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Someone is restoring a whip car


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Someone on the Coney Island forums is documenting his restoration of a Mangels Whip car back to its former glory. It's an interesting read:

http://www.coneyisla...um=1326038619/0

My intent is to do a full restoration, and to display it as a chair in my living room. The Whip Car is actually amazingly comfortable to sit in! I am salvaging as many original parts as possible.

Surgery_whip.jpg

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The Camden one runs at about a third its original speed. A large screw prevents the operator from choosing full throttle. The interests of preservation and today's litigation environment make it ever thus.

Kennywood's Turtle is even more slowed.

Many, many thrill rides were much more so in days of yore. Dorney's Whip even has seat belts!

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This is a cool project indeed, Way to go. I loved the Whip at Lesourdville Lake/Americana, rode it so many times.

Wish Kings Island even coney or strickers had an adult Whip.

The kids whip in KI, and I think stricker has one,is so cool, both my boys rode the one at KI all the time.

This would be a great ride to bring back from the grave, rengineered in todays methods. (maybe with the new disney patent concept Wow).

Great ride,

Good luck to all of your work on the projcet!

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The Camden one runs at about a third its original speed. A large screw prevents the operator from choosing full throttle. The interests of preservation and today's litigation environment make it ever thus.

Kennywood's Turtle is even more slowed.

Many, many thrill rides were much more so in days of yore. Dorney's Whip even has seat belts!

So are there any remaining whips that run at their original speed, besides the kiddy ones?

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  • 1 year later...

Hi Guys,

Last night during a Google search I happened across this thread, and I was excited to read about some guy who's restoring a Mangels Whip car, and lo and behold, I discovered that this fellow is actually me!

Yes, I'm the guy who's chronicling my restoration over on the Coney Island message boards. Unfortunately they had a spam infestation over there and deleted my Chronicle Part I, but Part II is alive and well. Hopefully I won't be breaking any rules here by providing a link:

http://community.coneyisland.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1340381227

If you read it and get to the end you will see that I had back surgery 2 weeks ago and will have to suspend my activity on the project for another few weeks, but once I'm fully recovered I'll be shooting the exterior with paint, followed by final assembly and upholstery that will be as close to original as possible.

I look forward to getting to know some of you here and getting to learn more about King's Island Amusement Park. Having grown up right next door to Rye Playland in Rye, NY, I have a great love of old amusement parks and love to soak up as much information as I can.

If you have any questions about the restoration, I'll be happy to oblige.

Steam

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The Camden one runs at about a third its original speed. A large screw prevents the operator from choosing full throttle. The interests of preservation and today's litigation environment make it ever thus.

Kennywood's Turtle is even more slowed.

Many, many thrill rides were much more so in days of yore. Dorney's Whip even has seat belts!

To Interpreter, Oldiesmann and Thunderbeast:

It's a shame that most of the Whips have been drastically slowed down. I can tell you that there is one park that runs it full-bore, and that is Playland Park in Rye, NY. The speed of that Whip ride is simply amazing. If there are two people in the car, the car will go way up on two wheels before the cable shoe settles for the straightaway. Not only that, but each car actually whips out and returns twice on each of the rounded ends. I've been spoiled and imagine that if I rode a slower one I'd be somewhat disappointed, but it's impossible to not have fun on any Whip ride, fast, slow, or in-between. There is something so insanely fun about being thrashed around in a tub on casters, isn't there?

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What a wonderful thing you are doing.

I wish you a speedy recovery.

Why thank you, Interpreter, I genuinely appreciate the warm welcome. I really want to do William F. Mangels proud in this project, and keep it as original as I possibly can. There is such a thing as over-restoring, and I want to avoid that and maintain the car's character while preserving it for future generations.

Thanks so much for your wishes for my recovery and for your appreciation of the project.

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Went to Kennywood for the first time last year and The Whip was my favorite ride there. There's just something basic and fun about that ride.

That seems to be the hallmark of Mangel's rides. Simple, basic and tons of fun. I think of the Tickler that he invented as I write this, and boy would I love to construct a new one of those. It would be entirely do-able as it is gravity-propelled. Mangels fully understood the insane fun of riding around in a simple wood & steel tub on casters. I have often daydreamed about taking my Whip car to the top of a modest hill and riding down, but I'm not crazy enough to do that...yet! I will have to settle on keeping it in my living room. As an side, the Whip car just happens to be amazingly comfortable to sit in for extended periods. There's just something about the construction that makes it extraordinarily comfortable, hence its suitability as a living room chair.

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This is a great project and a great idea by designing it to serve duel functions - collectible and furniture! One of the real issues when items like this become available is how to store it. My wife loves my collecting habits, but has asked kindly that I refrain from huge items that will take up space. This would make a sweet man cave chair, however! I have hopes to one day fully restore a kiddy hand crank train car. My earliest amusement park memory was the crank cars at Camden Park ;)

~Josh

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This is a great project and a great idea by designing it to serve duel functions - collectible and furniture! One of the real issues when items like this become available is how to store it. My wife loves my collecting habits, but has asked kindly that I refrain from huge items that will take up space. This would make a sweet man cave chair, however! I have hopes to one day fully restore a kiddy hand crank train car. My earliest amusement park memory was the crank cars at Camden Park ;)

~Josh

I know, Josh, space is everything. Your idea of restoring a kiddie hand crank car is awesome. I've seen them on TV but never had access to one as a child. There's no feeling in the world like taking something that has given you and others pleasure so many years ago, rescuing it from the junk pile, and restoring it to like-new and functioning condition. I liken it to being given an opportunity and a responsibility to preserve a piece of Americana, no matter what the size of the item.

I hope you get to fulfill your dream of procuring and restoring one of those cars.

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