TTF Euro Coaster Poll 2011-12

[Rob L]

Another very tricky group, there are a lot of good coasters here and none that I would consider poor. This is what I have ended up going for:

10. Winjas - look like a couple of good spinners but don't quite make it for me at this stage of the competition. Looking forward to riding in April.

9. Eurosat - I hear good things but it is impossible to tell from POVs so at this stage of the competition I cannot place it any higher.

8. Knightmare - I really enjoyed riding this last year, it fun and intense. Not quite good enough at this stage though.

7. Lisebergbanan - this does look like a good classic coaster put there are much better in this group for me.

6. Thunderbird - this does look very good and I may be a little harsh on it placing it 6th but I would rather ride all of the coasters I have places above it.

5. Dæmonen - I have real soft spot for this coaster, I think it looks fantastic. It is very unique and manages to do quite a lot in such a compact layout. I'd love to ride.

4. El Toro - I really like the look of this. Despite it's relatively small height it has real sustained pace and looks crazy. Very good!

3. Superman - another coaster that looks somewhat immense. I love these big B&Ms and this is long with plenty of thrilling elements.

2. Colossos - I wouldn't normally place this so high, however after riding El Toro (Six Flags GA) I have to assume that this would be awesome and full of crazy airtime. It doesn't win the group for me as I don't think the layout looks as good as El Toro's but this still seems awesome.

1. iSpeed - to me this looks like a WOW coaster! Fact, twisty, inversions, airtime; it seems to have it all. Would really like to ride and it is the coaster that excites me the most in the group.

I'm really looking forward to seeing which four make it through here, it's going to be close again I reckon.

[Dylan]

2. Colossos - I wouldn't normally place this so high, however after riding El Toro (Six Flags GA) I have to assume that this would be awesome and full of crazy airtime. It doesn't win the group for me as I don't think the layout looks as good as El Toro's but this still seems awesome.

FYI Rob, this does not compare to El Toro. The drop and the first section are similar but not as intense. Colossos is much tamer though. Still a great coaster, but when you get to Heide Park don't be expecting no El Toro

[Rob L]

2. Colossos - I wouldn't normally place this so high, however after riding El Toro (Six Flags GA) I have to assume that this would be awesome and full of crazy airtime. It doesn't win the group for me as I don't think the layout looks as good as El Toro's but this still seems awesome.

FYI Rob, this does not compare to El Toro. The drop and the first section are similar but not as intense. Colossos is much tamer though. Still a great coaster, but when you get to Heide Park don't be expecting no El Toro

Thanks! Yeah it does loom tamer from POVs! I don't think I'll ever find a wooden coaster I like more than El Toro, words struggle to explain how awesome it is! 

[AstroDan]

Colossus rides more like Silver Star, to me.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

[AstroDan]

Results

Q1 iSpeed 264
Q2 Superman 248
Q3 Colossos 245
Q4 El Toro 185

5 Eurosat 176
6 Lisebergbanan 169
7 Winjas Fear and Force 149
8 Thunderbird 142
9 Knightmare 126
10 Daemonen 111

TOTAL VOTES: 33.

A very close round. Both Eurosat and Lisebergbanan missed out by just a few points. The massive range of voting applied to both Eurosat and Lisebergbanan ultimately left them out of the qualification positions. iSpeed continues its growth in popularity, which has seen it rise steadily in stature since it opened a few years ago. Superman is another example of a coaster which, until recently, didn't tend to do well on the TTF poll. Colossos and El Toro prove that wooden coasters are very much in demand, the mini-GCI wooden coaster showing that it can out muscle the big boys, leaving a larger GCI - Thunderbird - down in 8th place.

Highest and Lowest:

iSpeed 10 / 1
Superman 10 / 2
Colossos 10 / 4
El Toro 10 / 2
Eurosat 10 / 1
Lisebergbanan 10 / 1
Winjas 10 / 1
Thunderbird 8 / 1
Knightmare 10 / 1
Daemonen 10 / 1

One thing I would like to say - the "Europa-Park bias" that many have claimed existed in recent years, exists no more. Eurosat had four people vote it bottom, and only one person gave it first place. Whereas in previous years, the ride has made it through to 2 successive finals.

[Sam]

Highest and Lowest:

Daemonen 10 / 1

ಠ_ಠ

Who voted Dæmonen (to give it its correct title) first? And why? :P

[AstroDan]

Highest and Lowest:

Daemonen 10 / 1

ಠ_ಠ

Who voted Dæmonen (to give it its correct title) first? And why? :P

The voting in this round was the most mixed yet. Every ride had a fair lot of support, in different ways. Whether it was "cult" favourites like Eurosat or Winjas or more obvious choices like iSpeed or Colossos.

[darkside]

Who voted Dæmonen (to give it its correct title) first? And why?

Maybe they really like it? Though, to be fair, its pretty rich of you to question that, considering you gave it the lowest score due to....... its name....

