before it became dangerous. The cost and safety standards of roller coasters make it difficult to iterate on the designs so I hope Zamperla can get these problems addressed quickly. signed, an engineer.
There were rumors there were cracks in the chassis. But, again, only rumors.
something something aluminum lol
and it's not like they didn't know the forces involved. more than half the ride has existed for 21 years.
@@brendan123Now there's rumors that the top hat supports are cracked
@@protowave completely different launch system and trains. Can’t assume the forces on the trains are 1:1 even though it’s traversing the same section of track
Could it be related to the launch track? (or switch track) looks like there is a pretty big jolt during it and you can see the train wobble on the track. I would think something like that is normal but at 100+ mph it might be a force they didn’t plan for
3:07 Cedar WHAT?!
Ha Ha Cedar “porn” 😂.
Lmao
LMAO 🤣💀
Even captions heard it
😭
I got to ride TT2 twice on a passholder preview event and holy $hit it's a hell of a ride, but swear the whole time in line I was concerned on how much the trains rattled/bounced back and forth on the track. You did not feel this while riding, which made for an incredible ride experience. I rode 3rd row from back Gray and 2nd row to front Blue. Please get this fixed in 2025, it'll make so many people happy, it's a great ride fr
Before they closed TT2 I commented that the trains were wobbling .I felt it and I was actually concerned but everyone blew it off. I thought maybe it was just me and perhaps it was a gust of wind or something. I felt it when coming back down from the spike and up to the top hat. I only got one ride and it was the black train.
I felt the wobble/shimmy on it as well.
I rode it once the first Monday it was open. First I noticed while waiting in line how large the tires on these trains are. After riding the first thing I thought was how it was quite a bit rougher than I remember Top Thrill Dragster. I was not surprised by the announced closing. Disappointed for sure. Also to note, Cedar Point's attendance is up 17% this season compared to last. I'm sure they sold a lot more gold passes on people anticipating actually riding Top Thrill 2.
Correction, Superman at MM is known as *INTENSE JET NOISES* - The Ride
Too bad it was closed while I was recording
You can hear that 💩 from the highway driving by SuperVinlin
Yea, it's the "walking past Goliath and you suddenly pooped yourself"
if you can believe it, it was even louder with the old trains before it was converted to backwards
@@lyingdogfacedponysoldier201 I honestly didn't notice, so now that you mention it it does seem like it was reduced a bit; still plenty loud though, which is why I hadn't noticed EntropyWins
People are wishing death on zamperla is even more disturbing.
Jeez people are toxic.
that's awful. people need to calm the F down
@Themeparkfan630 the coaster community as a whole is incredibly toxic towards anything new. They're all brand loyalists and if it isn't Mack, B&M, Intamin, or RMC, they don't want anything to deal with it.
@greatplanesman yeah I've definitely noticed that.
@woody72691 I just wish that everything will work out for the best for this ride and Zamperla.
I hope Zamperla doesn’t suffer the same fate as Arrow Dynamics did when they tried something new.
@@christiwright3604 I don't want zamperla going bankrupt either, but at least arrow was extremely innovative. Zamperla has innovated on... Um...
As long as there’s a flat ride market they’ll be fine
I'd imagine their rollercoaster division could be hurt until they get TT2 up and running but they have the advantage of a healthy flat ride division. Arrow didn't so there was nothing to help them out when B&M showed up with their revolutionary engineering and basically took all of their potential big looping coaster projects. Arrrow took too long to innovate their product and that opened the door to competitors. The same was probably going to happen to Vekoma but their R&D department made radical changes that proved to work in 2016.
@@SkyrushFanboy There are more to innovation than roller coasters. Zamperla are legends in the Amusement industry as their chokehold on children rides and flat rides shows.
Arrow changed the theme park industry forever with X/X2. How dare you compare them to zamperla installing a vertical spike and LSM (20 year old technology...) onto an existing coaster. Thats a joke. What Intamin did to dragster is worthy of comparing to X/X2 with "trying something new" and risking their image.
It looks like the computer modeling didn't take into account the severe track oscillations we've been seeing, especially on the pull up section. Wondering if this is caused by oscillations being quickly magnified by the 3 successive launches, rather than being easily dissipated after the single launch of TTD. Or maybe it has something to do with the implementation of the LSM system. Or maybe it's just the top heavy trains. Or maybe a combination of all 3.
The top heavy trains center of rotation is different, so the twists force isnt centered, it adds too much force to the track and create micro fractures,
the tophat track is still the old one... so from what ive heard it will need a re-track which will take lotsa time
I saw this coming unfortunately. Hopefully, everything goes well next year, but huge embarrassment for Zamperla
Not more embarrassing than intamin had on rides like ttd, kinda ka, or mack with hyperion, or steel curtain, or or or...
