Wicker Man - General Discussion (2024)

One of the interesting points within the SW7 discussion is as to whether the new coaster within X Sector is the result of an Oblivion/Air scenario.

This being that the true plans for SW7 have been pushed back (to become SW8), and the BH tent plans put into their place.

The thinking being that SW7 was originally going to be some other form of prototype coater, possibly from B&M.

So, what are peoples opinions on this? I personally think it's likely that Alton were expecting a new B&M, possibly a 4D coaster in response to Thorpes wing rider.

Theoretically, due to the success of the wing rider concept with B&M (think 3 are being built this year alone), they may have decided to delay the 4D launch in order to sell more of the basic ride, and therefore maximise the life of the new coaster type.

With Alton, and more crucially Merlin, they will now have 4-5 years where Thorpe have a more exclusive coaster, before Alton bring out their, more innovative and interesting (and possibly more thrilling) version to 'top' Thorpes Swarm.

Your views?

The 4D B&M is a myth. The pipe dream of a deluded fanboy. There has never been a shred of evidence that they are planning such a ride.

:no:

DiogoJ42 wrote:The 4D B&M is a myth. The pipe dream of a deluded fanboy. There has never been a shred of evidence that they are planning such a ride.

That's not true. Well-known members of this forum have heard rumours about a 4D B&M repeatedly from many different layers of park management. It has at the least, been seriously considered, and probably planned for a pushed back, like Air was.

DiogoJ42 wrote:*clears throat*
...
Pics or GTFO.

See Also

2018: Wicker Man - General Discussion - SPOILERS! - Part OneWicker Man: What’s it all about? | Alton Towers Resort

The point still stands that the project is intriguing as an SW, as it doesn't appear to currently have a dominant 'worlds first' to it.

Don't wanna see no pics of management.

But yeah, this is completely different to what was mentioned the past couple of years from various management around the resort. SW7 was mentioned years ago as a replacement for Black Hole. So yeah, does seem like they've had to push this development back for whatever reason. Hmmmmm...

I have to say I am happier with the design that has been put forward for SW7 it's exactly what Alton Towers need, no doubt some cross valley coaster would have been cool but I feel it would have destroyed the theme of at least one area if not two.

Air car park for SW8 maybe?

Unless someone from the park says so I guess we will never know. And it seems rather strange that all the height balloons etc focused more on the other two sites than X Sector yet it has ended up here.

Also seems strange the wardley allegedly went out of his way to say that the plans had not changed. Why say that if you werent covering up the fact they actually had.

Not that i am disapointed. SW7 looks excellent and hopefully the can perfect SW8. In short, the opening post of this thread sums up my thoughts really.

Sam wrote:

DiogoJ42 wrote:The 4D B&M is a myth. The pipe dream of a deluded fanboy. There has never been a shred of evidence that they are planning such a ride.

That's not true. Well-known members of this forum have heard rumours about a 4D B&M repeatedly from many different layers of park management. It has at the least, been seriously considered, and probably planned for a pushed back, like Air was.

I hate to speculate about SW8 already but I am confident that it will be what SW7 initially was going to be. When SW7 was initially being planned I was told by a senior member of staff (a director) that there was an 80% chance of SW7 being a B&M. This now to me translates to it being very likely that SW8 will be a B&M, possibly a 4D who knows, but probably a B&M prototype.

People are forgetting a Eurofighter on the black hole site was rumoured as far back as SW5. Almost 5-6 years later it finally comes true. I'm sure it's down to Gerstlauer finally perfecting the ride for Altons needs.

I believe we'll see larger cars for capacity, judging by the rides size a 2 minute run is highly likely. At 2 rows of 4 ala SAW your looking at an extra 20-30 seconds running time, around 500-600 people an hour. This is awful for what looks like a flag ship ride. However 3 rows of 4 would provide almost 1100 capacity per hour which is better than SAW at 1000 per hour.

Clearly merlin were interested in a Eurofighter, it's possible SAW was a test run for reliability before building the dream model. However it looks like the dream model is piped at the goal post by Takabisha in Japan. With that said this layout looks much better, more compact and more inversions and bang for your money.

Perhaps Gerstlauer had issues with capacity when they launched the Eurofighter but these have been resolved now and we will see SW7 finally. The issues in 2004 could of been related to capacity, e.g. getting the larger vehicle up the vertical lift safely, being able to launch the smaller vehicles safely any of these things could of been an issue with the design many years ago which delayed it until now.

Rita especially looked like a last minute decision so perhaps the Eurofighter was originally scheduled then.

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Whilst it's plausible, it was just all forum speculation with little to no evidence to back it up.

