Thorpe Park | Hyperia | Mack Hyper Coaster | 2024

[DelPiero]

most people here is saying its going to be out and back, but nobody has thrown around the idea of it being a hyper twister (not surprising to be honest) but raging bull is one of my favorite hypers so...

And Raging Bull is one of my least liked hypers but each to their own...
Someone mentioned the opportunity that is in front of Merlin at this point. There is the opportunity to build something incredible here, something not seen since 1994, something both massive and world class.

If they don't take the opportunity then it will be almost as big an **** up as DBGT.

 

[Rob Coasters]

I mentioned a B&M hyper with the idea that it would be an out and back behind all the coasters rather than something that sticks exclusively to Old Town. I think that's the only way a hyper can work in this park and also have it be a damn good ride everyone will love. It's a "go big or go home" coaster type.

The going out and return trip would go across the very thin plot of land behind Colossus and Inferno, with the turnaround being in the Rumba area or, going slightly further, just past Stealth so a couple supports sit on the unused island behind Swarm.

My ideal vision for the Old Town area, is that the final helix and the station for the hyper is in the area. Leave enough room for a Polyp and a restaurant, perhaps next to a merch store.

 

[Rupert]

I think that's the only way a hyper can work in this park and also have it be a damn good ride everyone will love. It's a "go big or go home" coaster type.

Is there really a bad hyper though? Raging Bull comes up sometimes but otherwise the conventional airtime hypers are all highly ranked. I can’t see any scenario where Thorpe build one and it isn’t well-received.

As I and many others have said I really hope this will be a hyper over any other coaster type, it would fit really well and just be a genuinely good air-time filled coaster which is sorely needed in the UK. Also consider me on board for @Jared ’s layout!

edit: also into @RobCoasters idea of a final helix over the plaza (or final bunny hop or splashdown), these are great for generating atmosphere and anticipation.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

I mentioned a B&M hyper with the idea that it would be an out and back behind all the coasters rather than something that sticks exclusively to Old Town. I think that's the only way a hyper can work in this park and also have it be a damn good ride everyone will love. It's a "go big or go home" coaster type.

The going out and return trip would go across the very thin plot of land behind Colossus and Inferno, with the turnaround being in the Rumba area or, going slightly further, just past Stealth so a couple supports sit on the unused island behind Swarm.

My ideal vision for the Old Town area, is that the final helix and the station for the hyper is in the area. Leave enough room for a Polyp and a restaurant, perhaps next to a merch store.

Yikes, the supports for a Hyper are quite wide, I wonder if there’s enough space down either side, particularly Inferno, for the supports without removals?

I guess if they want to do it, they, and B&M will find a way. BPB and Mack did Icon after all!!!

I think, assuming this is a Hyper, I’m as excited to see the execution as I am to ride the ride.

 

[Matt N]

Yikes, the supports for a Hyper are quite wide, I wonder if there’s enough space down either side, particularly Inferno, for the supports without removals?

I guess if the want to do it, they, and B&M will find a way. BPB and Mack did Icon after all!!!

I think, assuming this is a Hyper, I’m as excited to see the execution as I am the to ride the ride.

I’d argue that the ultimate case study of hypers in compact places also exists at BPB; Blackpool is a tiny park compared to even Thorpe, and far more densely populated, yet they managed to build the Big One, which isn’t a hell of a lot smaller than a such a ride at Thorpe Park would likely be!

With all of this discussion about how Thorpe doesn’t have the space for a hyper, just imagine what the discussions about BPB cramming in a hyper would have been like had the forums existed in 1992!

 

[Wazzupnerds]

well looks like Merlin is finally giving me a reason to do a trip through beans for breakfast land

 

[Nicky Borrill]

I’d argue that the ultimate case study of hypers in compact places also exists at BPB; Blackpool is a tiny park compared to even Thorpe, and far more densely populated, yet they managed to build the Big One, which isn’t a hell of a lot smaller than a such a ride at Thorpe Park would likely be!

With all of this discussion about how Thorpe doesn’t have the space for a hyper, just imagine what the discussions about BPB cramming in a hyper would have been like had the forums existed in 1992!