I want to thank you for talking about the cost and the whole Intamin situation because certain other channels are saying the CP went with the cheapest option and Intamin wanted too much money blah blah blah. they're also saying things like the supports for the top hat are cracked and the whole top hat has to be re-built which is just making shit up in my opinion. maybe you can't blame people for speculating because Cedar Point has not been forthcoming with information but it still makes me mad. I'm rooting for Zamperla and I really hope it's fixed and ready to go next season
Same! And there's some people wishing death threats on the company, just really nasty
this story just seems weird to me, personally... why would intamin drag their feet and insist on removing iron dragon? my understanding is that usually when the parks call out manufacturers they have very clearly defined boundaries and plots of lands where they would build the ride. if cedar point said "we want an lsm reimagining of dragster at this plot of land with at most one new element", intamin would surely propose a vertical loop, a swing launch of their own, idk, but something within those bounds! i don't see how they would have a proposal bulldozing iron dragon when that's now what cedar point asked for
@@wolfieeeee256 and to think most of those people in real life wouldn't say boo to another person about ... anything, for better or worse.
I think a lot of the rumors that issues with the tracks or cracked supports are because there have been some videos showing crews doing what appears to be magnetic particle inspection
@@colinburroughs9871Its hard to say “boo” to anyone when you’re alone in your parents basement trolling. Everyone’s a tough guy online these days…
On the brightside, at least this doesn't seem as problematic as Steel Curtain at Kennywood, which opened 5 years ago and is still having issues!
This comparison doesn't make any sense. These coasters were not opened on the same year. We don't know within 5 years that it won't be in the same place as steel curtain. Hopefully in 5 years TT2 will be running reliably but we don't know that it will.
@@colinschmitz8297 Steel Curtain is mind boggling to me with maxx force at my home park. I never seen maxx force down for longer than 2 hours, but yet because of steel curtain people who never rode maxx force are saying it has reliability issues too 💀
i don't understand how scurt keeps having problems... it's just a lift and brakes what could possibly be going wrong i don't understand 😭
@matheuscastello6554 I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with the coaster and everything to do with the concrete footers in the ground. Basically, it's built on swampland or uneven soil, or they didn't compact the soil enough, and the footers are sinking and moving around. Not sure if they subcontract that out or what
Famous last words bro
I think it's really unfortunate that people are blaming zamperla so much. Intamin's 3 400-foot coasters had extremely similar problems - some caused even longer closures than this!
With the original Dragster - 4 different mechanical issues happened: a loose cable, a faulty valve, a hydraulic issue, then a loose catch car each managed to take the ride down for a few days to a few weeks.
Additionally, Kingda Ka was down for almost 2 months in its opening year, then 3 more weeks the next year.
Then Superman: Escape from Krypton, the original 400-foot Intamin coaster, was delayed for over 10 months due to issues with the launch.
TLDR: Intamin wasn't much better than Zamperla is now.
It's no secret intiman 20 yrs ago wasn't known for reliability. All new rides have bugs we get that but most don't botch the design of trains. Using an up and coming manufacturer to work on the most unreliable coaster ever built was dumb.
@garywillis7253 alright we get it.
The difference now is that we have access to social media, so now everyone can complain about things day in and day out non-stop within minutes of them happening. Also, our patience for things has absolutely plummeted. I know it’s disappointing that this thing couldn’t work like it was supposed to this year, and I know Zamperla was way overzealous about what they could do, but if we wish death to every manufacturer that has ever made a mistake (like we pretty much are now), then we’re going to run out of manufacturers pretty darn quickly lol. It will never be worth the risk to push the envelope ever again if this is how people are going to complain.
@@MinkyBoodle44 That's true! This is exactly the kind of issue that made Cedar Fair stop working with Intamin back in 2010, and all of use are sad about it. Now Zamperla is having some of the same troubles and we're rooting _against_ them? Granted, Zamperla's existing coasters are not as good as Intamin's were, but this still seems like an overreaction. The people at Zamperla are probably stressed enough as it is with this, I wish that more people were supportive of them.
@@garywillis7253 Intamin still makes unreliable rides. Just look at Hagrids...what a disaster. And it STILL isn't even running at full capacity
I rode it on day 2 on the silver train and it def had a bad rattle! Ugh! New trains? New track? I smell a new Eltoro Ryan video coming on the failures of TT2!
OMG A RATTLE ITS THE END OF THE WORLD 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱, bro it's not that serious.
