originally posted on 5/6/2022 1:13:00 AM
Photo: Courtesy of Vekoma. View full-sized image.
Year after year, coaster enthusiasts have seen Vekoma Rides rewrite its story. “Old Vekoma” had established a reputation for providing parks with marketable thrillers, but between the “cloned-to-death” nature of boomerangs and suspended looping coasters, not to mention some fairly aggressive inversions, the more pleasing installations from the company were its mine trains and roller skaters.
Fårup Sommerland (Blokhus, Denmark) provides an ideal analogy. Its new coaster, Fønix, is quite representative of Vekoma’s phoenix-like rise from the ashes.
Take a look.
The park is having fun with its marketing claim of “the country’s tallest roller coaster.” It would be so easy for cynical coaster aficionados to quip a snarky: “So what? The entire country is the size of Massachusetts. Fønix is only 131 feet tall.” But that would be incredibly short-sighted. Fønix looks to be brilliant.
Photo: Courtesy of Vekoma. View full-sized image.
Forget getting tied up in marketing stats. There are countless lessons to be learned here. For all their bravado, stats themselves do not a great coaster make. Where skyscraping coasters have phenomenal spectator appeal, much of the length is spent on a lift hill or on a brake run a hundred feet in the air. What Fønix does is pack so much action in a coaster just short of 3,000 feet in length that it offers the same excitement of a ride twice its size.
Park spokespeople admitted they wanted something big to bring Fårup Sommerland to the next level. Having visited Legendia (Chorzów, Poland) and ridden Lech Coaster, officials knew this style of ride hit the right marks for what the park was looking for.
Photos: Courtesy of Vekoma. View full-sized image.
The overhead flip through the station is a cool maneuver.
View full-sized image.
Three inversions are found on Fønix, but that is hardly the complete story. Those elements are mixed within an arsenal of crowd-pleasing maneuvers. Directional changes, 14 moments of airtime, wild banking and snappy curves, combined with those upside-down moments make for the complete package.
And what about those inversions? Quite simply, they’re slick. The first has been dubbed by Vekoma as a world’s first “stall loop.” At first glance, it might appear to be a traditional loop, but it really is completely different. Stretched ever so slightly at the top, riders experience a touch of weightlessness. The exit from the loop is a twisting dive sending passengers in a completely different direction from which they entered the loop. Deliciously cool. While the second inversion is a familiar corkscrew, the third is a delightful upside-down flip through the station, a moment taken from Lech Coaster’s playbook.
The “stall loop” offers a bit of weightlessness while upside down.
Photo: Courtesy of Vekoma. View full-sized image.
The exit from the stall loop is a twisting marvel.
Photo: Courtesy of Fårup Sommerland. View full-sized image.
Want a ride? Hop on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu2clKbXcv8
Fønix is the fourth coaster from Vekoma (out of eight) at the park.
With the theme of rebirth — particularly with the world emerging from global circumstances — the wooded setting is embraced with stone, wood and copper in the station and its natural surroundings.
Fønix operates with two trains that seat 16. As is seen much more commonly nowadays, bulky over-the-shoulder harnesses have been replaced with restraints at the lap area. Vekoma trains offer a soft vest, so the ride is thrilling yet comfortable. “Head banging” and “ear bopping” are old coaster terms enthusiasts are delighted to see become a thing of the past.
There are big takeaways from projects such as this. A great ride doesn’t need record-breaking measurements — it simply needs to be a great ride. At 131 feet, Fønix has enough energy to deliver. Creative touches such as the new stall loop, the flip through the station and simple bits such as below-ground trenches add character and signature elements. In an article with Amusement Today, Benjamin Bloemendaal, head of concept engineering at Vekoma, told the publication that the company is always looking for ways to improve its designs. “The more intricate aerobatics you see on Fønix is something of a trend you’ll see in most of our upcoming coasters,” he stated.
Fønix is the fourth coaster from Vekoma (out of eight) at the park.
Photo: Courtesy of Fårup Sommerland. View full-sized image.
The biggest takeaway is that America is rather behind. Europe and China have reaped the rewards of Vekoma’s new designs. The United States has been fortunate to enjoy some family suspended coasters in recent years, but the bigger machinery has yet to arrive. The soon-to-be-revealed Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT (Lake Buena Vista, Florida) and Circuit Breaker at Austin’s COTALand in 2023 will be some larger installations for America to call its own. For now, Fårup Sommerland is yet one more park for ACE members to pencil in on their wish lists and travel itineraries.
— Tim Baldwin, ACE News Editor
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