10. Dæmonen
No. You're not allowed to merge those two letters together. I won't have it.

[Dylan]

Has anyone from TTF been on Dæmonen? I think it looks alright personally, certainly not the bottom of this bunch.

[AstroDan]

Round 2, Group 5 (last group before Semi Final)
Voting Time for this round is 3 days (c72 hours). The top FOUR ranked coasters will qualify for the Semi Finals.

There are 10 coasters in this group. To vote, you need to rank each in order of preference from 1st  (best) to 10th (least favourite). Please remember that when voting, your user name and voting habit will be visible by the poll administrators and may be published on the forum. Both myself (poll co-ordinator) and Chris (poll technical admin) will be monitoring all voting during the poll. Keep an eye out on http://www.facebook.com/towerstimes for updates to start/end times of voting rounds, too!

1st placed coaster is awarded 10 points, 2nd is awarded 9 points etc.

Please inform yourself via the RCDB website for the relevant coaster, which will give you specs and photo's. You can also search Youtube and watch a ride Point Of View (POV) video, otherwise known as an 'onride' video! But remember, these videos often do rollercoasters, particularly those partially or entirely indoors, an injustice.

GROUP 5:

Blue Fire
Mack, LSM Coaster
Europa-Park, Germany


Balder
Intamin, Wooden Coaster
Liseberg, Sweden


Krake
B&M, Dive Machine
Heide-Park, Germany


Twister
Gravity Group, Wooden Coaster
Grona Lund, Sweden


Van Helsing's Factory
Gerstlauer, Bobsled
Movie Park Germany, Germany


Space Mountain Mission 2
Vekoma, Sit Down
Disneyland Park, France


Grand National
Wooden Coaster
Pleasure Beach Blackpool, UK


Nemesis Inferno
B&M, Inverted Coaster
Thorpe Park, UK


Shock
Maurer Sohne, Launch Coaster
Rainbow MagicLand, Italy


Speed Monster
Intamin, Accelerator
Tusenfryd, Norway


VOTING OVER.

[AstroDan]

Has anyone from TTF been on Dæmonen? I think it looks alright personally, certainly not the bottom of this bunch.

It looks "alright". Just very short. They have done the best they can with the space, I guess. However, for a truly compact coaster like that surely another manufacturer in this day and age can do better.

[Dylan]

Has anyone from TTF been on Dæmonen? I think it looks alright personally, certainly not the bottom of this bunch.

It looks "alright". Just very short. They have done the best they can with the space, I guess. However, for a truly compact coaster like that surely another manufacturer in this day and age can do better.

They could, but 8 or 9 years ago a B&M (even a very very small one) would be a good selling point for a fairly small park. A lot of manufacturers have come on in leaps and bounds recently, but I think for quality people would have looked at B&M back then.

[AstroDan]

I guess. Perhaps it's more recently. Gerstlauer were quite new back then, and Maurer weren't really in the zone.

[Dylan]

You are right, nowadays a different manufacturer would be able to build a great quality ride to fit into that space.
I personally don't think the ride looks so bad though. I would be interested to hear the opinions of people who have actually been on it.

[Nightfall]

I think it looks quite interesting. But it looks to be lacking as a coaster experience so I had to rate it low.

[Sam]

Another good group:

1. Balder
Compact little introspective from Intamin. I love the way it constantly just dives back into itself, and dives and dives and dives and dives. Falling back into itself.

2. Grand National *
It won't get through, but I bloody love this ride. It's amazing. It's been disproving the haters for 80 years now, and hopefully will for another 80. More ferocious and intense than 99% of coasters built today.

3. Blue Fire *
Person 1: "I don't really like Blue Fire. It's nowhere near as intense as it looks, nearly every element is totally forceless, the launch is weak and the first overbanked turn is a complete waste where there could have been an amazing tophat".
Person 2: "Yes. But on the other hand it's Blue bloody Fire at Europa Park."
Person 1: "Hmmm yes, I see your point."

4. Twister
Europe's only Gravity Group coaster, taking on the onslaught of the GCIs this year.

5. Van Helsing's Factory
Don't really have much to go on here, but friends from the road-trip last year raved about it, so I'll go with them on this one. I look forward to riding it in two months!

6. Shock
It's a shock that it's still in the competition I think! It looks decent, but it's a Maurer. I need to hear a few more people testify that it isn't horrifically painful before I can rank it any higher.

7. Space Mountain Mission 2
Bleh. Vekoma inverting coaster with OTSRs? No thanks. Maybe this is a bit unfair, and it does look beautifully themed (though an outdoor station!  ) But I can't rank it higher when there's proper coasters in this group like Mack launchers and Grav Groups.

8. Speed Monster
Looks good fun, not sure it deserves to go further than this though. Nothing much of note apart from that inversion. I'm sure it's good fun, but not world-beating.

