Volume 1, No. 11. June 29, 2001
It's a roller coaster!
Holiday Park in Hassloch, Germany, announces the
arrival of Expedition GeForce, June 18, 2001. Measurements: 1.3 kilometers
long (4,290 feet), 62 meters high (205 feet), 59-meter first drop (195 feet)
at 82 degrees with a simultaneous 74-degree turn, 120 kph (75 mph). Delivered
by Intamin and Werner Stengel.
The biggest coaster on the continent drew a really
big media contingent to its christening. More than 100 print media and "a lot
of" radio and television crews came out to watch Hans-Artur Bauckhage, deputy
prime minister of Rheinland-Pfalz, launch the new megacoaster by smashing a
bottle of the Pfalz region's sparkling wine on the track. Milling with the media
for the big opening day party were other local politicians and VIP guests.
Then came the biggest test: the first public rides. Park guests converged "with
high speed of 30 kilometers per hour" on the coaster, joked Niels Christian
Pagels, Holiday Park's operations manager. But he wasn't joking about the resulting
accolades, which came in suitably big hyperbole, including praise from the toughest
audience: Americans. "They said to me, 'It's the greatest coaster I've ever
ridden, and I ride a lot of coasters,'" Pagels said of American guests. "One
mother came up to me and said it's the best she has been on, and she's been
to Cedar Point."
That this small family park in southern Germany is now mentioned in the same
breath as the Sandusky, Ohio, benchmark park is fitting since Intamin's only
other installation of this class of coaster is Cedar Point's Millennium Force.
While that one is, at 310 feet (94 meters), taller than Expedition GeForce,
this one combines the high-speed drop of the first hill with a twisting turn.
"Our marketing words are, 'it's the highest, fastest and spectacularist ride
on the continent," Pagels said. "And it's true."
Holiday Park surrounded the DM20 million (US$8.8 million) GeForce with
a whole new area containing a shop, bakery, casino and theater all themed as
a hip wilderness expedition. "Its not an Indiana Jones type expedition but an
expedition of modern times," Pagels said. "And you take an expedition on this
great, fabulous, new, spectacular coaster ride."
©2001, Minton Enterprises LLC
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