Arrows support structure is a tad different to B&Ms and isn’t much wider than the track itself…

 

[Tonkso]

If Merlin want a B&M hyper, which at this point I'm almost fully convinced it is, B&M will make it happen.
It has been interesting to see the real scale of rides such as Shammy B and Mako overlaid upon Thorpe, and I'd have been pretty concerned if I hadn't seen how they managed to squeeze the likes of Daemonen and Monster (Gröna Lund) into their respective plots so who knows...

I want to believe, but only next Friday will tell.

People will probably ask why it's on the work calendar :/

 

[Rob Coasters]

People will probably ask why it's on the work calendar :/

Might seem extremely far-fetched but it might be to reduce stress/traffic on the servers when it's released. Probably discourages people from pulling all-nighters in order to "be the first" as well. Higher chance that more people have 'something to do'. I wouldn't be surprised with a 2-5am official drop, but I can't rule out something like 8am or midnight either.

May also be the reason why they haven't publicised a time for the drop (maybe they don't know either).

 

[Matt N]

Is it likely that Merlin would drop the plans in the middle of the night, though? Surely they wouldn’t be dropped until someone arrives into work at 8am or whatever, unless the website was on some kind of automated timer?

 

[Nicky Borrill]

Is it likely that Merlin would drop the plans in the middle of the night, though? Surely they wouldn’t be dropped until someone arrives into work at 8am or whatever, unless the website was on some kind of automated timer?

If that’s the case… The code is already there before the day

 

[Matt N]

I had another idea as to how a B&M Hyper could possibly work in this location; I know many refer to Raging Bull when talking about a hyper twister, but how about something akin to the elusive Hot Go hyper?: https://rcdb.com/13875.htm

This ride starts with a little bit of out and back action, but then jumps into a bit of a twister section towards the end; it certainly looks like one of B&M’s less conventional hypers, for sure, and many think it looks like one of B&M’s strongest hypers!

In terms of dimensions; I’ve taken a look at it on Google Earth, and while the total length of the ride is a little under 500m, the twister section juts out a fair bit beyond the brake run… so if we’re talking the lowest part of the brake run right up to the ampersand (with station, lift hill and first camelback in between), the length of the ride is around 360m, which my Google Earth parousing suggests would fit if they went from the end of the Logger’s Leap site up to the yard next to Trailers, with the station either going at the very end of the Logger’s plot or around where the Old Town Burger King is currently located, dependent on which way around Merlin wanted to rotate it. They could make the length even shorter if they omitted the first camelback and just went straight into a turnaround after the first drop, and if they were to orient the ride’s twister section in a different direction, then I think that something akin to the Hot Go hyper could definitely fit into the space!

While I’ll admit I’m unsure whether the Hot Go hyper would be tall enough to break the height record, as it lacks stats on RCDB, I thought it might be an interesting ride to bring up!
P.S. Note to mods; I thought I’d change the thread title now that a coaster is confirmed. Feel free to change it if it’s not right.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

I had another idea as to how a B&M Hyper could possibly work in this location; I know many refer to Raging Bull when talking about a hyper twister, but how about something akin to the elusive Hot Go hyper?: https://rcdb.com/13875.htm

This ride starts with a little bit of out and back action, but then jumps into a bit of a twister section towards the end; it certainly looks like one of B&M’s less conventional hypers, for sure, and many think it looks like one of B&M’s strongest hypers!

In terms of dimensions; I’ve taken a look at it on Google Earth, and while the total length of the ride is a little under 500m, the twister section juts out a fair bit beyond the brake run… so if we’re talking the lowest part of the brake run right up to the ampersand (with station, lift hill and first camelback in between), the length of the ride is around 360m, which my Google Earth parousing suggests would fit if they went from the end of the Logger’s Leap site up to the yard next to Trailers, with the station either going at the very end of the Logger’s plot or around where the Old Town Burger King is currently located, dependent on which way around Merlin wanted to rotate it. They could make the length even shorter if they omitted the first camelback and just went straight into a turnaround after the first drop, and if they were to orient the ride’s twister section in a different direction, then I think that something akin to the Hot Go hyper could definitely fit into the space!

While I’ll admit I’m unsure whether the Hot Go hyper would be tall enough to break the height record, as it lacks stats on RCDB, I thought it might be an interesting ride to bring up!
P.S. Note to mods; I thought I’d change the thread title now that a coaster is confirmed. Feel free to change it if it’s not right.

