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They
were responsible for numerous great roller coasters of that era,
including Alton Tower's pre Nemesis classics like The Beast, The
Black Hole and The Thunder Looper. Perhaps the greatest achievement
were some of the thrilling ride designed to take up a very compact
space for parks and to travel around the European fairground
circuit. Recently I was lucky enough to ride 3 of these in a 5 day
period. The legendary, 5 looping Olympia Bahn, the worlds largest,
non looping travelling coaster; Alpinabahn, and an extended version
intended for a permanent park spot in the form of Knightmare.
A
lot of classic elements are highly evident. The curved hill lift
designed to save space. A compact space containing many helixes and
curved hills and drops. It's a masterful feat of design to get such
an exciting layout in such a compact space, without being overly
formulaic or predictable.
Of course a lot of Schwarzkopf coasters are also famous for their
loops, often multiple number of loops. You don't find them here, you
do though get a large sweeping first drop that heads out from the
usual compact area, and out over the pathways around the ride, and
does a large turn back in to the main ride footprint. From there
it's a fast thrilling run through the previously mentioned layout.
This offers a great ride as you tear around the track at a thrilling
rate.
In
a time when it seems like every new major coaster has to be either
multi inversion or have some sort of gimmick it's refreshing to see
what can be achieved with an ungimmicked non looping coaster using
nothing but great track design. A combination of this and Whirlwind
provide reason enough to pop in to Camelot as Whirlwind and this are
well worth trying.
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