The Smiler - Construction Discussion

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Nightfall
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I would suspect the main influential factor over the actual coasters cost is how much they charge for the design. As the manufacturer will only be able to make 2 or 3 coasters a year they need to insure they can turn a fairly big profit on each ride to fund the next 12 months pay checks. You see the same cost increase with Sports Cars which are made in limited numbers, although even they can produce at least 1 a week.
That'll be why a cloned ride costs so much less as the calculations have already been done and therefore it's pretty much just a bonus sale that doesn't have to make as much profit.

This would also explain why Mack can build so many large scale coaster projects at Europa Park. As the manufacturer and the park owner that additional cost can be ignored. The park is already making them enough profit to live happily on.
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JayJay90
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its all those costs and then advertising doesnt come cheap either especially nationally. first of all the adverts need to be made, camera equipment and such (i know this is small but all adds up) and im sure prime time advert slots cost £££ for a 30 second slot  each time theyre shown, if over the course of a month it can reach the millions. this is only a guess at prices from a task i did 6 years ago in GCSE's business studies but im sure an advert during xfactor was £300,000 for 30 seconds.
edit: that may be inaccurate but ive done a tad of research, during corrie, its £90,000 but all depends when and what the audience is
Last edited by JayJay90 on Sat Oct 27, 2012 3:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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chris55
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R & D people, research and development is what pushes up the price of a coaster to seem astronomical.

Take the medical industry as an example.

Medicine company's usually get 10 years of license for a certain medicine, they spend millions developing a product, then have ten years to make a profit on it. (and in that time they charge a hell of a lot more than it costs to manufacture due to the money spent "inventing" it) once the exclusive period is over the recipe becomes available to all to make at cost price.

So I guess it's similar with coasters, the companies who "invent" these designs/models spend a lot of money developing the ideas, so when it comes to selling they have to re-coup these costs, hence a coaster costing a lot more to buy than simply production costs.
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tharrison4815
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Ripsaw Raver wrote: is it me or does the track look a fair bit wider than the saw track?-if so could this be to accommodate the new train design.
I actually went to Thorpe Park (yesterday) the day after spotting the track at Alton Towers and had read this post before going so I decided to pay attention to SAW, and the track looked identical in size and design to me.
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Back to the discussion guys?  ;)
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darrenhosker
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Surprised nobody has picked up on this yet, posted on Facebook today by TowersNerd.

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Chris-TT

Darren check our own Facebook page too, Saturday night is usually a busy one for the whole team as we do have social life's too ;)
Construction photos will be up from yesterday later today.
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GoldWolf
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darrenhosker wrote: Surprised nobody has picked up on this yet, posted on Facebook today by TowersNerd.

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Loving the shape of the curves of the track! And the colour! gouiburitbgusordbgsiuybfyyefvbsuygr can't wait ruogbersuigbawyfeugbeuygbge
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danwhit709
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[quote And the colour!
[/quote]

Black? Really?
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MatthewR1990
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danwhit709 wrote:
And the colour!
Black? Really?
Oh honey. Black goes with everything. Didn't you know that *rocks head side to side whilst waving a finger*

On a side note with construction do they really bring only one segment of track per lorry? That must cost a lot to ship. Does anyone know how many segments of track and how many beams there are? And how to they move them to the sw7 site.
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jb19852
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I am guessing by the green forklift type thing that was unloading the track. Or via tractor or something on the back of a flat bed?

And it does look like they are bringing one segment per truck. But then this is so chunky and big i cant see any other way of doing it.

Like you say must cost a fortune
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swfcjambo
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Presumably, if they can get two or more bits on a lorry, they probably will do, but some of the bends will be sent by themselves
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Jammydodger
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To be fair Saw's track is looking fairly similar to how it did on opening day with no maintenance, so the combination of Gerstlauer + Black track isn't something I'm going to complain about.

Also, it could just be a matter of perspective, but that track seems slightly thinner than Saw - which is almost as wide as Oblivion if you take a look.
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SpecyBeast
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I haven't seen the SW7 track with my own eye's, for those who have seen it; is the same colour as it looks on the images you have posted. By this i mean is it jet black or does it consist of another colour?
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The Moon
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The newer Dare Devil Dive-esque tracks are much thinner because of the car design, so SW7's track guage is likely to be different to meet the requirements of the new cars.
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Javs
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Every day I am more confident that this is going to be the UK's version of Maverick.  Yes it is a different manufacturer and yes there is no confirmation of a launch, but in sheer terms of length and intensity, this has the potential to be a very exciting ride!

I cant wait to see this baby go up!
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owenrita121
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Anyone one park tomorrow, could you please post a picture of the current site?
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Krazycoaster
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owenrita121 wrote: Anyone one park tomorrow, could you please post a picture of the current site?
I'll get some if I can :)
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George B
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I'm on park aswell
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Sam198
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Gerstlauer are now on site :)

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A shipping container not owned by merlin :shock:

Picture taken from TowerStreet facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TowersStreet
Last edited by Sam198 on Wed Oct 31, 2012 1:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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