Well, I suppose we have confirmation that Zonga is now leaving the park. The ride is in its initial phases of dismantling. Rumors going around prior to this talked about how the coaster ran empty cycles for a brief moment a month or two ago for potential suitors for the ride's purchase. I don't believe there's any official word as to whether or not it was sold to another park, or if it is being scrapped, or relocated.

Isn't Zonga a pretty decent ride?

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Well, I went on it once, and afterwards, my spine kept on popping . . . not good.

Send it back to Germany! They are the only people that will take care of this ride, and keep it running these days! They may not want it back after that hideous paint job and reprofiling though.

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^ Actually, the reason why the German fair sold it to Six Flags back in the day was because they were having trouble keeping Thriller open on a consistent basis...

Dont forget the fact it was to big for its own good.. Bigger the ride the longer the set up and take down for it is.. So it wouldnt be worth useing for "shorter" fairs.

James is right; it does seem like it would be a massive pain in the butt to move around every week.

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I guess the question is...whats going in it's place?

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Well, I had a feeling this thing was gone last year...I mean, I think I might have even posted a thread somewhere on TN that showed markers on the ground all over Zonga's area so It's actually no surprised to me. Especially considering the fact that it hasn't been open since two seasons ago and the fact that when it did open, no one enjoyed riding it at all. Back in 2003, I was one of the first people to ride Zonga when it first opened to the public and after riding it, I had no intention of riding it ever again. I think I actually rode it another time, but believe me, if SFMW loses this coaster I will be happy, considering that the park gets a new coaster or flat ride in the near future. There were actually rumors going around last season from people who worked there that B&M was actually at the park looking at Zonga's area, but of course it's just a rumor so maybe we'll have to wait and see what happens now.

Yet another ride I'd like to buy, try to reverse the F-ups, and run it in my backyeard the way it should be. Damn, another Schwarzkopf down before I could ride (was closed when I went to AW in 2001)

^Amen, this would have been the most elaborate one yet ridden by me. I haven't been on a Schwarzkopf yet that had more than 2 loops; just been on the short ones mainly other than Sooperdooperlooper and Revolution. I took a million pictures of Zonga when I went to SFMW for the first time last week. I studied where and how they did the reprofiling. What a sin. I was thinking about flat concrete pad installations. Maybe they could install a spinning mouse ride.

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It's to bad. I was at the park a few weeks after it "opened", and didn't get to ride it. Had my kids with me, and they didn't open it in the morning. Then my daughter started to not feel well, so we had to leave. They opened it as we were pulling out of the parking lot, and that was my only shot. Ah well.

Just hate to see any of Anton's go, even when they've been messed up like this one was.

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gl has been sitting in the parking lot for 2 years now. That is a sad sight

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Damn, hopefully it will open someplace new. Maybe a park that can un-do the reprofiling and run it well... Its too bad.

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damn this thing was only in the park for like 2 years...

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Yeah, but what it was worth, it caused more problems than good...It was at the park 3 full season, and only operated for 2. Let's not forget that it was a nightmare to upkeep and it was down a lot since it opened. I'm really not surprised this thing is getting taken out, I've been hoping it would for a year now and my wish is coming true. I just hope they can do something with the land it will free up. Because most know that the area where Zonga is once was parking lot and the park transformed it nicely, so now they have big chunk of land to put something new, exciting and much more smoother in.

As we all can see it's hard to get over. I'm wrestling like a bunch of us are with the thought of Grandfather Anton's creation being ruined and wasted. It's hard to let go. At least I finally saw the tangled mess of loops in person. I wish it had a chance to be on the cartoon souvenir map. I wonder how misrepresented but insanely loopy that animation would have been.

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I thought that they finally moved it this last offseason. Weren't parts of it used to fix and replace parts of SFKK's version of the ride? Has anyone been there this year and been able to verify that it's still there?

{ed**** just noticed on one TR posted here over the weekend that parts are still sitting in the parking lot, so I found my answer already. Now I'm wondering if that's the whole coaster there, or just parts they haven't used yet {/ed****

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I think its parts that haven't been used yet. I just drove by there last week. I didn't see any loop parts. It's hard to miss the huge tube for the weight drop.

