Having seen the POV and discovered more about the ride as construction has progressed, I must admit that I have grown more excited for Exodus despite initially being a little sceptical and a tad disappointed that we weren’t receiving a ride more centred around straight airtime.
The length is a bone of contention for many. However, I don’t personally think that length is everything, and the elements this does have all look like they will deliver. There are some very short hyper coasters out there that are revered; a key example is Skyrush, which isn’t very long but is praised to the high heavens. I think this could be very similar, as it doesn’t look to have a layout with an awful lot of dead space.
I initially felt that the ride was just another multi-looping coaster in a park already saturated with multi-looping coasters, and to some extent, I still think that a non-inverting hyper coaster could have added greater variety to the lineups of both Thorpe Park and the UK at large. However, I have grown more excited for the Exodus proposal, and I increasingly feel like this could be a phenomenal addition. I do think that this coaster will still feel very different to any of Thorpe Park’s others, as well as any others in the UK, and I still think it will provide quite a bit of negative g action. Granted, it doesn’t look filled to the brim with straight airtime moments, but I’m thinking that every element looks like it could very well provide negative g’s of some description. I reckon the drop could have very good negative g’s, the drop out of the Immelmann could have some nice airtime, the overbank into an inversion could have some very nice sideways and inverted negative g’s, the dive loop could have some very nice inverted negative g’s, the smaller outerbank could provide some nice negative g’s, and the airtime hill at the end could provide some nice straight airtime.
In my view, it’s not length that matters, but rather what you do with it. Exodus looks like it will utilise its length to the fullest in a layout with impactful elements and very little dead space. Surely we’d rather a short ride that uses its length well than a long one that doesn’t do anything overly interesting?
As construction progresses, I increasingly think that Exodus could be an absolutely phenomenal ride, and I absolutely think that it could surprise people. Bring on 2024!
