(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] All right, this is going to be
another unscripted video and don't worry,
I'm still gonna be focused
on scripted videos for this channel.
I've got my failed coasters video
on the original X at Magic Mountain coming out,
but today I'm going to be talking
about something that has caused a bit
of a stir in the Coaster Enthusiast community.
I'm gonna be talking about the 2024 makeover
of Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point.
Now recently, it has come to light
that Italian manufacturer Zamperla
is actually going to be working on this project
and this revelation has caused a lot
of concern among enthusiasts, a lot of skepticism,
and a lot of pessimism as well.
Now this video isn't meant to invalidate anyone's opinion
if anyone is feeling skeptical or pessimistic.
Rather, this is just my own opinion
based on what we know and based on
what I know about Zamperla.
Now a lot of the concerns boil down to a few key points.
First of all, there's the point that Zamperla
has never built any rollercoaster
that's on the scale of Top Thrill Dragster.
Technically, they have built more rollercoasters
than Intamin and B&M combined,
but a good chunk of those are smaller family coasters.
Their most thrilling coasters are their Thunderbolt models
and their Volare models, which I'm not gonna lie,
I am not a fan of the Volare model,
but let's look beyond the Volare model
and look at Zamperla's entire ride catalog,
Zamperla, how they got started in the industry.
So Zamperla started out in the 1960s and around
the 1970s is when they started building rollercoasters.
Now their first coaster design was a powered coaster,
something like you'd see at Canobie Lake Park.
Over the years, they have greatly expanded
their ride catalog and they have literally decades
of experience building all sorts
of rides at parks all over the world.
And when I say all over the world,
I literally mean all over the world.
In the early 2010s, they actually sold
a few rides to North Korea.
I'm not joking.
This goes to show that this company
has been pretty much everywhere
and beyond that is the sheer size of their ride catalog.
If you go on their website
and take a look at every single ride they have to offer,
you will see 95 different rides.
This includes rollercoasters, thrill rides,
family rides, everything.
In my opinion, any company with the resources
to build almost 100 different rides is definitely
a seasoned and well-prepared company.
And a lot of people, they just look
at their rollercoaster catalog, and it's true that most
of the rollercoasters they've built are family coasters,
but their flat ride collection is nothing to scoff at.
They have the Discovery.
They have the Hawk.
They have the Disco.
There are so many flat rides that Zamperla has made,
so many famous flat rides that you see at parks everywhere.
And so when people talk about Zamperla
in regards to Dragster like they're some company
that just came outta nowhere
who doesn't have the experience to work on Dragster,
honestly, I think that's kind of selling them short.
In my opinion, Zamperla is definitely worthy
of working on a coaster like Dragster.
Hell, their founder, Antonio Zamperla,
is in the IAAPA Hall of Fame, along with Walt Disney.
Zamperla has accomplished so much
in the amusement industry all over the world
over the course of decades that they are worthy
of this project, at least in my opinion.
So that brings me to my next point.
A lot of people say that they don't hate Zamperla,
they just feel like Intamin should have been involved
since Top Thrill Dragster is their coaster
and since Intamin has more experience
with higher-level attractions, like higher thrills.
You've got VelociCoaster, you've got Toutatis,
you've got Kondaa.
They've built some of the biggest, baddest,
and most amazing rides that you could find out there.
And of course, I mean bad
in the Michael Jackson sense, meaning good.
Anyway, a lot of people look at Intamin
and say that they should have been the ones
to be involved with this project.
They could have made it amazing.
They could have brought new life to it.
And a lot of people are wondering why Cedar Point
went with Zamperla when Zamperla
didn't even build the ride to begin with
and Zamperla doesn't have experience
with rides on this scale.
Well, honestly, I'm going to guess and say
that Cedar Point took a look at Zamperla's new
Lightning train and decided that it fit their needs
for what they needed from a Dragster re-imagining.
Now what exactly would those needs be
based on what we know about Dragster
and based on what we know about
why it closed in the first place?
If you remember, the reason Dragster closed was because
of a very serious incident involving a part of the train,
a flag plate, accidentally coming off of the vehicle,
hitting a guest in the head,
and severely injuring that guest.
Now this happened after years of Dragster
being a maintenance nightmare for the park,
after years of spending millions of dollars on upkeep
or at least what would've likely been millions of dollars.
If you take a look at the book, "Dick Kinzel",
you will see that Dick Kinzel himself,
who was the former CEO of Cedar Fair,
actually called Top Thrill Dragster his,
quote, dumbest decision.