@@Themeparkfan630You described how I feel about people complaining about new B&Ms having a rattle
@@jarretstroud1842 lol
@@Themeparkfan630Either you love Banshee for the layout or hate Banshee for the rattle 🤷♂️ average enthusiast
@@Themeparkfan630 I agree a minor rattle isn't a big deal but for a coaster that just opened it's a problem. It likely won't take long for it to get extremely rough (assuming they get the thing to freakin work)
I am not an engineer so all of this is just my opinion, but let's not hate on Zamperla, they're new to the big thrill game and doing everything they can. It's a prototype train that's running on track that was designed for dragster's trains. You cam tell that the heartlining is off which is why the forces are so wild. If what Brandon from Theme Park Predictions is saying about structural failures is true, that's likely why. They have a high center of gravity and flying over that top hat probably doesnt help either. I will say, sway is definitely there on that first "rollback." The track on the pull-up shifts pretty noticeably, at least from what off ride footage I've seen. All this likely contributed to the wear in the wheel bogies too.
I think Zamperla would’ve been fine if they had tried this technology and train design before. Trying it on the worlds 3rd fastest coaster was a stretch and something they weren’t ready for
Such an unfortunate situation all around :( I really hope they get everything squared away for the 2025 season because this ride truly takes your breath away
I met a woman at Canada’s Wonderland who made it to the Top Thrill 2 media day, she got on it 22 times, lucky!
22 doesn't even sound fair😂
Geeze i feel lucky for one ride
I find it super odd to know TT2 was fully constructed before January of 2024, and was testing during the winter and spring of 2024, and how this train issue seemingly came up within 5 days of the park being open. And being fully computer designed trains I wonder how off were their calculations for the trains and how different will they be for 2025
Exactly. It's not "nice" to say it, but they were obviously way in over their heads and it's a major failure on CP that they took this gamble. Lessons learned
It's scary to think about. They had an insane amount of time for testing this stuff
@@j.johnson7891 Same thing with S&S making Steel Curtain. Kennywood could've hired Mack or Intamin but they took a risk on a cheaper company and paid dearly for it.
Unfortunately, I don't think the issues were noticed during the initial testing. They didn't get noticed until guests started riding it
@@millenniumbryan Ryan the Ride Mechanic alluded to this. It seems like they miscalculated the force from guess swaying especially on the heartline descent. It was pretty violent sitting on the left side
Thank you for filling in the gaps on the information! I always know you will have your bases covered as an engineer yourself! I’m just glad I did sign us up for Coaster Mania this year! Last time we were at CP was Coaster Mania 2003 and we all know about THAT disappointment! Top Thrill Dragster was featured on the button and it was closed all day so we are yet to get any ride at all on this thing! I’m not getting any younger!
I got to go on TT2 during passholder preview. It was intense. That floater airtime on the spike was amazing. I really hope they get it fixed.
It is frustrating to see such design flaws in modern times. Computer modeling and simulation should detect such a major flaw. We will probably never know, but I’d love an engineering analysis of what went wrong.
I can't speak to the specifics of TT2 but I'm a mechanical engineer so here's my two cents. Modeling and simulation is only as good as what the engineers put in them. You can expect the trains to react a certain way based on the physics but if that all new aluminum chassis with minimal welds vibrates more than you expected in the model, then it makes sense it's putting more stress on the frame than anticipated (vibrations are extremely hard to model and predict). It's a brand new train design that needs to travel over 100 mph. That's a tall order for a new model and they almost stuck the landing. They have data to show where the trains need the extra support now and they're clearly collecting more with all those wires connected to what I'm assuming are strain gauges. I'm confident they'll get the structural issues worked out.
'
@RichMalishefski
2 hours ago
"Yeah let's get a flat ride manufacturer to work on our A-list roller coaster." Makes sense " This right here answers your frustrations!
@@LilybeeTV I think the people who claim the triple launch is causing the track to oscillate in ways that weren't predicted are onto something. Unfortunately, that may mean redesigning the trains would only be a stopgap fix, and that TT2 is doomed to continue being an unreliable and expensive ride.
@@LilybeeTVI’m also a mechanical engineer, agree 100%. Would love to be a fly on the wall and get more specifics about the failures they’re seeing, and where they think the root cause lies (vibrations causing increased loads, alloy selection, or issues with the raw stock and/or machining, etc.)
My biggest concern is that it sounded like this design needed lighter trains to work. They might be a little boxed in for adding more material/mass or switching materials.
their engineering team is probably a bunch of college interns using chat gpt
where is problematic roller coasters top thrill 2
Probably waiting for the problems to end
Steel Curtain needs one first.
By the end of next year lol.
@@joehung1552 truuuu
Ryan (sadly) simps for Zamperla wayyyyyy to hard to disrespect them like that.
Im starting to think that Cedar Point is the pain in the ass when working with manufacturers and not the other way around lol
I've been saying the same thing for years. The only manufacture they don't have beef with is B&M be we know they play it really safe.
