Loop 030 printable

Volume 2, No. 8. April 26, 2002

New Arrivals

It’s a prototype coaster!
Discovery Theme Park in Hou-li, Taiwan, announces the arrival of Gravity Max, March 27, 2002. Measurements: 35 meters high (116 feet), 559 meters long (1,845 feet), 90 km/h (56 mph), 24-passenger trains. Delivered by Vekoma.

Yamay Resort, the hotel-waterpark-theme park complex in Taichung County, wanted something unique in a thrill ride, something you could not find in any other park in Taiwan or even Asia. “Everyone has a freefall tower, and everyone has a good coaster,” said Luke Tan, vice president of planning and marketing. “We combine the two. We found a coaster that crosses with a freefall tower.”

What they discovered was Vekoma’s plans for the Tilt Coaster, a prototype ride in which the train ascends the lift hill but then stops, anchored to a track that swings down to a 90-degree angle, where it hooks to the rest of the coaster’s track. Released, the train plunges 40 meters (132 feet) into a tunnel, ascends through a loop, then into a vortex and back to the station. “It’s a short ride (only about a minute),” Tan said, “but it’s really amazing stuff. The tilting action is so good. The back seat goes to the very top (43 meters or 142 feet above the ground) while people in the front seat look down into a small hole in the ground.”

Such is the unusual nature of the ride that it is proving as entertaining to the crowds watching as it is to riders, said Katie Ho, supervisor of the park’s public relations department. “People watching were screaming louder than people on the ride,” she said. And the people on the ride were screaming loud enough. “Taking the ride is like a challenge, it’s like a Mission: Impossible. Everybody wants to be a Tom Cruise.”

The park, which itself officially opened February 12, did not stage any dedication ceremony for Gravity Max. When the ride was deemed ready, it opened and the public descended on it. The park did conduct a press conference about the ride, and that resulted by happenstance in a most unusual but effective marketing ploy.

Because the park was four months late opening and the coaster came on line six weeks after that, the resort's shareholders, including the Taiwan government, were paying close attention, Tan said. The press conference featuring the coaster drew many of these shareholders—what Tan called 40-year-old, conservative salary men—to Discovery Theme Park.

Taking off from their jobs at the bank or in government service, these men would show up in their suits and ties, but upon their entering the park Tan “invited” them to ride Gravity Max. “They are reluctant to take the ride,” Tan said. “We tell them you can not be a shareholder if you do not try the ride. After they take the ride, they are smiling and so full of self-confidence. Then they go through the park so proud, these people in suits and ties, 40 and 50 years old, inviting teen-agers to go do the ride. It’s so amazing.”