Intamin vs B&M

[Nick]

I've gone for B&M, the new rides thay come up with are completely state of the art, and surely one thing to look forward too is a 4D. I love the noise of a B&M coaster, the way the track looks the smoothness, the design.god I could go on!

For Intamin I love their crazyness and their outrageous deisgns, but it doesnt beat a good ol' B&M

[Ash]

B & M hands down probably the worlds best roller coaster creators in the world. They do the basics very very well!

Simply brilliant! Great design, smoothness and i think they look like a coaster should! We can hope for 4D asap!

[Ketchup]

At the present time without riding many Intamins (Stealth, Rita, Shockwave, Colossus and Indiana Jones at DLP) I can safely say the B&M's i've ridden are better.

Intamin appear to do airtime far better than B&M i've heard though. The Intamin Megas are apparently superior to their B&M equivalent. It all depends if you prefer ejector airtime (Intamin) or floaty airtime. (B&M)

Intamin do launches, B&M don't, Hulk is the only exception to this, but some people consider it a lift hill that increases speed rather than a launch this would be rather dull if there wasn't a zero g roll and a brilliant layout after it. Compared to a Intamin hydraulic launch which really is the highlight of most of them apparently.

B&M do inversions better Colossus simply doesn't compare to the likes of Kumba, Hulk and probably Dragon Khan. Intamin looping coaster trains are horrible and the ride itself just isn't as enjoyable as a similar B&M ride.

Don't give me that crap about Intamin being unoriginal either, nobody complains about the various Batman clones or Superman Ultimate Flight Clones. Anyway the park orders the coasters. Do you really think Intamin would turn down a sale? Neither company would, and to be fair I think this http://www.rcdb.com/ig3245.htm looks more unique than any B&M i've seen. All inverts bar Nemesis and a few others do literally same thing, Drop, Vertical Loop, Zero G roll, etc.

To be fair, I personally think this poll is kinda biased with this being an AT forum, people will vote for B&M as Alton have 3 ranging B&M's, compared to 1 below average Intamin. Go to a Thorpe forum and everyone will say Intamin, due to Thorpe's 2 Intamins outnumbering their lone B&M.

I'm gonna abstaine from this poll, as I don't think the 5 Intamins i've ridden don't really compare to the 10 B&M's i've been on.
If I get on some more of the better Intamin coasters like Expedition Geforce, Goliath or Superman Ride of Steel i'd judge then. If I had to choose which company I prefer on rides i've currently ridden i'd go for B&M, but until then i'm not voting.

And please don't judge Intamin by Colossus and Shockwave. Despite the roughness Colossus is a good ride. And Shockwave is just as bad as the old B&M Stand Up's such as Iron Wolf and Vortex.

[Nutty dreadz]

Mmmm. I had to have a long long think about this one.

I've always been very keen on B+M, my top three rides in the world are Nemesis, Hulk and Duelling Dragons, and I've been on a few more B+M one's that are also really good - Looking at RCDB for other B+M rides, there looks like a very wide selection of really good coasters.

However Intamin are really starting to pick up now. With their newer launch rides like Rita + Stealth, I reckon they are gonna get a lot of business over the next few years.

It's been a really difficult decision to make. I nearly went for both as good, but I've ridden much more B+M, so I've had to cast my vote for them!

[Marky Moo]

[quote=""SW-Dave""]B&M for me on every count,

B&M rides are more inovative (generally) more immaginative layouts.[/quote]

Odd, as B&M are probably one of the most stubborn coaster companies around. They also most of the time build the lay-out for a park, not design it.

Suffice to say my vote at the moment goes to Intamin. Stealth, Rita, Shockwave and Colossus do more for me then the UK's 4 Beemers have ever done. Although in saying that Oblivion is far superior to Stealth.

[AstroDan]

I got the idea for this thread off a Europa Park fan forum and someone there had asked the same question (in response to KI-netic suggesting that B&M wins perhaps due to this being an AT forum).

On the EP forum, whilst they have Silver Star - most of them have been on Ge Force which isn't too far away. B&M is still winning with about 3/4 of the vote.