Could make a nice little feature out of the entrance bridge if you could get it over there. That was one of my favourite features of the now SBNO hotgo hyper. With one track dipping under and one track jumping over the bridge. It would have made an excellent entrance view
(seen towards the back of these 2 photos.)

View attachment 14027View attachment 14028

I suppose Fury does much the same.

But this is pie in the sky thinking as far as I'm concerned and I can't wait for the S&S free spin announcement next year.

Are you suffering memory loss? I ask as I know you saw this, you were very involved with the conversation back then.

I'll say it again though, I love the look of some of the elements on that coaster, compact and whippy...

 

[Ethan]

With the bridge interaction idea, would that be difficult in this park? I could be wrong, but I was under the impression parts of the lake are quite deep as it's a flooded quarry, no? I imagine trying to place footers there would be a nightmare. Saying that, I suppose the part of the lake with the bridge is quite narrow so I can't imagine the lake would be too deep.

 

[Matt N]

Are you suffering memory loss? I ask as I know you saw this, you were very involved with the conversation back then.

I'll say it again though, I love the look of some of the elements on that coaster, compact and whippy...

Ah sorry... I must have forgotten! I don't remember it being brought up in the same context, but that might admittedly be me misremembering...

My point still stands, though; I've calculated that if they were to remove the first camelback hill from that coaster and make the lift hill Shambhala-sized, you could quite comfortably fit a station, turn from brake run into station, Shambhala-size lift hill and ampersand into the plot encompassed between the end of Loggers' plot and the end of Old Town (the Burger King/the Slammer area), and if you re-orientated the twister section a little and had your main airtime hills going in the opposite direction to the lift hill, I certainly think such a ride would fit! (EDIT: I did the calculations, and using the Hot Go hyper as a basis for brake run & station and Shambhala as a basis for lift hill and ampersand, this would come to around 287m in length; the full length of Old Town from the end of the Loggers site up to the end of the Slammer site/Burger King is a bit over 300m)

I'll admit that the Old Town plot would not have been my first thought for where to place a Thorpe hyper (my personal choice would have been to have the station, brake run et al on the island next to Swarm and have the lift hill and airitme hills behind Swarm and working their way towards the front of the park, with a turnaround maybe going where the Shark Hotel currently is, for some nice interaction opportunities with the Dome and entrance area!), but I'm quite confident that a hyper is what we could be seeing here, personally; I definitely think one could fit!

 

[Nicky Borrill]

Ah sorry... I must have forgotten! I don't remember it being brought up in the same context, but that might admittedly be me misremembering...

My point still stands, though; I've calculated that if they were to remove the first hill from that coaster and make the lift hill Shambhala-sized, you could quite comfortably fit a station, turn from brake run into station, Shambhala-size lift hill and ampersand into the plot encompassed between the end of Loggers' plot and the end of Old Town (the Burger King/the Slammer area), and if you re-orientated the twister section a little and had your main airtime hills going in the opposite direction to the lift hill, I certainly think such a ride would fit!

I'll admit that the Old Town plot would not have been my first thought for where to place a Thorpe hyper (my personal choice would have been to have the station, brake run et al on the island next to Swarm and have the lift hill and airitme hills behind Swarm and working their way towards the front of the park, with a turnaround maybe going where the Shark Hotel currently is, for some nice interaction opportunities with the Dome and entrance area!), but I'm quite confident that a hyper is what we could be seeing here, personally; I definitely think one could fit!

This thread moves back and forth so quickly, with so many ideas bounced around it's easy to forget one...

We'll have to wait and see... They'll find a way I'm sure, and how they pull it off will be one of the most intriguing aspects of this project.

I just hope whatever they do they don't reduce the amount of airtime the good hypers have by trying to twist it too much into a plot too small. It's not like B&Ms have RMC / Intamin level air time as it is, more gentle floater, so I hope it isn't reduced further.

Personally, if I had to guess, I think Jared is close to the money with his suggestion earlier... Using up all of one of the straight lines (Monks walk, Slammer to Southeast corner, or the Eastern shore) as the lift and first drop, and cutting back with a very tall 'fury style' or other very tall turn... I kinda hope he is right now, because that first turn could be an incredible element directly after the first drop with the kind of pace it will have at that point. Make that first turn, and then there's plenty of room for more airtime hills after that.

 

[Heth]

I am still struggling to work out on what basis everyone has concluded it's a hyper coaster, or even anything specific at all, as aren't all these rumours just "he said shee said" heresay?

