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Coming to the NEW Kings Island in '72!


BoddaH1994
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Racer_Billboard.jpg

Kings Island's twin racing roller coasters debuted along with the park in 1972. This highly anticipated new ride ushered in the Second Golden Age of roller coasters and was the park's star attraction until the opening of The Beast in 1979.

Although Cincinnati's Coney Island was extremely popular, it had the major issue of flooding due to its proximity to the Ohio River. The decision was made in the 1960's that Coney Island needed to continue to exist, but in a new incarnation and at a new location and thus Kings Island was born.

Traditional amusement rides had been loosing popularity since the 1930's so only a small handful of roller coasters had been built in the previous decades. As a result of this, finding a roller coaster designer was a much more difficult task than one would have been lead to believe.

In 1970, Gary Wachs and his father (the operators of Coney Island at the time) met John Allen, President of the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, at an IAAPA convention in Chicago. Allen studied under the legendary designer Herbert Schmeck and was the last remaining designer from the first Golden Age of roller coasters in the 1930's. The Wachs' convinced Allen to officially come out of retirement and design a ride for the new park being constructed off I-71 in a rural area about 30 minutes north of Coney Island.

As the sun set on Coney Island in 1971, this advertisement was placed outside of the Shooting Star (Coney Island's major coaster) in anticipation for the brand new ride that will be located at the new park. The millions of patrons who visited "Old Coney" during its closing year gazed at the billboard in awe of what the next year would bring.

Kings Island opened the next year to much fanfare and the heart and soul of the park was its star attraction: the twin racing roller coasters. With the debut of The Racer in 1972, public interest in roller coasters was stronger than ever before. Parks that hadn't built these massive wooden structures in nearly a half century began construction all over the country and thus the second "Golden Age" of roller coasters had begun.

Since 1972, The Racer has given over 99 million rides - the most in park history - and still thrills riders to this day.

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Around when out limits was being built. Also The Beastie lost its last little hill around this time also.

What changes have been made to The Beastie/Woodstock Express/Scooby Doo besides the removal of the tunnel? I was recently over in that area and noticed the coaster looked much shorter, smaller, and different than I remember as a kid. I chalked it up to things looking bigger when you're smaller. I remember a tunnel though.

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BoddaH1994,

Sometimes a post comes along that is pure gold! That picture alone is wonderful for so many reasons (nostalgia, artistic beauty of the billboard, etc.), and your well-written commentary really makes me stop and think of just how ground-breaking that venerable coaster truly was, and how much respect the ol' ride deserves!

We KI fans have all these newer, glossy, big-shot coasters and other thrill rides to choose from all over the park, and sometimes I find myself not even paying any attention to the ol' Racer, as if it's just an interactive, decorative gateway to the southeastern attractions (FOF, FH, DA, AT). It's almost like I think, "It's Racer! It'll always be there; after all, it always has been there for 42 years... right?" ( :unsure: Just what kind of coaster enthusiast am I to think that?)

Thanks for this! Racer is on the top of the list for the next visit.

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It would please a lot of people if one side of The Racer ran backwards once in a while - like, maybe, every other year. (I know there are problems with the backwards thing, but other parks are doing it so maybe it could be done with The Racer again?)

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Nice Pic Ryan! So it was 10 tickets to ride Shooting Star. I wonder how much a ticket was back then

Starting in, I think, 1968, you could buy the wristband to ride all the rides at coney. I remember the price being $4.00. Before you all state "Is that all?" that was a lot of money then-don't forget to adjust for inflation.

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^
Using a web site with an inflation calculator, that $4 translates into $27.25 in 2014 dollars. Though that seems a bit cheap for an amusement park of that size, with a good-sized wooden coaster (Shooting Star) and all that...it'd probably be more like $35 at least, I'd guess, today...

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^

Using a web site with an inflation calculator, that $4 translates into $27.25 in 2014 dollars. Though that seems a bit cheap for an amusement park of that size, with a good-sized wooden coaster (Shooting Star) and all that...it'd probably be more like $35 at least, I'd guess, today...

You also have to remember that entertainment in general is more expensive now than it was. I remember going to KI in the 90's loaded with $10 in grass cutting money and that was enough to both eat and play a few games. That most certainly is not in line with inflation. You could also make the same argument with movies, video games, and even childrens' toys.

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^

Using a web site with an inflation calculator, that $4 translates into $27.25 in 2014 dollars. Though that seems a bit cheap for an amusement park of that size, with a good-sized wooden coaster (Shooting Star) and all that...it'd probably be more like $35 at least, I'd guess, today...

You also have to remember that entertainment in general is more expensive now than it was. I remember going to KI in the 90's loaded with $10 in grass cutting money and that was enough to both eat and play a few games. That most certainly is not in line with inflation. You could also make the same argument with movies, video games, and even childrens' toys.

One could also argue the world has become more greedy, which has added to the inflation or vise vesra.

Inflation fact: Obama want's to raise federal minimum wage to $10.10 a hour

If that happens food prices and everything are gonna go up even more...

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^

Using a web site with an inflation calculator, that $4 translates into $27.25 in 2014 dollars. Though that seems a bit cheap for an amusement park of that size, with a good-sized wooden coaster (Shooting Star) and all that...it'd probably be more like $35 at least, I'd guess, today...

You also have to remember that entertainment in general is more expensive now than it was. I remember going to KI in the 90's loaded with $10 in grass cutting money and that was enough to both eat and play a few games. That most certainly is not in line with inflation. You could also make the same argument with movies, video games, and even childrens' toys.

One could also argue the world has become more greedy, which has added to the inflation or vise vesra.

Inflation fact: Obama want's to raise federal minimum wage to $10.10 a hour

If that happens food prices and everything are gonna go up even more...

I mean, I don't want to get this topic into a whole political debate but it certainly is a vicious cycle. Prices go up so wages have to go up. Wages go up so prices have to go up.

I don't think you can attribute higher prices to "greed" necessarily. Prices go up, and it affects some lines of business more than others. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Banshee is the park's largest capital investment, before that it was Diamondback. In 5-or-however-many years when they add the next big coaster it will also be the largest investment in park history. Simply, the cost of steel is higher and the dollar doesn't go as far.

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Around when out limits was being built. Also The Beastie lost its last little hill around this time also.

What changes have been made to The Beastie/Woodstock Express/Scooby Doo besides the removal of the tunnel? I was recently over in that area and noticed the coaster looked much shorter, smaller, and different than I remember as a kid. I chalked it up to things looking bigger when you're smaller. I remember a tunnel though.
The Beastie/Scooby Doo had one last set of hills before the break run at the end of the ride. Same as The Racer they where taken out to make the break run longer. Yes their used to be a tunnel on The Beastie sometime after it got that name. I have been on the other 3 Scooby Doo coasters and they still have the last set of hills.

When The Racer opened it had one less car on the trains.

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Since when did The Racer go 61 mph?

It probably never did- back in those days, overblown stats on coasters were commonplace. And 61mph sounded WAY better than 53mph when marketing a new ride. The height is also incorrect- Racer is 88 feet high, not 94.

Today, it's much harder to do that- since there are computers, cell phones, etc. it is VERY easy to fact check now.

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My friend and I are doing CFK next Sunday and we spent a good amount of rides on Racer trying to find the best seat and to prepare ourselves for the event. Racer is still just as much fun as it was when I was a kid!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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