I think the budget alone, £20million, suggests this is a project Alton Towers are very serious about and is not just some quick-fix back up plan.

Morgano wrote:People are forgetting a Eurofighter on the black hole site was rumoured as far back as SW5. Almost 5-6 years later it finally comes true. I'm sure it's down to Gerstlauer finally perfecting the ride for Altons needs.

I believe we'll see larger cars for capacity, judging by the rides size a 2 minute run is highly likely. At 2 rows of 4 ala SAW your looking at an extra 20-30 seconds running time, around 500-600 people an hour. This is awful for what looks like a flag ship ride. However 3 rows of 4 would provide almost 1100 capacity per hour which is better than SAW at 1000 per hour.

Clearly merlin were interested in a Eurofighter, it's possible SAW was a test run for reliability before building the dream model. However it looks like the dream model is piped at the goal post by Takabisha in Japan. With that said this layout looks much better, more compact and more inversions and bang for your money.

Perhaps Gerstlauer had issues with capacity when they launched the Eurofighter but these have been resolved now and we will see SW7 finally. The issues in 2004 could of been related to capacity, e.g. getting the larger vehicle up the vertical lift safely, being able to launch the smaller vehicles safely any of these things could of been an issue with the design many years ago which delayed it until now.

Rita especially looked like a last minute decision so perhaps the Eurofighter was originally scheduled then.

Rita isn't a SW, SW5 was Air, other than that, that's a interesting theory, the 2005 coaster could of been originally replacing The Black Hole.

jb19852 wrote:Unless someone from the park says so I guess we will never know. And it seems rather strange that all the height balloons etc focused more on the other two sites than X Sector yet it has ended up here.

Also seems strange the wardley allegedly went out of his way to say that the plans had not changed. Why say that if you werent covering up the fact they actually had.

Not that i am disapointed. SW7 looks excellent and hopefully the can perfect SW8. In short, the opening post of this thread sums up my thoughts really.

But, X-Sector was still being considered, so you should never rule it out, we had around 6 sites considered for SW6 for pete's sake!

If SW7 could of been a wingrider, I thought it would be perfect for the tent, but it always puzzled me why they were surveying pitside the tent, but now it's all adding up!

Stelios7 wrote:

jb19852 wrote:Unless someone from the park says so I guess we will never know. And it seems rather strange that all the height balloons etc focused more on the other two sites than X Sector yet it has ended up here.

Also seems strange the wardley allegedly went out of his way to say that the plans had not changed. Why say that if you werent covering up the fact they actually had.

Not that i am disapointed. SW7 looks excellent and hopefully the can perfect SW8. In short, the opening post of this thread sums up my thoughts really.

But, X-Sector was still being considered, so you should never rule it out, we had around 6 sites considered for SW6 for pete's sake!

If SW7 could of been a wingrider, I thought it would be perfect for the tent, but it always puzzled me why they were surveying pitside the tent, but now it's all adding up!

I somehow don't think that a Wingrider would have been able to fit into the BH tent.

formula1fan wrote:

Stelios7 wrote:

jb19852 wrote:Unless someone from the park says so I guess we will never know. And it seems rather strange that all the height balloons etc focused more on the other two sites than X Sector yet it has ended up here.

Also seems strange the wardley allegedly went out of his way to say that the plans had not changed. Why say that if you werent covering up the fact they actually had.

Not that i am disapointed. SW7 looks excellent and hopefully the can perfect SW8. In short, the opening post of this thread sums up my thoughts really.

But, X-Sector was still being considered, so you should never rule it out, we had around 6 sites considered for SW6 for pete's sake!

If SW7 could of been a wingrider, I thought it would be perfect for the tent, but it always puzzled me why they were surveying pitside the tent, but now it's all adding up!

I somehow don't think that a Wingrider would have been able to fit into the BH tent.

Definately not, I guess he meant on the BH site.

What I meant by my post is that this ride was not meant to be SW7. Irrelevant of whether 6 or 7 sites are considered I think the actualy hardware has been changed. I guess the true 'SW7' will now be SW8 or perhaps SW9 dependent on the technology used. I recall somewhere they said that this new ride would be groundbreaking. Whilst looking totally awesome, i wouldnt describe it as groundbreaking from the plans

As far as I'm aware, the Gerstlauer coaster was not the original ride dubbed 'SW7' - which is why part of me believes the Black Hole project should be named SW8, much like how Nemesis was SW3 despite it being the first SW to open. Alton did at least acknowledge there were other SW projects before it - although I guess the idea of them being chronologically ordered by concept rather than opening date was thrown out the window back with Oblivion and Air anyway.

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