@@oblivieon1567 probably why intamin didnt want to work with CP lol
You may have nailed it. I’m sure they throw their weight around and at some point, it’s just not worth doing business with a difficult client.
I didn’t even get to ride Dragster before the accident. My only visit to Cedar Point, it was down all day then shut down permanently shortly after and turned into top thrill 2
Fingers crossed that this down time fixes this issue permanently and the maintenance changes, I’m just glad that their taking their time and not rushing this shit, because if they’re taking their time on this their actually putting care into it, sooo yes there’s a love/hate with this situation
Zamperla has never done a project of this magnitude before so problems were bound to be expected. It stinks that it’s closed the rest of year, but if they take this extra year and make the ride reliable and solid, Zamperla will be a major player on the extreme thrill stage for years to come.
I do as well wish the best for Zamperla for many reasons a lot of them are exactly what you have stated. I know we have our presences to certain companies over others but the huge amounts of complaints of shoud have gone with an intamin or this wouldn’t happen with an intamin and etc like that I’ve seen is ridiculous, and to the people who say that look at the original and who says whatever intamin planed wouldn’t have very similar issues things slip through the cracks all the time no matter how big or small. I hope Zamperla gets to sell lots more coasters in the future and can prove there worth and get to be a new major player. Competition especially in a market that have mostly been friendly with the others in the field can only be good for everyone involved and make all of them even better.
I got to ride it during preview week, and it very good.
I wouldn't be surprised is CP knew the risk, and even got a major discount, to be the launch customer for Zamp's new trains. It's a bummer things have turned out this way, but it happens...
I will also add, CP didn't help by continuing to run ads featuring TT2 well into July. Even on Facebook and other places where it is very easy to change out campaigns.
What a shit show. I feel for zamperla... They're reputation is gonna take a hard knock. The bigger problem is cedar points lack of communication with the public. We should have got this announcement months ago.
That’s me and my brother in the front seat at 4:30
i would not be shocked at all if this ride is not running next year either. i am just going to live under the assumption this will be down next year too. if it opens then it will be a pleasant surprise. i know someone who rode this is in may at the preview, they said it was fun but it was nowhere near the original dragster. nothing is going to be same as that 0-120 launch.
it'll be there! and while it's not the original dragster, this is so much more than just the launch (which, let's be honest was all TTD was with a barely squeaking over top-hat and high rate of closure at the thought of a breeze). i will say first launch is kinda meh here (mainly because relative to the size of the straightaway and height of everything around it), but everything after is absolutely elite. the headchopper through the station coming off a 350ft+ 100mph spike is just nuts, and the ejector getting whipped over the top-hat at a decent clip is shocking lol. 2025, people are gonna rewrite their top 10 lists with this bad larry.
Worlds most expensive lawn ornament 💀💀
@@anonymouscoasterenthusiast did tt2 cost more than steel curtain? I'm not sure how much tt2 costed but steel curtain was 18 million plus all the millions of dollars of crap it's caused lol. Did tt2 actually cost more? If so that's screwed up
They shoulda put in a Buccee’s 😂
*stares in Steel Curtain*
@@SkyrushFanboy idk but I'm pretty confident that between when it was dragster and all the stuff to make it tt2 CP has probably spent more in the long run
despite the changes it looks like getting a rollback on this ride is just as rare as ever
There might have been more rollbacks during TTD's entire lifespan than TT2
Certainly this year 😂
Are you kidding? Now there’s a guaranteed rollback with every ride. Funny how the controversial rollback most likely inspired the revision of the ride.
Um, it has a rollback every single time doesn’t it? EDIT: Just realized the OP is probably a joke. Never mind.
@@billcook4768 yeah but top thrill 2 is a very rare credit since it was barely opened so it remains balanced
Anyone who says Zamperla shouldn't have bid on this do not understand how engineering works whatsoever.
The company doesn't matter. Any engineer with a mechanical and or structural degree has the capability to design this. They aren't even very complicated machines compared to say road vehicles. If I started a company tomorrow and hired a team of seasoned veteran engineers, especially a bunch who worked on the initial design of the ride, I'd feel every bit as confident in submitting a bid for this ride as Zamperla did.
Thank you. I’m a (very new) engineer and I’ve always thought this.
What does matter is tech but it’s not a weird cutting edge ride like hypersonic XLC
Yea, all industries swap employees. It’s not like Zamperla didn’t build out a capable team and present the team’s qualifications to CP as a condition of the award. You can’t BS your way into a project like this… low bid is important, but successfully building the ride is the most important factor to award. I’m sure CP put their proposal through the wringer before signing a contract.
