The RunCam 5 is typically used for outdoor activities since it’s equipped with electronic image stabilization(EIS) chip, but it’s also great to show us what it’s like to ride a 3D-printed roller coaster. Jon Mendenhall 3D-printed the track and cart pieces, which in all, required around 400 hours to print. Unlike other 3D-printed roller coasters, this one uses a motorized cart powered by a brushless DC motor that moves it along the track using a rack-and-pinion system.
H/t: Gizmodo
Dan Fritsche, a theme park enthusiast and mechanical engineer, spent 900-hours creating a 3D-printed launch roller coaster from scratch. How did he get the inspiration for such a creation? Well, spending hours as a child building K’nex coasters definitely had something to do with it. The build started by prototyping the train, and it took 3 iterations and slight redesigns to scale down the train while still maintaining all the degrees of freedom.
This awesome student-built roller coaster just might be one of the craziest homemade contraptions we’ve seen. It drops “its riders vertically, then turn[s] them face down as they skim 2 feet above the ground, face down and strapped with their backs to the cart.” Click here for more pictures. Continue reading for videos of more homemade roller coasters that you may or may not have seen before.
It was not a fail.. It had 20 people ride it. Sure, not 200, but you try building a roller coaster that complex in a week.
[via Gizmodo]
The pedal-powered Sky Cycle roller coaster, located in Japan’s Washuzan Highland Park, first made the rounds online about 3-years ago. Fortunately, the coaster’s “side-by-side tandem pedal-powered carts have seat belts, and a cute pink basket.” Now, there’s a video of it in-action, which is available after the break. Click here for first picture in gallery — images via.
First opened to the public in 1999, Vanish — located in Yokohama, Japan — isn’t your average roller coaster, as it dives into an underwater tunnel at one point during the ride. The track measures 2,440-feet in length and each ride lasts for approximately 1-minute 58-seconds. Continue reading for a video — image via 1 – 2. Click here for first picture in gallery.
In the latest episode of CBS’s Undercover Boss, Silver Dollar City CEO (Herschend Family Entertainment) Joel Manby, goes undercover as John Briggs.” Continue reading to see what happens when he meets his own employees.
The new reality series follows high-level chief executives as they slip anonymously into the rank and file of their companies.
[via Brandonwebcast]
Cedar Point’s Top Thrill Dragster may not hold the title of fastest or tallest roller coaster, but it still manages to blast from 0-120mph in a mere 2.8-seconds. Continue reading for the video.
That’s faster than almost any car or motorcycle on the road. It’s so fast that the Vbox gets thoroughly confused. Although the live display was flummoxed by those g forces, somehow the testers were able extract the data afterward.
Unlike other Disney coasters, the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster “accelerates from 0 to 57 miles per hour in 2.8 seconds, and the riders experience 4.5g as they enter the first inversion, more than an astronaut does on a space shuttle launch.” Video after the break.
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith is an enclosed steel roller coaster ride at the Disney’s Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort, and at the Walt Disney Studios park in France
Steel Dragon 2000, located at the Nagashima Spa Land Amusement Park in Mie Prefecture, Japan, is currently the world’s longest steel roller coaster, with a track length of 8133-feet. Video after the break. Click here for more images.
Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure is currently the “world’s tallest and fastest steel roller coaster”. Costing a hefty $25-million to build, it goes from 0-128mph in just 3.5-seconds (1.67g’s) — powered by a 20800 horsepower hydraulic launch motor — and the steel track peaks at a daunting 456-feet. Click here for more pictures. Video after the break.