Th13teen at Alton Towers

[Gazza]

Alton Towers have finally announced the name of their newest coaster; Th13teen. http://www.altontowers.com/2010/ For those of you who haven't been following, the ride had previously been codenamed SW6 (Secret weapon 6)...In the past Alton have given the SW codename to coasters that were groundbreaking...SW3 was Nemesis, SW4 was Oblivion, SW5 was Air. Hopefully this will live up to the previous three. The coaster will comprise of an outdoor section through the woodlands, as well as an indoor section in a castle, which is reported to contain a world first element (And the #1 rumour at the moment is that the train will go onto a section of track that freefalls like a drop tower) The layout was revealed fairly early as part of the planning application, but of course what is going on inside the indoor section remained hidden, other than that the train will come out backwards from it, and be turned around by a track switch. Already, the theming in place looks very well done (Such as this giant tree), and you can see further photos of the track under construction here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/altontowersresort/

[Intamin]

I actually just read that this morning on TPR. Should be an exciting coaster with lots of theming . Also I don't think you mentioned that it is being branded as a world first psychoaster, which affects you emotionally as well as physically. Th13teen should also be a contendor with saw:the ride. 2010 should be an interesting year.

[Gazza]

Also I don't think you mentioned that it is being branded as a world first psychoaster,

I did see that psychoaster tagline, but I just dismissed it as marketing hot air...Revenge of the Mummy at Universal was supposed to be the "world’s first psychological thrill ride", but it felt pretty much the same as any other coaster, except it had cool theming. Anyhow, Alton long seem to liked playing up the emotional/physical aspect with themes...Look at the sorts of videos they have you watching in the Oblivion queue for instance:

Edit: This actually warrants a mention. Merlin do run very good parks, but they tend to overdo it with publicity stunts and ridiculous press releases. With respect to 13, the other bit of news that came out from the park was:

The £15 million ride will be restricted to 16 to 55-year-olds only and visitors limited to one ride per day "due to concerns about emotional maturity and physical health", resort bosses said.

I think in the past 12 months, they have put out the following (And a couple have even made it into papers like mX here) -Using Simon Cowells security guard to protect Thirteen so the worlds first element wouldn't be discovered. http://newslite.tv/2009/11/24/simon-cowell...uard-hired.html -Building a Babycoaster at Alton Towers http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1140717.ece -Offering hypnotherapists for parents scared of rides at Chessington. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...r-coasters.html -Banning speedos, and offering bikini line waxes for men at the Alton Towers water park. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12...ily-resort.html -In summer at Thorpe Park, banning guests from raising their hands on rides, to prevent armpit BO. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...body-odour.html -Supernatural happenings supposedly caused by employees using an ouija board within SAW the ride, with the park subsequently hiring an exorcist http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/...rd-workers.html -Using coasters at Alton Towers as a means of test driving bras. http://www.viralblog.com/viral-commercials...oller-coasters/ Edited December 12, 2009 by Gazza

[Intamin]

Thats fair enough, I know you would have put it in your post if you thought it was important, just adding further information to the topic.

[themeparkgc]

The first videos of this ride has appeared online. If you can't be bothered watching the video, the secret weapon is a

drop where the train stays horizontal at all times

.

Edited March 17, 2010 by themeparkgc

[TimMc333]

^ Thanks for the videos! But I thought the..... erm, surprise, would be a bit bigger (in height). Still it looks kinda scary...

[Gazza]

Woah, the ride has some pretty freaky TV ads!