Cedar Point fans asking: Was that online Top Thrill Dragster reveal a spoiler or a hoax?
Cedar Point fans buzzed Sunday about what appeared to be an announcement that was briefly online, supposedly from a roller coaster manufacturer Zamperla. It revealed details about the reengineered Top Thrill Dragster ride, once the tallest and fastest in the world, set to open next year.
But was it a spoiler or a hoax?
"Now I’m just wondering honestly, who got fired," one person speculated, posting in the Cedar Point Nation Group on Facebook. It explained in the comments: "Supposedly someone at Zamperla accidently or on purpose posted an updated version of Zamperla’s website with Top Thrill 2 as the title of one of the articles."
The timing seems either just right or completely wrong, depending on whether you believe it.
The Ohio amusement park has planned a big announcement Tuesday, which many fans believe is to reveal details of the retooled Dragster, which is 20 years old and has been shut down since a piece of metal hit a Michigan woman in the head in 2021, causing her serious injuries.
Another person noted in a more detailed post: “Top Thrill 2 (as it’s now known) is set to open at Cedar Point in 2024” and “full details of what we can expect from Top Thrill Dragster’s rebirth were unintentionally leaked by the manufacturer.”
The coaster, the poster said, will feature a 420-foot vertical spike, three linear synchronous motor launches and reach speeds of up to 120 mph, with each launch getting faster and more intense. The ride will launch riders at 72 mph, then backward at 101 mph, then free fall at 120 mph.
The height restriction for the ride, according to the post, is 48 inches.
Roller coaster fans are a fanatical bunch, looking for clues — and conspiracies — to know what thrills rides will offer before anyone else. They check out whatever information they can and draw their conclusions. It's all part of the fun.
Still, in this case, fans aren't sure whether the announcement they saw flash online — and then disappear — was legit, the answers to the questions they’ve been seeking for months, or whether they were being "trolled" and "pranked" to throw them off so Tuesday’s reveal would be a surprise.
How's that for marketing a roller coaster?
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Cedar Point fans asking: Is Top Thrill Dragster leak real?
