Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Canada's Wonderland |"Leviathan"| B&M HyperGiga

Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

While this coaster doesn't have the most exciting and unusual layout around, I still think its a good investment, mainly due to the fact that B&M have finally built a ride over 300ft. This ride could lead to more, which, in my opinion anyway, is always a good thing. This coaster has a crazy high price tag, but I think once its been built and B&M are happy with their new tech (such as the new type of spine for the lift hill), they'll get cheaper and we'll see some that do more stuff.

As for the ride being a strange choice for CW, I don't think the general public will notice such a thing to the extent we do. For one thing they're two different colour schemes, and they have different types of seating. For veteran enthusiasts we notice the similarities, but from my experience of the general public, they won't notice or even care.
 
Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

Well with the revenue Behemoth produced, spending $30 million should cover it.. right?
 
Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

Also, just looked at the layout properly... this ride does so LITTLE! 306ft wasted. I at least wanted an abundance of hills like the smaller versions. Shame.
Click to expand...
Welcome to 300ft coasters. They do nothing with their height.

Even Intimidator, which is the best of the non launching 300ft+, does nothing with it's height. The only good bit of the ride is spent being, essentially, a terrain coaster.

Ever more evidence that the height is nothing more than a marketing ploy.
 
Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

Joey said:
Also, just looked at the layout properly... this ride does so LITTLE! 306ft wasted. I at least wanted an abundance of hills like the smaller versions. Shame.
Click to expand...
Welcome to 300ft coasters. They do nothing with their height.

Even Intimidator, which is the best of the non launching 300ft+, does nothing with it's height. The only good bit of the ride is spent being, essentially, a terrain coaster.

Ever more evidence that the height is nothing more than a marketing ploy.
Click to expand...
Yeah, such a tragedy. I really want one of the good manufacturers (ie. B&M or Intamin) to make a 300ft coaster like this:
ffi0j2k29b001lf5lgtm2e.jpg


Really is a shame they can't do more with all that height.
 
Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

Hixee said:
Yeah, such a tragedy. I really want one of the good manufacturers (ie. B&M or Intamin) to make a 300ft coaster like this:
ffi0j2k29b001lf5lgtm2e.jpg


Really is a shame they can't do more with all that height.
Click to expand...

That's the reason they're 'good'. The amount of effort and cost put in per foot of track is much higher.

$30M is a HUGE price-tag, but it's really pushing the boundaries of what B&M's track was designed for, so the higher bits of track needed a lot more designing and modelling.

Still, hopefully if the number of Wing Riders to come out of Raptor is any sign, we should start to see a lot more B&M gigas, and if Parc Asterix's Montu and the rest of the 2012 coasters are anything to go by, we should start to see a lot more unique and exciting designs in the coming years :D

That's not to say I'm not disappointed - I am - but I am also hopeful and excited for what the future holds based on this coaster.



Other peeps have been saying that it's a stupid choice because of Behemoth - I don't think so. We as coaster nerds see that it's basically the same ride by the same manufacturer, only higher - but most of my 'normal' friends don't know the difference between a Vekoma SLC and a B&M invert. The name and the fact that they've ridden it is all that counts to them. To them, the difference between a 230ft vs. a 308ft coaster is massive (and actually I'm inclined to agree!) Being able to ride a B&M giga and a B&M hyper in the same park, even to, as a nerd, would be heavenly.
 
Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

I think one of the biggest reasons we havent seen giga coasters like steel dragon from Intamin or B&M (Millennium Force is the closest), is because of price and space.
I305 cost 25 Million dollars and it has a fairly small footprint considering its a giga.
Imagine it had hills and was lengthy, the park could have easily been looking at price tags reaching up into the 40 million range. And for the parks, thats just simply too much money to spend.
Remember Leviathan is still only the 4th giga coaster in creation, so the giga category of coasters is still something that really hasnt been explored and tested alot with different layouts and versions, like the mega coasters have.

also remember that SD2000 was very expensive and there was a whole load of problems with the ride operating and whatnot. I think part of the ride being so expensive was for extra supports due to earthquake reasons, but still rides like that from B&M and Intamin would cost so much money, thats why I think manufacturers are trying to do slightly different things with a giga layout (Leivathan) and some quite different (I305)
 
Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

Hmmm, look at the spine variance between these pieces:

005~2.JPG
 
Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

^ I dont know if its just me, but that image didnt load properly or something.

Anyways Im really really loving the colors of this ride!
Together the supports and track look kinda weird, and I like that, and the track itself is GREAT! such an awesome shade of blue. or green. or teal or whatever.
I cant wait to see the full lift hill installed!
 
Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

Yah I agree with what people are saying about how no coaster that has a height of 300+ feet does anything exciting with the layout. It's too hard when you figure how drawn out the coaster has to be in order to do much. There's only 3-4 opportunities for airtime on Leviathan aside from the first drop, but then again that's the same as Millennium Force which isn't a brilliant coaster but still half decent. I do think that the initial plunge will be absolutely immense though, especially in the back.
 
Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

While the coasters that are above 300 feet dont really 'do much with their layout' considering the large amount of money and space they would need, I dont think it means they are any worse or better than other coasters. Just for the record, I305 is actually my #1 coaster and millennium force is my #3 coaster.
Leviathan will be long enough.
 
Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

No one is arguing about track length, it's that they do not do anything along the track length. They lack hills, directional changes, or anything that will cause force. Instead they meander, relying solely on height to create thrill. It's the same reason that despite traveling at like 300 miles an hour thousands of feet in the air, a journey on a jumbo jet is far from thrilling.

If you like them, then that's great, but I'm almost certain that you only like them because you perceive them as being awesome because of the height.

Intimidator being your favourite coaster, if anything, signifies you have a love for small coasters. Most of Intimidator 305 is a woven, low-lying, intense, fast matted mess of track. It's lift hill and first hill is a tiny, and crap, percentage of the ride.
 
Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

^ i agree that height isn't everything but you can't judge everything on speed as well...looking at Maverick i don't see anything amazing as a launch coaster. If you were to judge a coaster by speed and height than everyone would have Kingda Ka as their favourite coaster. For me its all about ride experience, how exciting/entertaining the ride is.

Anyway back on topic..I agree that Levaithan doesn't have the most exciting layout and a lot of speed is wasted but that doesn't mean it will be a boring ride. I think it'll be like the other giga's out there. Fast, with some good airtime. Personally I think the first drop will make the ride, even if the ride lacks directional changes and "force".
 
Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

After all, you can't do much when building that tall. The higher you build, the faster the costs rise. I'd say building a 90-metre hill is easily twice as expensive as building a 60-metre hill, if not more. You need mahoosive footers, mahoosive supports, and some darn heavy equipment to lift it all in place that high above the ground. Just renting those cranes and the specialized crew to operate them costs a lot. And don't expect to be able to put up multiple hills in different parts of the layout in one go, so you have to hire them for a long time, or call them in multiple times during the building process - and those cranes need to be assembled and deassembled between uses.

In that regard, it's sensible that the Gigas don't do much after the first hill. You're looking at millions poured in to the lift hill, would you then do it all over again a hundred metres down the track, just to satisfy the enthusiasts, if you could avoid it? Or would you settle for a lower hill that any crane operator with a big mobile crane could lift in place? Remember, there's a reason why there's only one Giga with multiple huge hills. That one ride also sits on completely flat land next to a road, was built to commemorate the new millennium, and is to date the most expensive coaster ever built, disregarding themeing and landscaping.

Basically, Gigas require so much money for the lift that it isn't sensible to go tall multiple times. Tall hills also eat up speed, not to mention space (just look at SD2K for reference - it has one "air" hill before changing direction, and is still almost a kilometre from end to end). So Gigas don't do air time as well as smaller coaster, because of the huge numbers involved. If you want coasters that "do" a lot, ride Maverick or something. Gigas' bags of tricks don't go much beyond "looking large".
 
Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

Joey said:
No one is arguing about track length, it's that they do not do anything along the track length. They lack hills, directional changes, or anything that will cause force. Instead they meander, relying solely on height to create thrill. It's the same reason that despite traveling at like 300 miles an hour thousands of feet in the air, a journey on a jumbo jet is far from thrilling.

If you like them, then that's great, but I'm almost certain that you only like them because you perceive them as being awesome because of the height.

Intimidator being your favourite coaster, if anything, signifies you have a love for small coasters. Most of Intimidator 305 is a woven, low-lying, intense, fast matted mess of track. It's lift hill and first hill is a tiny, and crap, percentage of the ride.
Click to expand...

No definetly not. If I305 wasnt that high, but was just launched into the layout into the turn around I would love it perhaps even more. Theres nothing wrong with the height at all, its great, but I would still love it if it wasnt a giga. So I dont really get what you mean.

I love I305 not just for the height and speed, but also because its one of the most intense (if not the most) intense roller coaster Ive been on my life. The drop though was crazy and there was good airtime on the second hill. Im pretty sure I305 causes plenty of force lol.
I feel like MF does plenty too. It has airtime hills (even though doesnt deliver as strong airtime as people might want), lots of low force turns and overbanked turns. Its just a really fantastic experience overall.

So the argument is that Leviathan, I305 and MF do nothing with their layout?
:S huh?
 
Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

Quick update:

Today the Storage and transfer track were completed. The station track was also installed. About 70% of the footings are finished as well.

IMG_0453.JPG


IMG00439-20111008-1100.jpg
 
Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

I do really like how it's built over the go-kart track!

I don't, however, like it if the maintenance rails are exposed. I always thought that looked messy.
 
Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

Venom2053 said:
Quick update:

Today the Storage and transfer track were completed. The station track was also installed. About 70% of the footings are finished as well.
Click to expand...

Just a bit of a correction. The transfer and storage track was actually installed last week, the update just showed outdated photos. A few up to date pictures were posted on CWMania last night.

 
Re: Leviathan - B&M giga coaster for Canada's Wonderland

bob_3_ said:
I do really like how it's built over the go-kart track!

I don't, however, like it if the maintenance rails are exposed. I always thought that looked messy.
Click to expand...

Me too, it looks awesome going over the go karts and will be cool when youre actually on the go karts!
Im sure that the maintenance rails and transfer track will all be built around and covered up. They did say in the blog that they werent entirely finished with work on the transfer track, and it looks like they will build a little house for trains when not in use.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top