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Backward Topgun ?


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Yes the last 3 cars are backwards! Astroworld used to do this for their version of fearfest and eventually just did it year round. XLR-8 was the 2nd Arrow suspended coaster ever built (the first being The Bat at Kings Island). XLR-8 featured two lift hills and only went about 38 mph, my drive to work is probably more exciting than XLR-8. This could probably be done with Top Gun, that would be pretty cool if they did do that! laugh.gif Last I heard XLR-8 had been sold for about 7000 dollars, dont know how true that is but it was from a friend who went to the astroworld rides auction. My father is from Houston and used to work there as a kid, he said that park used to be so beautiful and nice. We went there last spring and Six Flags took horrible care of it, judging from the pictures Six Flags really let it go down hill.

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Yes the last 3 cars are backwards! Astroworld used to do this for their version of fearfest and eventually just did it year round. XLR-8 was the 2nd Arrow suspended coaster ever built (the first being The Bat at Kings Island).

Actually, both XLR-8 and Big Bad Wolf in Busch Gardens Williamsburg opened in 1984 with Arrow's banked track modification.

And if you REALLY want to get technical, The Bat at PKI was the third suspended coaster behind Arial Coaster at Riverview Park in Chicago (1908) and Bisby's Spiral Airship (1902) at Queens Park in Long Beach,

History of suspended coasters on RCDB

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Loop-the-Loop [Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY] -

Stats & Specs - Images [by: ] -

- Type: Wooden, Out & Back, Racing, Looping

- Height:

- Drop:

- Speed:

- Length:

- Company: Edward Prescott

- Cost: $400,000

- Debut: 1901

- Closure: 1910

- Removal: 1910

- Cause of Removal: Neck injuries

Source:COASTERnet, I don't know that I would call them unseccessful yet. SOB isn't 9 years old yet, plus back then roller coasters were more or less a tear down, redesign, and rebuild thing then they are now.

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And if you REALLY want to get technical, The Bat at PKI was the third suspended coaster behind Arial Coaster at Riverview Park in Chicago (1908) and Bisby's Spiral Airship (1902) at Queens Park in Long Beach,

Had you read what I said you wouldve noticed I said The Bat was the first ARROW suspended coaster.

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Loop-the-Loop [Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY] -

Stats & Specs - Images [by: ] -

- Type: Wooden, Out & Back, Racing, Looping

- Height:

- Drop:

- Speed:

- Length:

- Company: Edward Prescott

- Cost: $400,000

- Debut: 1901

- Closure: 1910

- Removal: 1910

- Cause of Removal: Neck injuries

Source:COASTERnet, I don't know that I would call them unseccessful yet. SOB isn't 9 years old yet, plus back then roller coasters were more or less a tear down, redesign, and rebuild thing then they are now.

I think their hook for SOB was the first "modern looping coaster". Woodies looped in the past... but it wasn't pretty.

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Nope, as I said before, it was touted as the only wooden looping coaster on the planet. (Actually the press release headline used: "tallest, fastest and only looping wooden roller coaster in the world,"...the planet language was used more extensively later on, and is in the very first paragraph: "...contains the only Earth-flipping wooden roller coaster loop on the planet." They never said anything about there having been previous wooden loopers. Why would they? First of all, the first ones had not been comfortable or all that successful (and in fact had had some pretty serious injuries). Second, virtually no one was alive who had ridden them or remembered them. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, by not saying certain things, one can carefully leave the impressions one wants, and many would ASSUME it was the first, though they never, ever said that it was.

But some newspaper somewhere may have headlined it as the first. If they did, they were wrong. Press releases are just that, releases to the press. The headlines frequently get rewritten. They get edited by papers to fit their audience and size of news hole available. Sometimes the editing is right and proper. Sometimes wrong things get put in...Sometimes they get totally rewritten by a staffer (who may as much about whatever the release is about as I do about the Mongolian use and sales of toilet paper in 1906, and with similar results).

http://www.rcdb.com/document30.htm

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