“As the rides manufacturer, ZAMPERLA, fixes their shit”
God it’s so passive agressive 😂
Forget Top Thrill 2’s 2024 closure, let’s talk about Scorpion’s PERMANENT closure!
@@Coaster_Crash I'm glad I got the scorpion credit in June
It’s not that painful bc the ride stuck out like a sore thumb in a layout at least sooperdooperlooper fits in as there’s another old fashioned roller coaster near by
Zamperla's other Lightning coaster in Vancouver, ThunderVolt, is supposedly a big success so I think we'll see alot of smaller chains and independent parks buy Zamperla's new coasters.
Im super grateful to be one of the few to ride it! Ive got a first rider pin to prove it!
I think that they tried to open too early without adequate testing
Yes, more testing would have kept the trains from falling apart.
@joesmith6972 lol seriously, my conspiracy theory was they saw the excessive wear and went ahead and opened it anyway to get the publicity. Then shut it down to prevent ant further wear
The back story to why things are the way they are was just as good as the explanation to why TTD2 is not operational. I didn't get the geeky physics lesson that the ride's builders and designer teams were trying to resolve. Maybe a follow up video to what exactly is the root cause for the stress fractures.
Top Thrill 2 has been the biggest opening year failure of any rollercoaster in history. Even lightning rod which was notorious for its downtime was actually operational it's opening year. Hopefully they can get it back on track for 2025 and fix the issues but at this point cedar point has destroyed basically any consumer trust regarding the Top Thrill coasters.
Time will tell how this turns out. Any ride that is pushing the envelope is going to have challenges especially when it's a contractor's first attempt on a new model. I still think that it was not a wise choice to go with zamperla because they didn't have experience with anything of this magnitude. I think Premier would have been a smarter choice. Having said that I hope zamperla is able to fix this design.
Nice video! I really enjoyed watching this!
really appreciate the optimistic tone if this vid. youre an absolute goat
TT2 was AWESOME! Glad I was lucky to ride it. Tony, if you need a tester, I volunteer 🙋♂️ Can't believe the computer modeling didn't pick this up. But GRATEFUL 🙏 no one got hurt. Zamperla, take your time, you gave us a FANTASTIC ride. Just make it safe for decades 😀
Iron Dragon was probably the first roller coaster I rode at Cedar Point. I have a real soft spot for that ride and would still put it in my personal top 5 even to this day. I wouldn't say it's objectively better than some of the rides surrounding it, but it's a very endearing ride and there isn't any flaws with it in my eyes. I make it a point to ride it every time I go to Cedar Point. Sometimes twice.
That being said though, if the story was true about Intamin wanting them to tear it down, I'm overjoyed that they didn't. I would've been heartbroken.
I still feel for the person who got hurt 😢
CAE stress analysis is only as good as the assumptions the engineer running it has made. You don't just plop numbers in and get pretty pictures out unless you're gunning to be featured on Engineering Disasters eventually.
It's interesting to me how much bigger the top wheels are relative to the up-stops and how far offset their centers are from each other. It's hard to find good images of the wheels on the old ones but from the images I can find they don't look nearly as dramatically different. Assuming the wheel holders are one piece I wonder how much the effective gap between the up-stops and the top wheels change as the track bends up and down with respect to the car.
That's what I was thinking, compare them to the sleek intamin trains, which were heavier but also had a much lower heartline .
And in engineering, “setting up” the problem for analysis is part experience, part art form. Hence all the years of math, internships, testing and continuing education.
Lol my sisters favorite ride is iron dragon! She just turned 26 this year and told me that recently. I think iron dragon has kind of turned into a cult classic/niche favorite of many more than we realize lol.
The ride's experience was, in my opinion, better than the original version. Sure, TTD's one launch was intense, but it was over before you got to appreciate it. TT2's first launch isn't the memorable part of this ride though, the backwards launch is an incredibly unique feeling, and the 3rd launch doesn't change the speed that much, but it feels like it lasts forever. The 270 degree turn down the top hat is also much more intense. Overall, the ride being so much longer was a huge improvement.
I got to be one of the first riders on the soft open in April, then two more times opening weekend... it was absolutely INCREDIBLE. You truly feel like you're flying when you come down from the backwards hill... I was devastated when they closed it. Hands down, best ride in the park.
You know, I honestly feel a little bit better that the issues are on the trains themselves than with the track, launch system, or anything else related to the ride itself.
Seems easier and cheaper to replace, if not redesign, the trains than the entire ride [again] which, as you said, appears to be far more reliable and quite the experience, so hopefully is here to stay for another few decades.
I also hope Zamperla comes back from this. Also, based Cedar Point for not removing Iron Dragon.
Jaws the Ride at Universal Orlando: "I'm the worst opening day ride ever!