So what Cedar Fair needed was a makeover
that would make Dragster more reliable, more safe,
and do it all at a reasonable price.
Now if you take a look at the video
that Zamperla recently released talking
about their new Lightning train design,
you'll see that Zamperla touted several features
that very likely majorly appealed to Cedar Point officials.
First of all, there's the fact
that the train has an aluminum milled chassis
with practically no welding.
This according to Zamperla, saves a lot
of money on non-destructive testing or NDT.
Interestingly enough, this ties into what I saw a couple
of years ago at IAAPA.
At 2021, I spoke to officials
at Skyline Attractions.
That year they presented their new track design
for their P'Sghetti Bowl coaster,
and this track has no welding.
It's put together with rivets.
They said to me that welding can be unpredictable
and maintenance of welded tracks can be expensive
when you have to re-weld certain areas.
Also, welding can go wrong.
If there's a bad weld, then there's cracks
which might apply to what we recently saw at Carowinds.
But I'm not an engineer
and I don't know exactly what happened there
so I'm gonna leave it at that.
But the bottom line is that both Skyline
and Zamperla have heavily emphasized reducing welding
as a means to save costs
and do it all without compromising safety.
In fact, this might make the track and the trains even safer
because there's less parts to check,
and going back to specifically the Lightning train.
On top of all of this, the Lightning train
can also hit a top speed of up to 200 kilometers an hour.
This is actually faster
than the top speed of Top Thrill Dragster.
So with all of this in mind, with the idea
of getting a train that can go as fast as the original,
that is less expensive, that requires less maintenance,
in the end, this train pretty much sold itself
and it's easy to see why Cedar Point officials
decided to bring Zamperla on for this project.
All of that said, there are a lot
of people who will say, "Yeah, that's all true."
However, you have to keep in mind
that Zamperla recently opened their Wild Mouse coaster
and that's had a lot of downtime.
So if they have a Wild Mouse coaster that has a lot
of downtime, how do we know that the new
Top Thrill Dragster remake won't have a lot of downtime?
To be honest, there's no way to tell
how much downtime it will have because it's not open yet.
It's not even finished being built yet.
For the case of Wild Mouse, the issue of downtime
is prevalent for a lot of prototype coasters,
like ones that haven't been built before.
Sure, Zamperla has built tons
of spinning Wild Mouse coasters
but nothing quite like the one at Cedar Point.
And this was also true
for coasters like Steel Curtain at Kennywood
or even Intamin's own Hagrid's Magical Creatures
Motorbike coaster at Islands of Adventure.
While the issue of downtime is a potentially
valid concern based on history, it's definitely not a given.
And it's certainly not something
that is only a Zamperla thing.
Maybe it will have a lot of downtime when it first opens.
Maybe it will have a lot of uptime after a few weeks.
So all of this being said, what are my general thoughts
on the Zamperla makeover of Top Thrill Dragster?
To be honest, I'm not really sure
because it's not open yet.
Honestly, the only thing that I'm skeptical
about is the transition
from a hydraulic launch to likely an LSM launch.
I'll admit, I loved the hydraulic launch
on Top Thrill Dragster, and I think that hydraulic launches
in general are more intense than LSM launches.
At the same time, this ride has not opened yet
and I don't know what it's going to be like.
That LSM launch could very well blow me away.
A lot of people tend to look at rollercoasters
that haven't been built yet and decide
that this rollercoaster is definitely going to suck.
This rollercoaster is definitely going to be awesome
and there's no way to tell
until you've actually ridden it or until it's actually open.
Let's be honest, we're not gonna know
how good this ride is or how much downtime
it's going to have until it opens up.
But still, I am more than willing
to give Zamperla a chance with this project.
Zamperla has proven themselves as a company.
They have done so much over the years.
They have a proven record.
They have a huge ride catalog.
They have done so much for the industry.
They have built rides everywhere.
And while everybody is entitled to their opinion
and there are no invalid opinions when it comes to this,
I don't think it's that fair to immediately say
that Zamperla is too inexperienced
or to immediately write off Zamperla
when it comes to this project when it hasn't opened yet.
I think that Zamperla is a well-seasoned company.
I think they are worthy of this
and I think they have done a lot to earn the respect
of the amusement industry.
So the bottom line, I'm gonna give Zamperla
a chance on this one and I'm very excited
to check out this new ride.