9. Nemesis: Inferior *
The most tediously average ride ever built. An exact five out of ten. An overcast day. A plate of warm mashed potato.

10. Krake
Sorry, no interest in this. The layout is ABSURDLY short, without the novelty of the new that Oblivion had. And it's smaller than Oblivion! No excuse.

[Sam]

Though, to be fair, its pretty rich of you to question that, considering you gave it the lowest score due to....... its name....

Obviously I didn't rank it last due to its name, that was just something to write as you can't put the same thing in every round. I ranked it last as it looks slow, weak, short, forceless and pointless. Not due to the name. 

[SpinballEdders]

1*.Grand National - Perfect Woodie, love the "racing against your mates" vibe to it and the airtime is great IMO, Best woodie in England and one of the best in the world.

2.Balder - This and Lisebergbanan is what Makes Liseberg such a great park, really need to go on this.

3.Blue Fire - I can imagine the feel of being in a lapbar on a looping launch coaster must be fantastic. Awesome themeing as well, I NEED TO GO TO EUROPA!

4.*Space Mountain: Mission 2 - A tad rough, but it's unique layout and awesome theming is what makes it 4th place for me.

5.Van Helsings Factory - Sure it's not the best ride type, but damn the themeing looks good. heard good things about it as well

6.Twister - Sweden's 2nd best Woodie, looks so good.

7.Krake - Yeah it doesn't look as good as Oblivion, but I do like the themeing, the splash down and the immelman though.

8.Speed Monster - Looks bland except for the Norwegian loop.

9.Shock - Sure it's a Maurer, but looks like a pretty damn good one at that!

10* Nemesis Inferno - Oh god, what a boring coaster. poor thrill, poor themeing and is so bland beyond belief. Sadly for me this is my favourite ride at Thorpe.

[Pennywise]

Here's how I voted.

10. Krake - Some people have suggsted that Nemesis Inferno is the definition of bland. I disagree, I think this is. Granted, I'm not especially a fan of Oblivion... but even taking that into account, it was the first of it's kind in the world and opened in 1998. For an inferior design to be built 15 years later says it all, for me.

9. Space Mountain: Mission 2 - It looks as though it's a head-banger. Which is the number one problem that any ride can have, for me. any other type of roughness is acceptable in moderation... but I can't tolerate coming off of a ride with a headache.

8. Shock - Reasonable layout, but it looks half finished due to theming (or lack thereof), along with those horrible ride cars which make it impossible for me to rank this particular coaster any higher. Shame, really, because it could be awesome.

7. Speed Monster - Looks to me like an average launch coaster and, as Joe points out below, these aren't exactly my cup of tea to start with. Don't get me wrong though, I'd kill for this to take Rita's place in the Alton Towers line-up.

6. Grand National* - I want to like to more... I really do. But there's a difference between air-time and being hurled painfully out of your seat. I guess it's just a tad too rough for me, which it can perhaps be forgiven for in its old age. Nonetheless, I couldn't consider it ahead of the other coasters here.

5. Nemesis Inferno* - I prefer it to Nemesis. But, at the same time, I can see where others are coming from when they claim it to be dull and bland. In fact, I agree with them for the most part! I don't entirely enjoy forceful, fast coasters very often... something like this or Air is more my cup of tea. Not semi-final material though.

4. Van Helsing's Factory - This is a dark coaster. Granted, I haven't ridden this yet, but I've quickly developed a mild obsession with the ride which has seen me looking at all of the information, photos and video footage that i can find for it. It's still not an assured vote, because you can't judge indoor coasters in particular unless you've ridden them... but I'd be happy to see it progress.

3. Twister - Perhaps in a better group this particular coaster wouldn't receive my vote, considering that it's smaller than, and ultimately inferior to, the majority of the GCI coasters in this poll. But nonetheless it looks like good fun, packed full with air-time and very appealing in terms of appearance.

2. Balder - I've decided by this point that this is my favourite wooden coaster in the poll, and my 3rd favourite in the competition overall. It simply looks insane! I've never seen such a weird and interesting layout, and the amount of air-time looks ridiculous. It's one coaster which I feel as though I have to ride.

1. Blue Fire - Granted, as Joe pointed out by I edited my post, launch coasters aren't generally my cup of tea. This is an exception. On account of a couple of factors; Blue Fire is slightly more family-thrill as opposed to an out and out thrill coaster, the trains on Blue Fire look far more comfortable than those on almost any other launch coaster... and it's themed to a very high standard. It's one of those coasters which strikes me as being more of an 'experience', and that's what appeals to me, at the end of the day. I still have no interest in the launch itself.

[Joe Koopa]

3. Twister
2. Balder
1. Blue Fire

I'm intrigued by your placings here. Not because I disagree, but just because throughout the competition you were saying how launched coasters weren't your thing, whereas woodies are?

I'll get round to voting tomorrow, seems a good group.