Top Thrill 2: "Hold my churro." 🍺
Twist Coaster Robin's a hot contender for that title
This is what I feared, Zamperla has very little experience with rides of this magnitude. The switch track and launchers appear to be very reliable and well engineered, so there certainly isn't a lack of capable staff over at their office. I'm sure they'll bounce back from this; they clearly have the talent and ambition to tackle larger thrill rides
I think most who have worked on a Zamperla ride don't have high hopes, I know I sure don't. It would've been phenomenal if they pulled it off but sometimes you bite off more than you can chew
Got to ride TT2 on the third day of the season and it was absolutely insane. I feel so lucky to have gotten to ride it
rarest credit for me! :-) it'll be worth the wait if there aren't any freaky ride experience changes with the updates, and this gives them the whole off-season to figure out the locker madness
This is sad but its for safety and mechanical reasons, still though, this ride looks amazing.
Who would have to pay for these engineering works? When a ride is bought by a park do they get warranty from the manufacturer?
This kinda feels a little like my creative industry where Zamperla obviously isn't Christopher Nolan, but Chris Nolan doesn't always land bangers and can also only deliver so many movies a year, so younger fresh talent needs to be trained and brought up in a way to take up where the greats leave off. It's definitely not a 1:1 analogy by any means, but I do think Zamperla can't figure out these real world growing pains with large coasters until they got their hands dirty like we saw here. Definitely not the way anyone wanted it to go, but I'm still happy Zamperla got the chance
I still hope Zamperla can do conversions of smaller accelerator coasters like they did for ThunderVolt - so far, it has operated for longer than 6 days without any sign of issues - mind you, this was given more time to be retrofitted and was a more signifigant overhaul due to relocation.
And the trains also are not moving as fast.
I'm not a mechanical engineer, but from the limited knowledge I have on metals from dabbling in welding and fabricating stuff for my Jeep, and from the POVs I saw / reviews I heard from people who rode it, my guess is that the rattle from the trains wasn't properly accounted for when designing the chassis. Aluminum has a tendency to tear compared to steel, which tends to bend and deform without breaking as easily. (Vaguely related, see Whistling Diesel's recent Cybertruck durability test videos where its aluminum frame snapped while pulling a stuck F-150 off an obstacle) So my best guess is that the rattle was causing more damage to the aluminum than expected and they're concerned about it.
Agreed. Aluminum has a much lower elastic limit than steel. That’s the point at which a material begins to permanently deform under stress.
This sucks, but I am glad I got to ride it twice the day before the closure, it's a great ride. I am still planning on visiting the park this Wednesday regardless.
Thoughts on Theme Park Recommendations saying it’s more than just the trains? “It’s the top hat track and supports are cracking”
I honestly think hes full of it
He's 100% accurate. I was watching it sway and quite frankly crack from the bird's eye vantage point of BackbeatQue at 8:30pm on Friday, May 10th, 2024. It was due for a massive casualty disaster.
The guy who changes his channel name every couple of months? Take whatever he says with a grain of salt.
Sucks it’s closed but it’s like the 157th thing in my worry queue. real life issues are more important than a coaster. Let’s all celebrate what we have.
Amen, brother!
Park management at SFOG stated the delayed opening of Georgia Surfer was due to the train for the coaster getting stuck in Europe. Said train didn't ship until August 14th.
I’m really grateful I got to ride it during the pass holder preview. It was awesome and I can’t wait for it to be open again.
sure looks like an amazing ride and i hope when this is all over we get a killer problematic coasters video 😂
also i heard that the ride supports as a whole were wearing too fast (both spike and tophat) so 🤷♂️
stress cracks? Yikes... that's terrifying. Yeah, I might give it another season before I try this one.
If there are cracks, then they have scanned the entire track and will do so again after repairs. No one’s cutting corners on a ride with these magnitudes of forces.
The situation is certainly disappointing. But I'm glad they decided to hold off till next year to get it right. To me, the bogie structure looks too thin, especially the arms holding the side friction and undercarriage wheels. Those arms must have a tremendous amount of force pulling on them when flying over the tophat.
The speculation i've read online is that Zamperla's trains can't withstand the forces involved in TT2. Particularly when it comes to the twist up and the heartline roll down. The Zamperla trains look a little taller off the track than the original Dragster trains. The extra height amplifies the forces on the train in these twisting sections.
can confirm, that heartline has freaky forces compared to the original. dunno if it's the seats sitting higher above track, or the different restraint, or both, but holy cripes...there were actually a decent amount of people talking about the torso tension pain after getting off. I rode thrice, and even the second and third time knowing about that part, you can't brace for the twisting (the seats aren't really deep buckets, and you had pretty free-range with rotation on a L/R axis above the waist)
They were right! TT2 is more reliable compared to TTD. With TTD you never knew if it would be open or not. With TT2 you're certain it won't be open.
