originally posted on 6/10/2022 1:09:00 AM
Photos: Courtesy of Zamperla. View full-sized image.
Coaster fans with a lot of credits under their belts can list a handful of companies that, over time, have redefined their reputations. As technology in both engineering and fabrication has continued to advance, so do improvements in both trains and track design.
Adam Sandy, roller coaster sales and marketing director for Zamperla, shared with ACE the company’s latest coaster installation. It opened in November of 2021 at Yangzhou Fancy City (Yangzhou, China) and is called Canal Peak. With a fall opening, why is Zamperla just now talking about it?
“Like so many things right now … COVID. It opened in November, but it was sort of stop/start. The way China is with park openings and protocols, we weren’t able to get our team there and to have collateral to share the news,” said Sandy.
At first glance, owing a lot to the colors of paint, one might think it would be a copy of Brooklyn’s Thunderbolt. But Canal Peak offers a completely different layout from that of the Coney Island original.
The vertical lift is a trademark of Zamperla’s “Thunderbolt” model.
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The ride is exceptionally compact. Within it there are multiple elements. Whether or not certain overbanked turns are inversions, there are unquestionably four.
“It kind of has what we’re known for — the vertical lift and the near-vertical drop. It has [multiple] inversions after that, so it definitely packs a punch,” said Sandy.
Standing in contrast to the elongated, out-and-back layout of Thunderbolt, Canal Peak is much more compressed and intertwined.
“We had the original Coney Island layout, and we did that at OWA (Foley, Alabama). We had that mirrored for a park in South Korea. We had a custom Thunderbolt model in Guatemala and in China. Now Canal Peak is a second one in China.”
Inversions on this new model are much more graceful.
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Zamperla is aware that the original versions were a bit more aggressive than hoped, but the company has invested heavily in its engineering team and facilities. The smoothness of the ride is a result of a nearly decade-long investment Zamperla has made in its roller coaster division. The company brought in additional engineers so that it has one of the largest internal calculations teams in the country and improved its track fabrication capabilities.
“It’s really built on what we’ve learned over the past five years,” Sandy shared.
Many ACEers might recall seeing the four-across Lightning vehicles at the recent IAAPA Expo. With excitement surrounding those vehicles, why then still implement the three-across seating originated with Thunderbolt?
“This contract was done a couple of years ago. We weren’t really pushing the Lightning vehicle concept. Any new contracts moving forward will be with the Lightning vehicle,” Sandy shared with ACE.
After a vertical lift of 100 feet, the near-vertical plunge sends riders into a vertical loop, followed by a cobra roll. Vehicles then dive into a corkscrew element. Twisting inside and through the structure and track, the layout features two curves, termed an overbanked turn and a cutback, at each end of the ride’s footprint. An airtime hill is thrown in between the two.
The footprint of Canal Peak is compact.
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“It’s intense enough to satisfy thrill seekers, but at 100 feet tall, it’s approachable enough for people who are ready to try their first upside-down coaster,” said Sandy. “Riders are hit with one element after another. After you leave the chain, it’s nonstop action until you hit the brakes. There’s something always going on. It’s very engaging for riders that makes them want to go again and again.”
Yangzhou Fancy City is a new park. Also there is a smaller coaster built by Jinma, a flywheel-launched motorbike coaster called Coaster Rider.
— Tim Baldwin, ACE News Editor
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