[uscbandfan]

I want to commend Carowinds on the aesthetic design of Fury 325 and the obvious conscious effort that was placed on eliminating the asphalt under the structure. I watched a little bit of the Tour of California bicycle race last week and one leg was held in and around SFMM (Magic Mountain). Some of their stuff looks like it was built right out into the parking lot with no concern to any of the aesthetics. They just re-did Colossus and had plenty of opportunity with that one. Scream looks like it was just built out in the parking lot. I look at those coasters and look back at the Carowinds camera 2 and, wow, what a difference. Thanks Carowinds. You scored an A+ on this one.

[RollerBee]

Thunder Road was built over the parking lot, and still has some under after 39 seasons. It doesn't affect the ride.

[uscbandfan]

Thunder Road was built over the parking lot, and still has some under after 39 seasons. It doesn't affect the ride.

Indeed. And that's one thing I've never liked about TR. (I used to comment about it when entering the water park under TR back in the day when it was a separate entity.) Of course it doesn't affect the ride. How could it? But, it DOES affect the aesthetics. Kudos to Carowinds for caring about that when constructing Fury. Grateful that Carowinds doesn't want to look like a glorified State Fair. My hope is that, if they keep TR and expand Boomerang Bay, we may FINALLY get that asphalt taken up under TR after 40 years.

[coasterbruh]

So...No ones sees the general discussion thread now

[LocalYokel]

Carowinds already has a coaster jutting out into the parking lot. They couldn't just build the same coaster with a taller drop, the enthusiasts would freak out.

On a completely unrelated note, I wish the mobile version of CC could do smilies.

[uscbandfan]

Carowinds already has a coaster jutting out into the parking lot. They couldn't just build the same coaster with a taller drop, the enthusiasts would freak out.

On a completely unrelated note, I wish the mobile version of CC could do smilies.

The ONLY coaster that is over an asphalt parking lot at Carowinds is TR and that issue has already been discussed and will hopefully be rectified with the next water park expansion.

[RollerBee]

Now wait a minute there, Afterburn has one footer that touchs the asphalt of the parking lot plus the track extends over the asphalt. Therefore it too is a parking lot coaster. Maybe they fear that up after they remove the asphalt from around Thunder Road.

Don't count on either.

[uscbandfan]

Now wait a minute there, Afterburn has one footer that touchs the asphalt of the parking lot plus the track extends over the asphalt. Therefore it too is a parking lot coaster. Maybe they fear that up after they remove the asphalt from around Thunder Road.

Don't count on either.

Don't split hairs here. Afterburn was not built out over the parking lot. The land was manicured. The TRAIN might swing out over the pavement barely at the top of the lift but the point here is that it is not a parking lot coaster. Effort was made to extend the footprint of the park and the green-space to accommodate the ride... just as was done with Intimidator. I applaud Carowinds for doing that.

[RollerBee]

Actually I don't think the park was expanded for Afterburn, but that is not my point. I suspect Carowinds elected to leave the asphalt around and under Thunder Road for maintenance purposes. There is maintenance road goes on both sides of Thunder Road.

[uscbandfan]

Actually I don't think the park was expanded for Afterburn, but that is not my point. I suspect Carowinds elected to leave the asphalt around and under Thunder Road for maintenance purposes. There is maintenance road goes on both sides of Thunder Road.

There is now. Back in 1973 and 74 footers were simply placed in the asphalt and wood constructed on those. Nothing was done aesthetically to the ground. It stuck straight out into the parking lot complete with the parking space markings still plainly visible underneath the coaster. (I think at some points you can still see those.) I'm sure it would have cost a ton of money to remove the asphalt so they simply left it. Thankfully, effort was made at the turnarounds during the last water park expansion when the turnaround was disassembled and rebuilt. MY whole point in this thread is to commend Carowinds for it's efforts with aesthetics. For Afterburn, intimidator and now Fury, the land is manicured around the coasters and is not hard and bare like at some other parks, Hopefully, they'll go a step further and add more water features and trees in some of the open spots on the concourses.

[RollerBee]

73/74? Thunder Road started construction in 1975.

http://rcdb.com/84.htm?p=38080
The turnarounds never had asphalt under them.....
From the pictures I have seen the parking lot never went that close to Carowinds Blvd.

[uscbandfan]

You just don't give up do you? I try and commend Carowinds for something and you turn it into a debate about how many needles are on a pine tree. I never said TR had parking under the turnaround. What I said was that they made the aesthetics of the turn around better when they expanded the waterpark and had to tear half of the turnaround down. The parking lot was about from the bottom of the first hill through about 3/4 of the length of the ride where the last maintenance road pass-under was built and I believe subsequently was the original entrance to the wave-pool. (see box in pic) The whole point of it is that it can use beautification regardless if there was 1 parking spot under it or 100.

[coasterbruh]

this thread...

[LocalYokel]

Carowinds already has a coaster jutting out into the parking lot. They couldn't just build the same coaster with a taller drop, the enthusiasts would freak out.

On a completely unrelated note, I wish the mobile version of CC could do smilies.

The ONLY coaster that is over an asphalt parking lot at Carowinds is TR and that issue has already been discussed and will hopefully be rectified with the next water park expansion.

I don't see any coasters going over the asphalt in the OP's pic, just shadows on the asphalt. There is a coaster on a piece of land that sticks out into the parking lot. Intimidator's helix sticks into the lot in a similar manner.

[RollerBee]

Six Flags built Scream! Over the Magic Mountain parking, X was built over their bus lot.