 

[Nicky Borrill]

I am still struggling to work out on what basis everyone has concluded it's a hyper coaster, or even anything specific at all, as aren't all these rumours just "he said shee said" heresay?

I haven’t worked that one out, there’s absolutely nothing official from the park, quite the contrary, there’s plenty of ‘official’ enough teasers suggesting otherwise…

But you know, there’s ‘LOTS’ of rumour, and there’s often no smoke without fire… So I’m happy to play along with the common feeling it will be a hyper until proven otherwise.

Still hopeful for an RMC, and still half expecting a GCI or Woodie

 

[Pokemaniac]

Among all the speculation about layouts and possible locations, let me throw out a wildcard suggestion for how they can get nearly 200x40 meters of extra space for the coaster's footprint:

Demolition of Colossus.

It's a ride that has not aged well. The ride experience is awful and leaning towards intolerable, it's the oldest thrill coaster in the park, and as an inversion-focused sit-down coaster, it is slightly redundant with Saw. It is also directly adjacent to Old Town and the Loggers Leap peninsula.

We all want parks to keep expanding by building new coasters, but in practice there is a limited number of coasters a park would want to have in operation. Maintaining a coaster is expensive, after all. You need mechanics and operators and spare parts and cleaning and occasional painting and inspections and whatnot. Each coaster added to a park adds some value, sure, but it is also a huge cost. If Thorpe is to add a big new coaster, it makes sense for them to want to discontinue one of the existing ones, to even out the running costs. And Colossus is definitely the prime candidate. It's no longer a modern coaster, it rides like a brick in a washing machine, it desperately needs some expensive maintenance (painting) in any case, and its position along the paths is kind of awkward. The Colossus path is a narrow and twisted route with footers in the way everywhere, while there is a somewhat under-utilized path running parallel to it along the lake. Twice as much pathway to keep clean, for the same amount of traffic between the same two places. It makes sense to discontinue the Colossus path and put all the facilities down by the lake instead.

Sure, it would mean a loss for the park to go with the addition of a new ride. But it would also add quite a bit of flexibility for the construction of the new coaster. And how much of a loss would it be, anyway? The derogatory term "Colossucks" has been around since before I joined CF, and the coaster was barely five years old back then.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

Among all the speculation about layouts and possible locations, let me throw out a wildcard suggestion for how they can get nearly 200x40 meters of extra space for the coaster's footprint:

Demolition of Colossus.

It's a ride that has not aged well. The ride experience is awful and leaning towards intolerable, it's the oldest thrill coaster in the park, and as an inversion-focused sit-down coaster, it is slightly redundant with Saw. It is also directly adjacent to Old Town and the Loggers Leap peninsula.

We all want parks to keep expanding by building new coasters, but in practice there is a limited number of coasters a park would want to have in operation. Maintaining a coaster is expensive, after all. You need mechanics and operators and spare parts and cleaning and occasional painting and inspections and whatnot. Each coaster added to a park adds some value, sure, but it is also a huge cost. If Thorpe is to add a big new coaster, it makes sense for them to want to discontinue one of the existing ones, to even out the running costs. And Colossus is definitely the prime candidate. It's no longer a modern coaster, it rides like a brick in a washing machine, it desperately needs some expensive maintenance (painting) in any case, and its position along the paths is kind of awkward. The Colossus path is a narrow and twisted route with footers in the way everywhere, while there is a somewhat under-utilized path running parallel to it along the lake. Twice as much pathway to keep clean, for the same amount of traffic between the same two places. It makes sense to discontinue the Colossus path and put all the facilities down by the lake instead.

Sure, it would mean a loss for the park to go with the addition of a new ride. But it would also add quite a bit of flexibility for the construction of the new coaster. And how much of a loss would it be, anyway? The derogatory term "Colossucks" has been around since before I joined CF, and the coaster was barely five years old back then.

This would be amazing… Then every time I visit the park with a none goon friend (and even some goon friends!) I wouldn’t be begged to ride it!!! That thing is disgusting, it’s my least favourite steel coaster. Sure the layout is good, but the restraints full on crack my ribs, well it feels like they do anyway…

It wouldn’t be a bad marketing move either, given the surely imminent arrival of Invers10n… Do they really want to be the park with yet another ‘inferior’ (excuse the Nemesis pun) version? And to Flamingo land of all places.