The sad part is Tony once again putting his foot in his mouth, since he came out and said "This won't be an all-summer closure"
Yup, you missed the summer _and_ the fall.
TTD it's last 3-5 years had very little downtime. I was there 15-20 times a year and it was great. But the first 5 years or so, that was brutal.
Yes the hell it did have downtime what are you talking about? It actually got worse😂
Im sure people are upset about that closure, but it is better to be safe than sorry. I grew up in Pittsburgh, and i lived about 35 minutes from Kennywood Park. That place was awesome and was a huge part of my childhood, teen, and my early adult years.
They have made many changes over the years, and recently. I have not been there in a very long time.
I heard and know that it is still an AWESOME park.
They have had the new STEELERS coaster closed all season from opening day.
They needed to check out a few things and look over other things, and I think certain parts are difficult to get, and they are made in another country.
Then, they send the parts by ship, and it takes a long time to arrive. So, they decided not to open it this year.
Have you been to KENNYWOOD park?
We need you and your coaster boys to give these parks hell and to get their heads out of their behind and keep these rides running smooth, lol, 😅.
Thanks, Ryan.
Blessings to you, your wife, and your daughter. Be safe, man.
Feel bad for Zamperla and this custom train design for TT2, but people are missing out that Thundervolt, which uses the actual lightning train with no custom wheel assembly, has been running very well and reliably. I hope they figure it out with CP team, but I wouldn't count Zamperla out of the coaster market at all
Intamin must be so happy they didn’t touch this project. Smart move and i hope when it does reopen it does so safely. I’ve been saying for YEARS that Intamin actively chose not to work on it. At what point is a ride worth it.
If intiman had done it they would have used their proven trains and wheel bogey's so we wouldn't be having this conversation. Had intiman done it the ride would be operational
Intamin would have loved to redo this project IMO. But if Ryan is correct then it means Intamin probably wanted to go big again and craft a layout that would be the removal of another coaster.
@@Jadentheman They literally never submitted a second proposal, and their first one was outlandish to begin with removing a ride. Pretty far from “would have loved to”.
Intamin DEFINITELY wanted the chance to reimagine Top Thrill! They came up with an amazing yet VERY EXPENSIVE proposal. Bottom line CEDAR POINT MADE THE WRONG DECISION!!! THEY SHOULD HAVE WENT WITH INTAMIN AND WE WOULD BE ENJOYING AN AMAZING COASTER RIGHT NOW #FACTS
@@huddyr1112 and yet the new one isnt good?
Zamperla will make it out of this debacle just fine. Im more interested in seeing how their first ground up brand new major coaster goes. If that one has issues after lessons learned from the tt2 remodel then we can specilate on zamoerlas coaster ambitions
I'm going to Cedar Point in September for the first time since 2016, and I'm really excited to finally ride Steel Vengeance (having gotten quite a few rides on Mean Streak) but I went into it knowing TT2 is down, so I'm not *devastated* by this news. But It just sucks I won't be able to ride TT2 for a while, given I got 4 really good rides on TTD in 2016. Including one in the front row. Someday.
This kinda gives me some joy. Cedar Point is so damn petty with companies. It makes me kinda happy that they were so snooty and skipped Intimin only for the company they trusted to absolutely fumble it
Was disappointed TT2 was closed when I visited Cedar for the first time ever back in June. But it was still a great trip. Millennium Force is my current favorite coaster ever.
Well at least ka is up and running. I didn’t know what was wrong with it an I asked a park worker what was wrong and they said the catch car broke in two and I thought for sure ka was closed for the season so I’m super happy they got it up and running after a month. Great adventure has been iffy on the past but they have been really on top of things lately. Ride el toro for proof. That thing is immaculate this season
@@mikeplewinski4792one day I hope to make it up there. I’m from Oklahoma so it’s a little more difficult for me to get to places that far away.
Hoping cedar point/Zamperla get this figured out or this might become one of the biggest flops in the history of coasters
I went to cedar point this year for the first time early May. Got there Friday and top thrill 2 was running. We decided to wait and ride it Saturday. Got to the park the next day and it was closed for the modifications. We were so disappointed.
It's like signing Eric Spoelstra to do what Pat Riley did for the Miami Heat. Give Zamperla some time.
Also, I do believe Cedar Point did go to Intamin first. That pitch of removing Iron Dragon to extend the layout for Top thrill definitely sounds like them.
I still say this is karma for Cedar Fair merging with Six Flags… but, Cedar Point had this coming after going with a company who has no business even touching this ride in the first place
I luckily visited in May and rode TT2 six or seven times. About 50/50 of the riders I spoke to liked it less or more than the original. It was very polarizing.