[Lauzi]

B&M - it created the masterpieces that are Oblivion, Nemesis and Air. Two world firsts for the park and also my favourite ride (Oblivion). Also, Silver Star - a ride that my sister adored at her visit to EP and gloats to me about the fact that she's been on it and I haven't

Don't get me wrong - Rita, Stealth etc. etc. are quality rides and Intamin did a very good job on them. Also, I can't wait to ride Kingda Ka and Top Thrill Dragster, but I don't think they will give me the same feeling that I feel whenever I see Nemesis or Oblivion.

[Wez]

Intamin all the way. B+M have the better quality, but Intamin win in most other departments.

Lets also not forget that B+M and Intamin are very closely linked. Both Claude and Walter worked for Intamin before splitting into their own company. They learnt a lot from Intamin and recieved a lot of training from them. Both Intamin and B+M use Giovanola for their fabrication. More recently, since B+M's factory was built they have been doing a lot of the steel work themselves.

Anyway. Intamin has been pushing the boundries of coaster engineering for years and coming up with excellent ideas. We have the Stand Up, Launched, 10 Looping, Ball design, Bobsled etc etc etc. All excellent and popular rides. You will also stuggle to find Intamin clones. Hundereds of custom designs are sitting in parks where B+M have just sold an off the shelf inverter.

B+M definitly have panache, but when it comes to innovation and new designs Intamin grabs the award.

Don't forget that B+M flyers hit hundereds of problems in their first seasons. The poor reliability and quality of Air caused the company to revise the whole loading system.

[Phil]

It's a tough one. My 2 favourite rollercoasters are TTD and Nemesis, i wouldn't be able to pick a favourite.

I was going to make a topic about B&M, but we might aswell discuss it here. B&M seem to have gone very quiet. We had 3 new ride concepts in the space of 8 years (Inverter 94, Dive machine 98 and flyer 02) shouldn't this mean we are due a new concept any time soon?

[CGM]

The first inverter was built in 92

[John]

Well to me it seems that B&M are making innovations in train technolgy and Intamin are making innovations in track/features technology.

Intamin do varients on a theme of sit down coasters where B&M build fairly standard layouts but change the experience by a different riding position

As a nemesis fan I have rather a large B&M bias and at the moment the possibilities of rocket coasters are not being utilised. Parks tend to just build as high as they can to get attention, rather than concentrating on getting a good ride, so for me it has to be B&M

[Wez]

Duckman, What about Speed Monster, Storm Runner, Xcelerator, Rita and Kanonen?!

All unique Intamin accelerator designs that are not just top hat and brakes.

[John]

Good point, obviously Rita can't be a top hat due to height restiction, but
Speed Monster and Storm Runner represent for me what these rides should be like, or Xcelerator for a more limited space. The existance of these show up TTD and Kingda Ka for the publicity-before-good-ride-design that they are. Having said that Kananen is unique but it looks rediculous as its top hat is so tiny!

I dont blame Intamin, its the parks that ask for a ride to break the world record and if you do that you end up with something so unweildly that it doesn't make sense to add any more track as the ride wont be working half the time anyway.

I still think stealth should have been like Xcellerator to make it look like thorpe were trying!

[timmy1372]

You cant beat the dull roar of a B&M, i love the noise Nemesis makes diving in and our of its hole, I find Intamin can sometimes be too quiet, lacking the atmosphere of the dull noise created by a B&M Coaster as it thunders along the track.

Having said that the top rated world number 1 is Intamin made.

B&M are classic but Intamin can still come up with the best.

[Beaver Dude]

Intamin for me because they surprise me while B&M disapoint me. Recently their newer rides have been disapointing. I mean look at Nemesis Inferno compared to Nemesis.

I haven't rode that many Intamins but each one that I have ridden has been completely different and unique.

B&M are looking up a bit Goliath at SFOG is meant to be amazing but I will be watching Tatsu and Black Mamba to see if B&M are on top form again.

But as I said at the moment it's got to be Intamin who haven't disapointed me yet. I'm actually saying this when I haven't even ridden a single on of their mega coasters as well.

[CGM]

[cough] Indiana Jones [/cough]

Actually to be fair Disney have made some improvements and it isn't as bad as people would have you think but it still has to be the worst ride that Intamin have ever built