New Fun Spot roller coaster takes another dramatic turn
a lot to pack into a small space, but that’s the task of Korey Kiepart, design engineer and partner at Cincinnati-based Gravity Group.
“We’re used to trying to fit as big of a coaster as we can in the space that people give us,” Kiepart said. The Mine Blower, scheduled to open sometime this summer, has one of the smallest footprints that Gravity Group has worked with, he said.
“Nothing is impossible. As engineers, we like a challenge. This has its share of challenges here,” Kiepart said.
Gravity Group has its own kind of trains called Timberliners, which also help with the space crunch. They’re equipped with a steerable wheel system and other engineering know-how that allow trains to turn around in a 9-foot radius as opposed to a more customary 20-foot radius. At Mine Blower, this will be evident coming out of the loading station and at the top of the lift hill.
Passengers will make a slow hairpin curve up there before plunging back toward the station, then back up into the barrel roll. The new 115-degree banked turn will be on the second trip to the south end. Kiepert says there will be about a dozen moments of air time on the ride.
Mine Blower will be longer but more compact than its sister coaster, White Lightning, which operates at the Fun Spot attraction near Orlando’s International Drive. That coaster had a big effect on the company business, spokesman David Hummer said.
“It was more impactful than we thought,” he said. “We were always the Go-Kart guys.”
When it came time to add elements to the Kissimmee location, the owners gravitated to coasters. The decision was made to eliminate the two flat Go-Kart tracks and build Mine Blower.
“We feel it’s going to have the same impact here,” Hummer said.
Fun Spot visitors will pay $9 to ride the new coaster, or it can be bundled with other rides with an all-day pass.