BGW 11-12 Verbolten-Mach Tower

[Tyler]

I think Busch might have something crazy in store. It would be a downer to see just another thrill ride be put into a park like that. I would love to see a Intamin Prefab featuring extreme angles and tunnels. Those get pretty intense.

I'm personally not a fan of flyers myself. I find them extremely boring and slow. Of course, knowing Busch Gardens, they would most likely make it another Manta type, but themed to their liking of course.

Flyer would be a good fit to their park, as much as I don't care for the types. It just seems like something they would add considering they seem to like B&M's, maybe a new flyer train style?

[DisGardeVersal]

So BG kicked off their big Pass-Holders weekend earlier today. And Started with the big announcement in the Festhaus to get the weekend going. They had a list of five things over the next two years to speak about, and here they are:

1. Christmas Town Italy Expansion for 2010. They went over all the general expansion of CT, with 1 million more lights to be added, A show in the Italy pavilion, lots of trees and foliage, Italian Christmas Food options and merchandise.

2. Germany update for 2011. They will be updating the look and feel of Oktoberfest Germany, mainly the section next to the Italy bridge. It will have a great German look and feel to it, a pretzel store, "beer garden" maypoles, etc. I was worried at first, but the artist rendering (in the link on bottom) looked quite good and aprropriate and a wonderful new but updated match to the rest of germany and a great compliment to the Festhaus.

3. Mach Tower for 2011. A 246 foot tall rotating drop tower (most likely Intamin) with not-yet-released special effects will be going in the spot of der Katapult, the park's scrambler. The VP of Engineering, Larry Giles did promise that Der Katapult would still be back next year, but not in its current location.

4. Vanish Point for Water Country in 2011. The park is building a new water slide tower 75 feet tall with 4 slides. two will be fast paced not-quite-so-vertical body slides, the other two will be more vertical with the "breaking floor" effect when loaded into the "capsule" before falling straight down into the tube.

5. And we get to the last one. At this point the park's General Manager, John Reilly, took back control of the microphone to give away this last great bit of news. Going into TBBW's old spot will be a "multi-launching, electromagnetic" roller coaster which they won't share the details with but promise will have many "firsts" for a roller coaster. They may hand out a bit more over the next 18 months but I'm not sure about that, and we'll see.

Personally I think that's gonna be put to rest until this time next year but who knows.
I'm just happy that for once we will get a roller coaster with a launch to kick things off. Been waiting for that for a long time, and still have two years to go.

Links are always nice

Announcement - Big News | Busch Gardens in Virginia

[Leo C]

This sounds like you already created a news article. Publish this.

[Michael C]

Sounds like they have a lot going on. tower should be fun. Glad they are expanding the Christmas event.

[Alpengeistfan]

Any information on opening dates for Mach Tower and/or Vanishing Point?

[karrde]

The blogs from BG them selves are calling for Late Spring (likely May) on MT, and I believe opening day for VP.

[Leo C]

NewsPlusNotes: Busch Gardens Williamsburg 2012 Layout

There's a layout for 2012 released? NewsNotes has it compared to Big Bad Wolf's old layout. It looks like the same general path being used. I hope it's a whole new Drachen Fire inspired experience.

Mach Tower has a couple sections erected.

[Katie]

Looks like the new coaster will be a Zierer instead of an Intamin creation. Screamscape has the information located here.

[Leo C]

If this is by Zierer and is anything like Thirteen in England they only have to beat Backlot Coaster at Kings Dominion.

[Leo C]

Verbolten looks like will be the name of this new coaster. BGW fans found the trademark apparently.

[Wes]

That's apparantly German for "forbidden". Sounds ominous.

Can't always trust leaks. According to our leak at Carowinds in 2009, we were getting White Lightning Strikes Back.

[Joe R]

Verdorben (meaning tainted, forbidden, etc) would be a better correlation to "forbidden" than Verbolten. Adding in the fact that the word itself is actually Verboten, I'm going to assume the "l" was added in for schnitts n giggles and to give a general (and I am stretching this here) meaning of "Forbidden Car Ride" (Bolt itself the reference to speed...cars go fast). "Das verboten Auto fahrt" would be the proper title, but that's too long and annoying to market. Plus, Verbolten sounds cool and is nice to say as well.

Sorry for the nerding lol. I don't mean any offense to anyone either.

[Leo C]

It's ok to break down the Deutsch. It's still going to be a better name than Cheetah Chase. The two adjacent former coaster sites had great rides there but considering the park already have the monstrous Griffon and Apollo's Chariot coasters and Cheetah Chase is gone, this proposed smaller scaled rollercoaster seems like it has a spot to fill in the park's lineup.

[Leo C]

Mach Tower is still not open!?!? It's almost July!

[KodiakAaron]

What kind of launched coaster does Zierer have? I would've thought Intamin or Premier, but a kiddie coaster manufacturer? That's odd.

[Leo C]

I think they're learning their lesson from Moser Rides. We only know them for these small drop rides, not these huge ones.

[KodiakAaron]

I saw a layout for Verbolten, and it had a few buildings here and there, one of which is supposed to be a show building. Sounds like one of those "firsts" that DisGardeVersal mentioned. Th13teen, anyone? Oh wait...

[Commonsense]

Zierrer made a launched coaster named Wicked Wicked (Lagoon) at a park named Lagoon in Utah, it also features a vertical launch! I do agree a project that seams to be on a scale as huge as this Verbolten with show buildings, collapsing bridges, multiple launches, ect., I would of thought BGW would go with an more known company like Intamin or Premier.

[KodiakAaron]

Oh, I forgot that was Zierer. Good to know!

[Leo C]

Mach Tower is still not up? This is disappointing if it's not rolling by Labor Day.

[Wes]

Wow. Busch is usually on top of new rides, they must be having a major issue.

I guess I'll just have to ride it next year with the new coaster, haven't been back to BGW since 2007 for Griffon.

[Leo C]

Last I heard Mach Tower was testing but very slowly rising up the tower.

[Leo C]

Hold onto your Lederhosen - Mach Tower is now open. | Facebook Pictures posted on facebook of people on Mach Tower. Mach Tower is Open! It looks rather stout compared to a Intamin Gyro drop.

[steel]

Took them long enough.

[Leo C]

Kids almost back in school. You bet.

[Leo C]

That's a big hole the new coaster will sit in: the former Bavarian village for BBW. Looks like footers are about to be poured. BGWfans have the pictures of the work.

[karrde]

Some fluff on the official reveal:

http://www.dailypress.com/news/willi...,7581989.story

[Leo C]

It looks like a drop section of track has been installed for Verbolten. It looks like the section installed on Thirteen at Alton Towers, an elevator piece of track. Will the coaster car on that drop/transfer track bounce up and down like a mini frog hopper freefall? It's here: http://bgwfans.com/?p=1307&show=gallery

[Leo C]

Black downhill helix track has been installed. From what I understand it's part of a section that will later be enclosed.

[Leo C]

Thunderhawk pointed out that there is some big work going on the old Big Bad Wolf drop over the Rhine River. In a recent pic I saw new footers over the drop. What's confusing is near the top of the drop is a footer base wide enough with rebar for a new bridge. A bridge to where in regards to the Verbolten? Will this bridge support the ride and theming or a lookout area for guests? Guest access to the queue?