Speedmonster

Even though there is another Racer topic or 2, I believe this deserves its own. This year King's Dominion put a new system on their Racer 75. The lift hill syncs the 2 trains using variable lift hill speeds so they reach the top at the same time. The coaster almost always races! Even if the ops let the trains go about 20 seconds apart, they still sync. Its interesting how much they improved the design of this coaster versus racer when they built Racer 75 and the former Thunder Road. They trains stay side by side longer because they don't have the split after the 3rd hill like Racer. Racer 75 has a wonderful floater hill as the 3rd hill versus the bigger hill of Racer. Both Racer 75 and Thunder Road have/had a surprise tunnel finale which Racer never had. Plus there is the issue of the missing final hill on Racer because of the X-Base walkthrough. And finally, KD was operating both sides of the coaster from open to close. They may have one train operation (justified due to walk-on), but they actually paid extra staff to let it race all day long for the customers. Racing coasters are rare and King's Island is lucky to have one, but there is room for improvement in the lift hill system, operations and even design if they ever do a major rehab of the coaster.