(upbeat music)
- [Peter] Well everyone, the wait is over.
And we now know all of the details
of the Top Thrill Dragster re-imagining at Cedar Point.
So this new coaster will be called Top Thrill Two.
And it won't actually be that different from the old one.
The main difference is
it's going to have a spike on one end,
so it's gonna launch forwards
and then it's gonna launch backwards into the spike.
And the spike, by the way,
is the same height as the top hat, 420 feet.
So I honestly,
I never really believed that the spike
was going to be 500 feet.
Because realistically, it doesn't need to be 500 feet,
in order to make that top hat.
So then after it clears the spike,
it's gonna launch forwards at 120 miles per hour,
just like the original.
And it does the same thing. It's the same layout.
And I know there's probably
going to be some enthusiasts online who were irritated
that they didn't add a loop or a drop track,
or I don't know, 15 air time hills that go across Lake Erie.
But all Cedar Point had to do
was make the ride more reliable.
And that's clearly what they're doing.
That's clearly what their main goal is.
Their main goal isn't to turn it
into a completely different ride.
Sure, you have the swing launch,
which allows for an LSM system,
which is more reliable than a hydraulic system.
Honestly, I'm not an engineer,
so I don't know the fine details.
But it's the same ride, overall.
Now I have a few notes here
and there are some interesting details
that came with this coaster
in terms of how Zamperla is working on it.
So Zamperla actually released the information
a couple of days ago.
I'm not sure if there was a miscommunication
on when they could release it,
or if an intern decided to leak it.
The webpage was unlisted, not meant to go public,
but an intern leaked it.
I'm not sure how this happened.
But all the information was leaked a couple of days ago.
Like all the technical, nitty gritty stuff,
as much as possible.
Now, the main thing with Top Thrill Two
is that it's the tallest and fastest triple-launch coaster.
The website specifies and says
it's the tallest and fastest LSM triple-launch coaster,
but I'm not aware of any triple-launch coasters
that are taller or faster.
So the details of each of the three launches were revealed.
The first launch is going to be 74 miles per hour
and it's going to have a rollback.
It'll go back down that top hat.
And what's interesting is Zamperla's website
describes this as "a new crowd favorite."
I know a lot of people really liked getting a rollback
on Top Thrill Dragster,
and it was like a credit on its own in some ways,
but it's interesting that they call it that.
Then it will go into a second backwards launch
and it'll reach a speed of 163 miles per hour,
which wait, no, I mean, that's kilometers.
It's 101 miles per hour.
They're not gonna send you backwards at 163 miles per hour.
Sorry, folks.
So after that second backwards launch,
it goes up the vertical spike.
It's a 90-degree vertical spike, standard vertical spike.
There's gonna be a third launch.
That will take you to the top speed of 120 miles per hour.
Then it'll just do the layout as it was originally.
Now, one thing I do have to say
is that this is going to give some extra flare
to the park skyline.
That extra spike looks amazing.
And as for the new color scheme,
I will miss the yellow supports,
but I totally get the new color scheme.
I think it's more modern, more sleek-looking,
and it really gives the impression
that this is a new ride to the public.
Another thing that's different are the trains,
which as I had a feeling they would be for almost a year,
are the new Lightning trains by Zamperla.
These trains are almost completely different
than the old Intamin trains.
First of all,
they have an aluminum mill chassis with no welding,
so there's less parts to it.
So the park saves a lot of money
on maintenance and NTT testing.
Spends a lot less time on maintenance too,
because there's less parts.
These trains can also handle speeds
of up to 200 kilometers per hour,
which is a faster speed than Top Thrill Dragster,
so totally suitable for the speed.
And according to Zamperla,
Cedar Fair actually approached them
and Cedar Fair saw what their new innovations were,
saw the Lightning train.
And actually have Zamperla's website right here.
So according to Zamperla's website,
"Cedar Fair knew about Zamperla's recent investments
in roller coaster engineering and technology.
When they wanted to reimagine Top Thrill Dragster,
the company they met with,
the company to see if its recent investments
could help them bring a new experience
to Cedar Point guests."
That was a bit of a messy sentence.
"Together, Cedar Fair's corporate team,
their Xperience Design Studio,
Cedar Point's team of experts,
and Zamperla's rollercoaster business unit
worked to create a record-breaking triple-launch experience
on the shores of Lake Erie."
And it actually goes into Zamperla's history
with Cedar Fair,
which will help with the Top Thrill Dragster,
failed coasters video I'm making.
So it says,
"Zamperla's relationship with Cedar Fair
went all the way back to the early 1990s,
with the first Crazy Bus ride at Knott's Berry Farm."
And like I said in my past video about Top Thrill Dragster,
Zamperla has a ton of family rides and flat rides.
So Zamperla has been providing these rides
to Cedar Fair for decades.
So I know a lot of people were like,
"Why is Cedar Fair going with Zamperla?"
