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Europa Park | Voltron | Mack Rides Stryker Coaster | 2024

A BigDipper would be cool although it would have to run at least 10 cars and have separate load/offload platforms that can work with two cars loading and unloading at once for it to cope with Europa's crowds. Although I am aware that Mack can create full trains using the Big Dipper concept, so maybe they could use that?
 
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They already have a UK themed area, wouldn't it be weird to have Scotland separately, and not even near the "UK"?
It's not a UK themed area though, it's simply "England". And there's enough they can do to separate the two theming-wise.

If I were to guess wildly, based on absolutely nothing but a hunch, I'd suspect Mack would try to break into the "thrill coaster on a tiny footprint" market, where a lot of interesting designs have been made in the past few years. Stuff like Intamin's Impulse coasters (and later, Halfpipes and ZacSpins), S&S's Free Spin, Premier SkyRocket II, Maurer's Sky Loops, and maybe you could stretch the definition to encompass RMC Raptors too. Basically coasters that snake or shuttle back and forth on a tiny piece of land, using relatively few support structures, yet still being firmly classed as thrill coasters. Inversions not mandatory, but encouraged to bring that white-knuckle factor to a coaster that's practically just a junior coaster squashed flat and raised on its side.

It's a lucrative market because these coasters let parks build thrill coasters pretty cheap (see: Six Flags), and so a lot of manufacturers offer something that fits the description. The closest thing Mack has, despite its awesomely wide portfolio, is the Pulsar clones, and they only sort of qualify because they require a rather expensive lake as a central feature. But Mack seems to branch out in every direction, and I think it's reasonable to expect them to try this one too.
I can see that be in the cards for smaller parks, but I can't see them using Europa as a testing ground for that personally.
 
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I wouldn't want Europa to get a Big Dipper. I would like something to rival the big 3 coasters in that park in terms of scale. Europa needs a world class coaster, they've got some really good coasters but I don't think they have anything that has done what Expedition GeForce and Taron have done for German theme parks.
 
I think a Big Dipper would easily fit into their top 3 if done on a good enough scale!

Europa aren’t really about the coasters anyway, the atmosphere and operations of the place is what makes it so amazing.
I think something akin to Lost Gravity would be a incredible addition.
 
There's no way it would be a Big Dipper unless they extended the train. For an eight seat car they'd have to send a train every 24 seconds to achieve just 1200pph which wouldn't work with block sections that short. That ride type wouldn't be feasible for a park as throughput focused as Europa.

I'd personally love to see them go big with a hyper. Imagine the view driving into Rust with the straight parabolic hills of Silver Star on one side of the park and then a scraggy mess of twisted stengel dives and inversions on the other. I don't think the park will go for an extreme option though.
 
If I were to guess wildly, based on absolutely nothing but a hunch, I'd suspect Mack would try to break into the "thrill coaster on a tiny footprint" market, where a lot of interesting designs have been made in the past few years. Stuff like Intamin's Impulse coasters (and later, Halfpipes and ZacSpins), S&S's Free Spin, Premier SkyRocket II, Maurer's Sky Loops, and maybe you could stretch the definition to encompass RMC Raptors too. Basically coasters that snake or shuttle back and forth on a tiny piece of land, using relatively few support structures, yet still being firmly classed as thrill coasters. Inversions not mandatory, but encouraged to bring that white-knuckle factor to a coaster that's practically just a junior coaster squashed flat and raised on its side.

It's a lucrative market because these coasters let parks build thrill coasters pretty cheap (see: Six Flags), and so a lot of manufacturers offer something that fits the description. The closest thing Mack has, despite its awesomely wide portfolio, is the Pulsar clones, and they only sort of qualify because they require a rather expensive lake as a central feature. But Mack seems to branch out in every direction, and I think it's reasonable to expect them to try this one too.

Would this be considered MACK Rides' attempt?
 
There's no way it would be a Big Dipper unless they extended the train. For an eight seat car they'd have to send a train every 24 seconds to achieve just 1200pph which wouldn't work with block sections that short. That ride type wouldn't be feasible for a park as throughput focused as Europa.

I'd personally love to see them go big with a hyper. Imagine the view driving into Rust with the straight parabolic hills of Silver Star on one side of the park and then a scraggy mess of twisted stengel dives and inversions on the other. I don't think the park will go for an extreme option though.

Matterhorn Blitz has a pretty respectable throughput and exists at the park, it’s Europa they can make anything have a good throughput. Sure it would need a few block sections but Europa could make this work. Europa probably could dispatch trains every 25-30 seconds!

