Matt N
CF Legend
Hi guys. As the Cedar Point 2020 topic seems to be so popular, I decided to make a topic for another project that is heavily rumoured/semi-confirmed for 2020; Project 2020 at Thorpe Park. Now, I'm not just plucking a 2020 coaster for Thorpe off the top of my head here, because in July 2017, members of TTSP Forum were introduced to Project 2020 at a talk during one of their events. They were given this image to go off of (Credit to TTSP):
Now for those of you that don't know, this is an image of the Meydan Bridge in Dubai, and apparently symbolises "the road to 2020". However, my take on it is that they could have chosen any old road and put that on it if they wanted to symbolise the road to 2020, and that they chose the Meydan Bridge for a reason. And that reason, in my opinion, is because the Meydan Bridge resembles airtime hills by design. Which would imply that the park is looking into some sort of airtime-focused coaster for 2020.
The team who led the talk also apparently said that they want an attraction with 3 key things that Derren Brown's Ghost Train (Thorpe's last major investment) lacked; high reliability, high throughput and the ability to market itself.
From what we have so far, my personal guess is a hyper coaster of some sort. The Meydan Bridge seen in the above photo definitely seems to resemble a row of airtime hills, similar to what you would see on a hyper coaster from a company such as B&M. Also, a hyper coaster, partially depending on height and manufacturer, would tick all of the boxes that the park's engineering team reportedly want from this attraction, because if they built it at a height of 214ft (or if they wanted to humour Blackpool's claim for the Big One, 236ft) or taller, then they could claim the record for the UK's tallest coaster. Also, most hypers have a reasonable throughput and reasonable reliability, so it would be a winner.
However, I can also see another genuine possibility, and one that has been rumoured by many different people. And that is the possibility of the UK's first RMC. Now I can definitely see this happening, as it would also tick all of the engineering team's boxes. This is because it would be very marketable due to most of (if not all of) RMC's lineup of products being extremely different to anything else presently in the UK, most RMCs seem to have reasonable enough capacity for somewhere like Thorpe, and besides Lightning Rod (a new concept), RMCs seem to have pretty good reliability. Well, good compared to Derren Brown's Ghost Train, anyway.
Furthermore, another possibility that many people have bought up that I'm not quite so sure on is another GCI like Wicker Man. Many people believe that Merlin may have signed a multi-ride deal with GCI as part of the contract for Wicker Man, so they reckon that Thorpe will receive a GCI as its next coaster. Thorpe actually did consider a GCI instead of Saw for 2009, so it's possible. However, I don't personally see a GCI as being quite as possible as the two options I mentioned above because despite their reasonable reliability record (bar Wicker Man) and their reasonable capacity on most rides, I don't think a GCI would market itself as well as an RMC or a hyper would. This is only because the UK already has Wicker Man, and GCI don't seem like a company who would be too willing to break tons of UK records or anything.
So those are my thoughts on Project 2020 at Thorpe Park. What do you guys think it could be?
P.S. Sorry for the long post. Also, sorry if a similar topic already exists.
Now for those of you that don't know, this is an image of the Meydan Bridge in Dubai, and apparently symbolises "the road to 2020". However, my take on it is that they could have chosen any old road and put that on it if they wanted to symbolise the road to 2020, and that they chose the Meydan Bridge for a reason. And that reason, in my opinion, is because the Meydan Bridge resembles airtime hills by design. Which would imply that the park is looking into some sort of airtime-focused coaster for 2020.
The team who led the talk also apparently said that they want an attraction with 3 key things that Derren Brown's Ghost Train (Thorpe's last major investment) lacked; high reliability, high throughput and the ability to market itself.
From what we have so far, my personal guess is a hyper coaster of some sort. The Meydan Bridge seen in the above photo definitely seems to resemble a row of airtime hills, similar to what you would see on a hyper coaster from a company such as B&M. Also, a hyper coaster, partially depending on height and manufacturer, would tick all of the boxes that the park's engineering team reportedly want from this attraction, because if they built it at a height of 214ft (or if they wanted to humour Blackpool's claim for the Big One, 236ft) or taller, then they could claim the record for the UK's tallest coaster. Also, most hypers have a reasonable throughput and reasonable reliability, so it would be a winner.
However, I can also see another genuine possibility, and one that has been rumoured by many different people. And that is the possibility of the UK's first RMC. Now I can definitely see this happening, as it would also tick all of the engineering team's boxes. This is because it would be very marketable due to most of (if not all of) RMC's lineup of products being extremely different to anything else presently in the UK, most RMCs seem to have reasonable enough capacity for somewhere like Thorpe, and besides Lightning Rod (a new concept), RMCs seem to have pretty good reliability. Well, good compared to Derren Brown's Ghost Train, anyway.
Furthermore, another possibility that many people have bought up that I'm not quite so sure on is another GCI like Wicker Man. Many people believe that Merlin may have signed a multi-ride deal with GCI as part of the contract for Wicker Man, so they reckon that Thorpe will receive a GCI as its next coaster. Thorpe actually did consider a GCI instead of Saw for 2009, so it's possible. However, I don't personally see a GCI as being quite as possible as the two options I mentioned above because despite their reasonable reliability record (bar Wicker Man) and their reasonable capacity on most rides, I don't think a GCI would market itself as well as an RMC or a hyper would. This is only because the UK already has Wicker Man, and GCI don't seem like a company who would be too willing to break tons of UK records or anything.
So those are my thoughts on Project 2020 at Thorpe Park. What do you guys think it could be?
P.S. Sorry for the long post. Also, sorry if a similar topic already exists.