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Well, what ruined the ride was SFMW having OTSRs put on the coaster when it was fixed before getting put in the park. I never heard complaints about the coaster when it was at SFAW except that the forces were high, but that was fixed when they raised the loops. If the coaster never had OTSRs, I don't think the coaster would have been that bad.

BTW, only portions of the GL track that is sitting in the parking lot was sent over to SFKK to replace some parts of the coaster over there. I doubt they would need a new weight drop tube and all that when theres nothing wrong with the one they have, so it would be kinda useless sending that there. I just don't see why they don't just melt the damn thing, its not like a park is ever going to want it, especially with parts missing. I mean its not like the park is going to need the parts for replacement seeing how they don't have a coaster similar to it. To be honest, it's a eye sore in the parking lot and I don't see how Shapiro could let the thing remain there. I hope it gets taken out along with Zonga.

Nope. It was a crazy headbanger, and there was no room for a person in those cars in any way shape or form

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As far as I can remember, Zonga was never a smooth or comfortable ride even without the restraints. The Restraints were added to prevent fall outs more or less. 2 years ago on the news a similar coaster in Europe had a wheel assembly malfunction that caused the train to stop in Mid-Loop hanging riders for some time with only the lap bar. Smaller passenger have a higher risk of plummeting from an unfortunate incedent like that, and that's why the Insurance provider for Six Flags Inc. requires such things ala Revolution at Magic Mountain. But Antons coasters are at an age that Six Flags and most knowledgeable people think is really old and could be replaced with something new and or cutting edge, the only peeps that don't think this are the true die hard Anton fans that don't care. Mind Bender (SFOG) is an Anton coaster that SFOG has vowed to spend the necessary funds to make sure it stays forever, but even it seems to show it's age now more than ever proving that no matter the up-keep, coasters don't remain perfect.

Zonga has suffered the same fate as Shockwave did when it was Z-Force in Atlanta. It was there for maybe 2 years before being relocated. When people make numerous complaints about a ride and it lose a sufficient amount of ridership to justify it's operational cost, then it's considered for relocation or the many other options to get the ride out of that park pronto.

Gimme the name of the European coaster, I think you're thinking of Mindbender and that was totally different...

Mindbender is in Edmonton, Alberta Canada, not Europe. And it sure didn't get stuck upside down in that unfortunate incident. I think he may be refering to something else entirely different.

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Perhaps Demon or a Boomerang?

Turbine, I think. Or some other shuttle loop.

Demon is in the US and is not a Schwarzkopf. It's an Arrow. Boomers area also all over the place and made by Vekoma.

Might be a shuttle loop, but I haven't heard of it happening on one of those. The only thing I'm aware of on that is the almost mythical story of a bunch of people complaining about no OTSR's on the rides, so Anton decided to show them, put them on the ride and then launched it so that it stopped upside down in the loop. Not sure if that ever happened though.

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Have you read my number 1 best seller? There will be a test! ~God
Life with God is one thrill ride you'll never want to get off of.
My park & coaster photos: Sir Willow's Smugmug pictures

I know, I just thought he might have gotten them confused a bit. Also could have been a Meisho coaster since they've got the smae looping box spine support system on some of them.

Heard he just hung a train upside in a less complicated way for insurance people.

Yeah the Shuttle Loop at SFB/Walibi whatever
It got stuck in the loop back in the 1990s there is video of it that pops up on "when good times go bad"/ "REAL TV" type TV shows

The ride always had OTSRs.. All that happened at SFMW is they put a new style on... But even when it was Thriller in germany it had a OTSR system.

He is right about that...

http://schwarzkopf.coaster.net/pictu...thriller02.JPG

I think another huge problem was that they didn't really screw around with the spine in high G areas, all other Schwarzkopf's after this sucker did that and all before.

Olympia Looping does not have these problems despite being more complex.

http://schwarzkopf.coaster.net/pictures/ES/ESolym02.JPG