A Thorpe Park Hyper Coaster has now officially been announced after over a year of speculation!
Yesterday Thorpe Park Resort had an in-person public consultation for a new roller coaster that will be located in the Old Town area of the park.
A virtual presentation is set to follow on Monday 13th December but a website has now gone live unveiling all of the details of this highly anticipated ride.
Thorpe Park resort are working with Lichfield’s planning consultants on the project and numerous issues will be tackled including noise and the impact of this new ride on local residents.
As suspected from our report a few weeks ago the project will be named Project Exodus.
This hypercoaster will reach a maximum height of 236 feet which will officially make it the UK’s tallest coaster surpassing the current UK record holder The Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach which stands at 213ft.
Whilst the guests in attendance at the presentation claimed that Thorpe said that different manufacturers are still on the table to build the ride we have information to suggest that Mack Rides is already the frontrunner for this project and a deal is near completion.
Mack has been testing various noise-cancelling options on their current coaster titled ‘Hyper Coaster’ located at Land of Legends theme park in Turkey.
The noise-cancelling methods undertaken were trialled in anticipation of the Thorpe Park build and at the moment they are looking to be the most likely candidate.
Concept images also show numerous inversions and a Mack style track layout although at this stage it could be other manufacturers despite our sources.
A Mack Extreme Spinner is also not off the table although a 236ft spinner would be rather insane, especially with a splashdown element.
The initial concept images show a very compact coaster that looks rather short in its ride duration, sadly an issue that has plagued Thorpe Park coasters for many years.
The station will be situated on the former Canada Creek Railway station building and the layout stretches either side of the lake.
It will feature an outward banked curve out of the station, a ridiculously steep lift hill and first drop mixed with inversions, airtime hills and a splashdown element.
Thorpe Park were clear to point out that the proposed design may change significantly as I personally breathed a sigh of relief.
As it stands the coaster looks too compact, too short and looks to be taking the UK’s tallest coaster title for the sake of it without putting too much effort into what the coaster looks like or what the experience will be like for guests.
I wasn’t impressed with this initial concept design and I was very underwhelmed with what has been proposed here so I hope that numerous changes are made throughout the planning process.
Regardless of its short duration and very compact size it’s great news for Thorpe Park who are in desperate need of a new attraction especially with the prospect of The London Resort breathing down their necks.
The layout is set to be finalised in early 2022 and submitted formally as part of a planning application to Runnymede Borough Council.
A colour scheme is yet to be decided and a new plaza and viewing area will be created on the former Logger’s Leap station.
The splashdown element is certainly pointing towards some of sort of elemental water theme associated with the ride and certainly has many enthusiasts scratching their heads when it comes to manufacturers.
Our sources (who told us many specifics of this exact announcement days in advance) are adamant its Mack and whilst I’m still skeptical myself I can’t deny how accurate they were with the EXACT height of the coaster along with other details of this now official proposal.
It’s too specific of a detail to not be ignored.
We shall see.
For more details of the consultation please head on over to https://www.thorpepark-consultation.com
LanceHutch was also kind enough to let us host their recreation POV of the coaster layout taken from the proposed plans. Check out the POV below. The layout is subject to change and is not finalised at this early consultation stage.
