This design finally makes sense to me

6.09.24

So, our park has an Intamin 10-inversion coaster. Just like the other coaster named Meat Processing Plant, it's an copy of a commonly cloned ride - Thorpe Park's Colossus. (Well, the Revision B of this model while Colossus was Revision A, but still).

A while ago, I noticed just how bizarre one of its elements is. After the coaster's signature, photogenic quad heartline roll, just before the brakes, there is another random roll.

Unrelated, but apparently our Rocket (the ride in the background) is pretty unique. The other installation(s) I've seen have several symmetrical gondolas in form of a carousel, and the only one with the huge support and one gondola I've seen is the one in my park. Maybe it's a prototype? Will research and add later.

I wondered why this is here like this, feels like it was tacked on at the last minute. And then I was browsing RCDB and got an explanation.

I assumed Colossus was the first of this model - and it indeed technically is. It is the first of the 10-inversion model, opening in 2002. But what I didn't initially expect is that the 8-inversion model, listed together with it in the "Multi Inversion Coaster" section, is actually almost the same ride! So the OG is actually Monte Makaya in Brazil! rest in pieces

This one makes more sense, having the exact same layout except the heartline roll is triple and the end is a helix. So that final roll was indeed tacked on - it was added to the end of an existing layout just to break the inversion record! Now I really wonder if early drafts included a fifth roll in row instead. Would that have been uncomfortable? Or would that have been harder to maintain?

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I wrote this post because I went to the park today, so wanted to share a couple extras.