[swampfox43]

^I'll always consider Alpie to be the better of the two.

I'll never forget the ACE Con in 1997, opening year of Alpengeist. It was pitch dark and ERT on Alpengeist was under way. I didn't know the rides layout and could see very little of it through the forest of trees. The ride simply BLEW ME AWAY!! There was only one very slight trim brake and that was on the block brake. It barely grabbed though.

I was surprised at the near complete stop on the block when I returned 2 years later. But just knowing what the ride is capable of doing still holds it as my all time favorite B&M inverted. BGW did the same thing on their Wild Mouse. The first few years it ran practically brakeless and then suddenly they added at least 3 complete stops on the trim blocks.

Just think of all the top 10 potentials that would exist if trim brakes were disarmed. The almighty BEAST @ PKI comes to mind right off....

[bgwfreak]

^ I agree 100%. although Alpy is not as forceful as TG, I just can't seem to take it out of my #1 spot.

[RollerBee]

Carowinds runs Ricochet's hairpins brakeless all of the time, I love it.

[Jay]

TG the fourth best invert?i can see it (ahead of it is pyrenees-7 [european bias voting lol], montu-8, and fire 19.... It's an extremely high-quality and fun ride that deserves a good ranking... is it better then Alpy, Talon, and Raptor??

Actually Top Gun is the 6th best invert..

(EDIT: Added the # of riders, so it will read like Rank - Coaster - Riders)

4 - Nemesis - 64
5 - Katun - 24
7 - Pyranees - 12(I wouldn't call it a european bias since its in Japan..)
8 - Montu - 114
19 - DD-Fire - 144
23 - Top Gun - 47
----------
26 - DD-Ice - 145
32 - Raptor - 160
34 - Orochi - 14(Raptor clone)
36 - Alpengeist - 107
39 - BTR et al. - 186
40 - Volcano - 83
46 - Talon - 104
47 - Top Gun at PGA - 47
63 - Nemesis Inferno - 37
89 - Great Bear - 114
120 - Silver Bullet - 44

Other than Silver Bullet (which was new this year) Top Gun has the lowest number of riders of any invert in the States. Makes you wonder how the rank would fluctuate with more riders.


I personally think Top Gun is the best invert out there, but I can see how Montu and to a lesser extent DD-Fire is ranked higher. Raptor is a very fun ride, but not quite as intense as Top Gun or Montu. Alpengeist as far as I'm concerned is too big for its own good and is fairly boring and rough. Talon while fun is pretty lackluster overall.

For next year I expect Patriot to be right around the #50 mark with Talon (since it *IS* Talon..) But Black Mamba at Phantasialand is defiintely going to make some noise and i dare say it will be in the top 15 if not even higher.

[MarkD]

I personally find it hard to put any fact on these polls for a few reasons but I won't go into why. You all would have just way too much fun coming back at me.

But, I will say I find the polls interesting and odd at the same time.

I will say that the 20 second or less "coasters" will never be on my top 100 list.

Top Gun is alot better than people give it credit for.


A Little F.Y.I. for ya. Carowinds is tied for 6th in the Inversion category.