FD61 Sample Article
FD61 Sample Article
Published in FD61
There are times when stuff arrives for First Drop that make me gape in awe, these pictures did just that. I knew vaguely about this project – an indoor park in Kuala Lumpur – but not much more, until the pictures arrived.
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Photo: Intamin |
Berjaya Times Square, once known as Berjaya Star City, is a huge leisure, shopping and office complex. Its two 656ft (200m) towers are placed at either end of the shopping and leisure complex, that amongst other things boast a 56-lane bowling alley, 50 cafes, bistros and restaurants as well as eight cinemas and 800 shops. Altogether it’s a pretty amazing place. All 7.5 million sq ft of it!
Intamin has supplied three large rides for the park, which is placed on the 5th floor of the complex. Twin Hammer is a double spinning arm ride, similar to those produced elsewhere, and to be honest, is not the sort of ride you’d write home about.
The second ride, Spinning Star looks very interesting because it’s very familiar looking. It is a spitting image of a Huss Condor. I find this interesting because the Condor was one of Huss’ worst rides due to its incredibly low speed. For those that have yet to discover the “wonder of a Condor”, basically it’s a tower, with a star shaped frame that moves up the tower. At the tip of each star are a set of cars, just like Enterprise cars, which spin around.
On the face of it, this should be a winner. A spin ride with the added attraction of height. The problem with it was that it was just too slow, it was more like an observation tower pretending to be a spin ride. It was not in the remotest sense - thrilling.
This Intamin variant does look slightly different in that the circle of cars at the end of the star tips has been replaced with a ring of outward facing seats, which will give a much more exposed ride. Now if the spin rate is higher, it can only help, as will a faster lift up the tower. What would really improve the ride though is to drop the entire star section from the top, Giant Drop style. Now that would make it some ride, but I don’t think this is the case, and at the end of the day, this isn’t the sort of place for an out and out “soil your pants” ride. This does not mean it’ll be a dull ride, but I have a feeling not many thrill seekers will actively hunt it out.
The final ride is by far the most interesting, the so far unnamed coaster. It wraps itself in and around the main atrium, encircling the other rides, and just… imposing. The coaster features two inversions, a loop and an inline twist. The design looks to be a lot of fun, with loads of twisted track and “concrete flybys”.
One of the most interesting aspects of the ride is its lift hill – it comes at the end. The 2,624ft (800m) of track starts with a small drop out of the station before going right into the inline twist. It is a fantastic way to start a coaster. At the end of the ride, the 24 passenger train climbs a friction wheel lift back into the station.
Once again it seems that Intamin are building some of the most interesting and exciting rides in the world. Whilst the two spinners appear to be nothing out of the ordinary, the coaster really does look special. The big problem is of course, it’s in Malaysia. Damn!
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