A second hyper though is unrealistic IMO. Silver Star makes a lot of noise as it stands, i think it would not be realistic for the park to have another ride on that scale due to neighbouring Rust and it’s peaceful atmosphere. The park isn’t really a thrill park anyway, we might get a another family coaster tbh! If it’s anything like Arthur (innovative and amazing) then that is better for this park than a hyper IMO.
 
Matterhorn Blitz has a pretty respectable throughput and exists at the park, it’s Europa they can make anything have a good throughput. Sure it would need a few block sections but Europa could make this work. Europa probably could dispatch trains every 25-30 seconds!
Matterhorn has the slowest line in the park though; I don't think they'd build another major coaster with that throughput, especially since attendance numbers have nearly doubled in the two decades since.
 
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Matterhorn has the slowest line in the park though; I don't think they'd build another major coaster with that throughput. especially since attendance numbers have nearly doubled in the two decades since.

It is pretty great though for a wild mouse, and Europa usually find a way to make throughputs good, Poseidon for example loads double because it only has 8 per train!
GCI’s aren’t really known for high throughputs either and Wodan works.. Europa will find a way around it or they might pull a Wodan and then make the queue line stunning. If not I’m sure the park could extend or experiment with the trains, especially considering Europa is directly owned by Mack so I’m sure if it’s necessary they will adjust the size of the trains.
 
I think a Big Dipper would easily fit into their top 3 if done on a good enough scale!

Europa aren’t really about the coasters anyway, the atmosphere and operations of the place is what makes it so amazing.
I think something akin to Lost Gravity would be a incredible addition.

Lost Gravity is fun, but I'm not completely sold on it as an amazing coaster. It's something a smaller park would benefit from. I do however agree that Europa isn't just about the coasters, but isn't that even more reason to go all out on the next major coaster? Wodan was 7 years ago now, so by the time they eventually get something on that scale it'll be ticking on 8-10 years. All the more reason to go to town with it.
 
Both Mack and Europa Park are missing a ‘proper’ inverted coaster from their line up.

An inverted Blue fire-esk coaster would not only provide EP with a world class new coaster, but would be a great way to utilise Mack’s showcase park for a new product. Is it just wishful thinking? Maybe, probably, definitely. But who wouldn’t want an inverted version of Helix??
 
Double Post, Sorry... Mack have removed the big dipper from their product listings on their website, and no longer mention it in their catalogues... The google search entry for the mack big dipper page on the mack site now leads to a page removed error... Have they pulled it as a product offering completely?
 
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What the hell? Why on Earth would they do that? Does anyone have any idea what could be going on?
Nothing is going on, let's not make a story out of nothing. If a park wants a big dipper then Mack are going to build one for them; maybe they just want to shift the focus of the website and draw customers' attention to other ride types. Or maybe they are just updating the page with pictures of Dynamite - who knows? Who even cares!? :p
 
Nothing is going on, let's not make a story out of nothing. If a park wants a big dipper then Mack are going to build one for them; maybe they just want to shift the focus of the website and draw customers' attention to other ride types. Or maybe they are just updating the page with pictures of Dynamite - who knows? Who even cares!? :p
I mean, this is an enthusiasts forum isn’t it, caring about coasters and all things to do with them is kinda our thing isn’t it? ?

That aside I agree with you, though I would think that they’re more likely to be pushing their more expensive models than just updating images, due to the fact that it is not just the web site, there is no mention in the catalogues either.
 
Maybe they just aren't worth it. If they're expensive, but parks aren't willing to pay more when they could get a Gerst Infinity or Mack Mega or Intamin Blitz, perhaps it's just a failed experiment. Still glad we got Lost Gravity!
 
Nothing is going on, let's not make a story out of nothing. If a park wants a big dipper then Mack are going to build one for them; maybe they just want to shift the focus of the website and draw customers' attention to other ride types. Or maybe they are just updating the page with pictures of Dynamite - who knows? Who even cares!? :p

I guess you're not wrong: if a park wants a Big Dipper, they would know they're a thing and contact Mack. But it's still odd to not advertise them; not exactly hard to have a webpage is it? And it's more effort to remove one than not update it.


It's odd they haven't taken off. Lost Gravity is fab. Dynamite looks great too. It has the capability to have a vertical drop / be an alternative to a B&M dive coaster. Maybe it is the cost or parks prefer alternatives. But it'd be a shame if the world doesn't get many more in my mind.
 
Double Post, Sorry... Mack have removed the big dipper from their product listings on their website, and no longer mention it in their catalogues... The google search entry for the mack big dipper page on the mack site now leads to a page removed error... Have they pulled it as a product offering completely?
Supposedly, the BigDipper coasters had structural issues which would explain why they were an unpopular model.
 
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