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Saturday, November 9, 2013
A look back: 10 years of Dragster!
With all of the fanfare and attention on front of the park, newborn sibling, Gatekeeper, Dragster, as popular as ever as seen in the frequent full queues, especially during this October's Halloweekends Saturdays. People just cannot get enough of the 120 MPH launch, 420 foot tall height, freedom given by the lapbars, the roaring sound and amped up feeling you get from that and the christmas tree Dragster lights and view of Lake Erie, Canada and looking down at Millennium Force. There is nothing quite like the rush of Top Thrill Dragster. I made this video a little while back commemorating this tenth season. It is not much, but it really shows the rush of this ride.
The 2003 opening season of Intamin's Dragster and first few seasons were plagued with some serious reliability issues, but the ride was that good that people still waited for it for hours, as they do today. I remember opening season I waited 3 hours with my family, through two break downs and a full queue just to get an opportunity to ride this giant. It was all worth it! Still to this day I recall the anticipation of waiting for the ride. Thankfully the waits on it today are not nearly that long with many of the kinks worked out from it.
Nothing still quite replicates that thrill, even younger near clone of it two states over in New Jersey. Placement, lapbars and theming say it all for this wonder.
Dragster is built as the center of the park, making it stick out perfectly among the many coasters the Point has to offer.
Rumor is that next year this bad boy will be receiving some paint. This is not confirmed, but I heard this so we will find out. It is definitely due.
All in all, Dragster is a great ride, even if it is super short in length. That rush is worth waiting for and pretty unbelievable. I hope we see a full length ride with that sort of height at some point, but that is pretty unlikely. All in all, after 10 years, Dragster still delivers. I can't believe it has been 10 years already!
I miss the big (decorative) wheels it used to have! Yeah, I know they caused problems, but the trains did look so much cooler with them. They still look funny to me without.
I remember seeing them opening season, and I had gone every year to the park since the ride had opened, but it took someone mentioning it to me that they took them off for me to realize they were gone.They were definitely cool though
I miss the big (decorative) wheels it used to have! Yeah, I know they caused problems, but the trains did look so much cooler with them. They still look funny to me without.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing them opening season, and I had gone every year to the park since the ride had opened, but it took someone mentioning it to me that they took them off for me to realize they were gone.They were definitely cool though
ReplyDelete