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Removal of G-Force at Drayton Manor (2005 - 2018)

Interesting. I always thought that G-Force looked like an interesting ride but apparently the general consensus on here is that it's a steaming pile of ****. Granted, that also seems to be the general consensus regarding Drayton. Doesn't look good for the Park's future, unfortunately.
 
Pokemaniac said:
I really wonder whether tearing it down would be much cheaper than that. It has to be, what, a thousand tons of steel? That's at least fifty truck loads easily running at a couple grand each, just to get the readily demolished and disassembled coaster away from the park. Then the labour cost of dismantling the thing, loading the scrap onto the trucks, possibly digging the footers out, disposing of those too, and the fact that the park will have one ride less in its lineup. If a couple hundred thousand were put into a new chassis, at least the coaster would have value as an asset. Putting the same sum into clearing the space leaves them only with the asset of open space, which doesn't quite pull in guests to the same degree. And I doubt its value as scrap would be nearly enough to foot the bill for its removal.
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Unless they sell the ride to someone who is in a position to buy a new chassis? Then they don't have to pay for repairs and they get money from the sale of the coaster.
 
Is there much value in G-Force other than its scrap value? I would like to see some good investment off the back of this but it doesn't seem likely.
 
Antinos said:
Interesting. I always thought that G-Force looked like an interesting ride but apparently the general consensus on here is that it's a steaming pile of :emoji_poop:. Granted, that also seems to be the general consensus regarding Drayton. Doesn't look good for the Park's future, unfortunately.
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It would be fun if it was longer and the restraints didn't try to cut you in half.

The lift hill is pretty cool though
 
I don't care that I'll never ride G-Force again but I do worry for the park as it's a nice family run park, albeit one that I have no intention to ever revisit
 
I was litterally talking about how much this ride needed to be scrapped yesterday!

I've never had such an uncomfortable experience on a rollercoaster in my life. I remember when Drayton was Alton's main competitor with Apolcalypse and Shockwave and Stormforce10, all IMO some really solid rides (infact I think Stormforce10 is one of the best themed rides in the UK) I was sad to see the park last time I went as I always thought it had great potential, and the height restrictions didn't seem as strict as Alton. Thomas land has done them favours but I would love to see them secure funding for something for the thrill market, esspecially now, when there are some great cheaper options out there!

Replace it with a Lech clone, or an RMC-Raptor even a Gerts double launch type thing. It doesn't have to be of a grand scale, but with the UK theme parks probably taking a couple of years before their next big investments they could maybe grab that dead space for themselves.

Maybe I'm being too optimistic here, but I'm so very glad to see that butt-ugly waste of space hit the scrap pile.
 
bob_3_ said:
Replace it with a Lech clone, or an RMC-Raptor even a Gerts double launch type thing. It doesn't have to be of a grand scale, but with the UK theme parks probably taking a couple of years before their next big investments they could maybe grab that dead space for themselves.
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Urgh this would be perfect but if the rumour is true about them not being able to afford a new part for G-Force then this is just a pipe dream.
 
It’s a terrible coaster but removal isn’t going to help their attendances.

I fear for Drayton, really hope the park can survive and this isn’t the beginning of the end for them. I would hate to see it go the way of American Adventure/Camelot/Pleasure Island.
 
Darn, looked like quite an interesting ride, despite it's reputation. My hope is that the park will save up for something later down the line. I think a family GG woodie would be an absolutely perfect choice here: cheap, effective, and can be marketed pretty easily(family wooden coaster in the UK). Although with what people have been saying, the future does not bode well for them.
 
Good riddance. Klondike Gold Mine was far better, and that was terrible. I seem to remember reading somewhere that G Force only cost the park about £3mil to build in the first place (the wiki says £2.5 mil). So they've got pretty good bang for their buck.

Is Drayton doing badly? Thomas Land seems really successful with families with young children, they've been capitalising on that for years so they can't be doing too badly. Maybe it's a case of "what's the point in spending this money" rather than not being able to? G force just isn't worth the investment, that money could fund the station of a new coaster.
 
Yeah, it's a pretty **** coaster but still disappointing to see another big ride vanish from Drayton's line-up. I can imagine it just staying there SBNO for a couple of years based on their treatment of other rides they've had technical issues with. This park has almost no appeal for thrillseekers now beyond a single visit to get the creds. I'd actually prefer them to sell what's left of the big rides to other parks and just re-brand themselves completely as Thomas Land!
 
peep said:
Urgh this would be perfect but if the rumour is true about them not being able to afford a new part for G-Force then this is just a pipe dream.
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Yeah but usually it's not a case of "we can't afford" and more a case of "is it worth the money". Nemesis for example is a bit of a maintenance nightmare but it draws so much attention on the world state merlin can easily find the funds to keep it going. I think people have the perception that drayton is dying, but as said before thomas land was a big success , actually that and peppa pig are the reason Alton had to step up their family game with cbeebies land.

I hoping they just realised GeForce is a pile of **** and have decided the space and money spent on maintenance will go to better use. If they can convince any investors that they can build something that will put the park back on the map then hopefully we will see a good addition to the park over the next few years.

My optimistic side is thinking that with the recent IAAPA in amsterdam they've found something that will be worth replacing it. Although there is a chance they may just expand thomasland...
 
elephant58 said:
Has this actually been confirmed by the park themselves, or are we still going off the claim made by CoasterNerds?
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Not yet, I feel this is an important point that many people are missing. It's not been announced by the park at all so people jumping on the park already for how they've "announced" it are getting it wrong in the extreme.

Also, just because the park cannot justify/afford £200'000 to fix the ride (which, again, is just gossip) does not mean they can't secure funding for a new ride. It's far easier to get a loan to install a new ride where they can prove it will result in X amount of new visitors and therefore an increase in income; It's a lot harder to justify a 200k expenditure just to re-open an existing ride that won''t bring in any 'new' visitors as such.

If it stays SBNO for all of next season then I'd be concerned about the park's finances. If they start tearing it down, that obviously has some considerable cost to it and there's no logical reason for them to invest in removing it unless they've got something lined up to utilise the floorspace.

That said, as good as Thomas Land has been I do worry that the 'thrill' part of the park has been neglected for an awful long time and there is the risk of it being re-purposed as a family park and zoo where it does have a decent niche going.
 
G-Force's footprint is tiny, whatever is going in that spot will either be a **** cred, like a Zacspin, or it won't be a cred at all, a flat or games area or something.
I echo everyone else in saying this will leave a massive hole and I don't have confidence they will push on. I'd love to be wrong, as I think there's potential if they invest, but they haven't for so long that it's pretty clear where their investment priorities lie right now.
 
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