For me, I preferred the original. The launch to 120mph was a real thrill; the chance for a proper rollback was exciting, and while this shouldn't be the case, the ride down the top hat felt much more intense. (I can judge this last bit because I could barely keep my hands up on the original through the ride down, while on TT2 I can easily raise and keep them in position.)
Some positives of TT2 are the comfort of the restraints and the longer ride. Unfortunately, the ride quality varies based on the assigned seat. The back seats get a superior experience on the spike. If the initial rollback were higher this could be better balanced for the front seats, and I felt like most rides in the middle were so-so. Oh, and a pure negative is how they have handled items in pockets or shoes. The ride has a floor and is not that intense.
Overall, TT2 was not a bad ride but showed an interesting trend. People are so quick to hate on manufacturers. Intamin has received so much hate over the years, and yet their steel coasters are the best I have ever experienced. With the loss of Top Thrill Dragster, Maverick is now the lone reason I will drive the extra 90 minutes to Cedar Point (Millennium Force, Gemini, and Magnum are great fun, but so are The Racer, Banshee, and Mystic Timbers at the much closer Kings Island), and Project 305 makes a trip to Virginia worth it. The only non-Intamin ride I will travel more than an hour for is Hakugei at Nagashima Spa Land in Japan.
Anyway, this is a good lesson not to hate on manufacturers, though we should expect better of them. Playing it safe never created exciting experiences!
This ride looked INSANE! I TRULY HOPE it safely opens again. People need to calm down about Zamperla…. It’s a prototype in a way. Everyone take a breath.
I have been on TT2 and I’m going to say that it’s definitely worth this extra wait. It’s a phenomenal ride and I wish this didn’t happen because it’s most definitely going to result in the new Six Flags company blacklisting Zamperla
I already saw this coming so I'm not surprised. But i'm glad they're taking their time and not rushing it
Kingda Ka's first season was a mess too. I waited six hours to get on it and it wasn't because the line was long - just constant downtime. It opened late and I believe got shuttered for the season. Back then IIRC the operator said it was because people were leaning on the air gates, so the system thought something was wrong and shut down, and every time it did that they had to reset it. His quote was "the ride is too safe." But I wonder as these things get bigger and faster if the modeling can't account for all the real world force. Ryan you were probably too young but back then there was a DJ in the Ka queue. I guess there are worse ways to spend 3pm-9pm haha
I remember Ka’s first season was a hot mess. It took some time, but they eventually addressed everything. It was worth waiting for. Anything mechanical has a lot of “moving parts” to account for. Pun intended. 😊
So glad that I got to ride it 7 times across all 3 trains during opening weekend. It was so much fun. I'm all for safety but am still disappointed. Oh well, hopefully next year 😞Glad that I didn't get all season fast lane like I was originally going to.
You should make a video on why hydraulic launch coasters are expensive to run vs these swing/LSM roller coasters.
icarusian in nature, honestly tragic no patik hop in the v automatic
I don’t feel bad AT ALL.
They went the cheaper route, and this is what happened.
At first I was sad that I didn't get to ride it when I was there in May, and now I'm realizing it didn't matter when I went which makes me less sad
I'd love to hear El Toro Ryan's input here with all your technical knowledge.
I really don't understand how it's the trains. The original Top Thrill Dragster, although having issues, it was not the trains as far as I know. Plus Kingda Ka has been open for years and running trains at that speed. So, it's not like these were the first trains to run at this speed. There are examples of running trains.
Wouldn't Zamperla use those examples in engineering their trains?
To be honest as much as I think they should've gone for intamin to revamp it, it was exciting to hear that a relatively small manufacturer was trying to compete with the giants, such a shame this is their major debut. Great vid as always!
To be fair intamin had a lot of issues with several of their rides in the past and look where they are today
@@maverickheartlineroll that's fair but it could rule out zamperla for the rest of NA but time will tell ig, still rooting for zamperla regardless.
I rode it twice on the first operating Monday if the year, and it didn't disappoint. The sideways airtime you experience on the downward twist is unreal. here's to hoping it's ready for opening day 2025.
I think if Zamperla had the overall ability to take on something of this magnitude the coaster would have been back in operation this season. I would think from an engineering standpoint there would be many variables to consider on the drawing board with no assumptions which can back fire on you. I’ve seen endless comments about any new coaster is going to have problems and it takes time to get it right but common sense says if you don’t have your project 90 percent right from the start there will be big problems not a minor recall which was said the trains just needed modifications. I think the problem picture is much bigger .
And hopefully they address the locker situation as well, cause I probably wouldn't have been riding it much anyway due to that..(only drawback of living so close I guess, you pinch even more pennies when you go because you can't throw every last one of your pennies away going every week..)