They do have a long, seasoned relationship with Zamperla.
So really, it's no wonder why they went with them.
Now on a bit of a more serious note, is the queue.
Which is still in the rollercoaster track's perimeter,
within the perimeter.
And unfortunately,
you can't talk about this ride
without talking about the reason that it closed
and was re-imagined in the first place.
And that's the 2021 accident,
where a piece of the original Intamin train
was knocked off and hit a woman in the back of the head.
It's not hard to imagine that the accident, or incident,
depending on what you call it,
was in fact the final straw for Cedar Fair.
But the thing is,
they had been dealing with this coaster's issues
ever since it opened.
A light breeze could shut it down, as far as I know.
And when I visited the park in 2018, the ride rarely ran.
I did get to ride it, but most of the time it was closed.
And I'll go into further detail
on why the ride had so many issues
in my failed coasters episode on it, which I am planning.
And by the way,
I know a lot of people will take issue
with me calling the original Top Thrill Dragster
a failed coaster when it was a really good one.
Roller coasters can be good,
but they can fail in different ways.
That's why I've made the failed coasters episodes
on the original X.
And the original Lightning Rod
before it became a steel coaster, by definition.
And I'm not the only one who thinks
that this coaster was a big problem for Cedar Fair.
Cedar Fair's former CEO, Dick Kinzel,
actually called this ride "his dumbest decision",
because of how many issues it gave.
And this is from the book, "Dick Kinzel",
which I highly recommend.
It's an amazing book about Cedar Point's history.
And it actually helped me make my video
on the evolution of Cedar Point's coasters.
So highly, highly, highly recommend it.
So I went off a bit there.
So back to the subject of the queue.
So the queue is still within the track's perimeter.
However, they are adding some roofs to the queue,
as far as I can tell from the animation.
And it's important to keep in mind
that this new Lightning train, once again,
has a single chassis with no welding and much less parts.
So the whole issue of the flag plate
that caused the incident last time
isn't gonna be present here
because this is a completely different design
that's gonna reduce the risk
of anything like that happening.
So as far as I can tell,
this new train is gonna make this coaster much less
of an issue for Cedar Point.
That said,
we won't know how reliable this coaster is until it opens.
So it's like I said in my past video,
we're not gonna know how good or bad it is until it opens.
And I'm more than willing to give Zamperla a chance here.
I think this looks very promising.
And sure, I'm gonna miss the old launch.
And it was a really powerful launch.
But that new swing launch could very well blow me away.
So I'm gonna keep an open mind on this one.
Now, before I wrap things up,
I want to talk about something
that I know a lot of people are talking about today,
and that's the new name, Top Thrill Two.
Sure, it doesn't have the same ring to it
as Top Thrill Dragster.
I do think that Top Thrill Dragster was the better name.
At the same time, it really makes sense.
You have to keep some of that original name
because the name is so iconic.
You have to keep some of it in the new ride.
You also have to change it too.
This is exactly what Six Flags did with X.
They named the new version X Two.
Sure, they could have named it something like Speed Machine,
or Fly Me to the Moon,
or maybe Professor Plutonium's Rocket Machine,
or something like that.
But roller coaster names are hardly part of the experience.
And most guests do not care about the coaster's name.
They care about the ride the coaster gives.
So for all I know,
they could have named Valravn Bacon Sandwich with Cheese,
and it still would have been a hit.
So yeah, the new name isn't like anything groundbreaking,
like, "Oh, look at this new coaster name. It's so cool.
We got letters rearranged into words that sound edgy."
No, it's nothing like that.
It's a rebranding of the original name that tells audiences,
"Here's a ride that's very famous here.
But it's also a newer experience. It's something new."
And that actually reminds me, Holiday World in Indiana,
actually announced a new family boomerang called Good Gravy.
And if you wanna check out the announcement video,
I put it in the description.
It's awesome.
I love how the pink track on that coaster.
I don't know if this was intentional,
but kind of looks like Pepto Bismol.
And so it's themed to Thanksgiving dinner,
and "Oh my! Good gravy!
I ate so much. I need some Pepto!
Help! I'm gonna be on the toilet all night!"
Yeah, I know, I know.
It's supposed to be cranberry colored,
but cranberry sauce is red, and this track is clearly pink.
I think I know what they were going with here.
Definitely going with some kind of Pepto theme.
But okay, I've had my fun.
Back to Top Thrill Dragster, or the Top Thrill Two.
I think this will be a nice addition for Cedar Point.
I think it's a good re-imagining of the original
while also keeping the spirit of the original.
I might miss the hydraulic launch,
but I'm gonna keep an open mind with that new triple-launch.
It looks pretty cool, really good.
And for now, I'm gonna be planning a few new videos,
and eventually I do wanna make a video
on Top Thrill Dragster, the original.
A failed coasters video, going into its history,
really in-depth.
So I'm really looking forward to that one.
So stay tuned to this channel.
And I will see you all next time.