Recreation of the original Wildcat at Idora Park - NoLimits 2

[@birdman5939]

I rode this thing countless times as a kid growing up in Youngstown...I even worked at Idora Park in the summer of '67 and was able to ride any ride in the park free.....You did a great job recreating the ride on this coaster with the POV...the only thing missing was the midway...that is to say the ride was excellent......Thank you !

[@dancerjim]

Great job! Great to see the wildcat in its original form!

[@wideawakeinotown]

love the pre-lift tunnels on the old woodies. that needs to make a comeback!

[@RaptorAlex]

I wish more coasters still had them. Phoenix at Knoebels and Blue Streak at Conneaut are great examples. I hope Blue Streak can survive.

[@wideawakeinotown]

@@RaptorAlex the 2 Giant Dippers in CA (San Diego and Santa Cruz) have great opening tunnels. And got to love the Phoenix. I got to ride it back when it was the Rocket in San Antonio. My cousin and I rode it 25 times one night in 1979. Was in airtime Bliss!

[@CoasterMan13Official]

They should build this at six flags over georgia. Especially at that spot where Splashwater Falls used to operate. I'll tweet em about it.

[@edwardmcdevitt790]

I would have loved to have ridden the original design. It appears that there were more bunny hops involved which would have made it a much better ride!!!

[@RaptorAlex]

Indeed. It originally started with that curving drop and had an extra bunny hop at the beginning. The turnaround past the first drop was different and had a bunny hop too.

[@coasterp2199]

Really enjoy your work. Especially liked this one due to the off ride perspectives. Wondering if you could do more like this.

[@RaptorAlex]

Thanks. I started doing POVs only because they're shorter videos and therefore easier to make. I might be able to make a few off-ride videos of some.

[@cjtucker4451]

Imagine an RMC re-imagining of this.

[@keithsutton4350]

Gci should build this

[@cjtucker4451]

It's like they traveled forward in time and looked at a GCI and tried to build it in their day.

[@gregorymoore2877]

Or they just looked at what Prior & Church were doing in the 20's (which is also what GCI looked at.)

[@liza3337]

Thank you so much!

[@stormgirl09]

kind of reminds me of a GCI. i used to think GCIs would be pretty lame! until i went on my first GCI this summer at Kings Island. Mystic Timbers. yea the first curved drop was kind of weak but it did have really awesome airtime hills! im guessing GCI and similar are more about the airtime hills than the big major drops!

[@RaptorAlex]

Mystic Timbers is great! GCI really started building rides with airtime only recently.

[@coasterp2199]

If you would like a copy of the original plans let me know.

[@RaptorAlex]

That's what I built this from! Someone on a Facebook group shared a blueprint with me, and I also used the ACE book about Schmeck. Great resources there. It looked like such a fun coaster.

[@sheridan1887]

@@RaptorAlex I live in youngstown. I rode that roller coaster several times. around 82, 83, before the park closed. one of the best ever.

[@michaeld7930]

I would love the blueprints if you were willing to share!

[@The444traveler]

One of my fondest coaster loving memories is being 12yrs old visiting Idora Park! This is when attendance started waning due to many variables including the collapse of the steel industry in Youngstown, Ohio. It definitely made it easier to ride over and again then. One day a few of us "inner city kids" had the fortune of attending the park. I would've gone daily if it were financially possible. I only got to go when invited by families whose parents got free passes in the summer from working at General Motors or Packard electric. I ALWAYS loved the original "Wildcat". A dream came true that day when the coaster operator allowed us to STAY ON the ride on one of those empty park days. We rode The Wildcat a total of 17x's straight thru. Only having to switch seats at the station! I was in a piece of Heaven on Earth!!! I'll NEVER forget that feeling of pure freedom thru the controlled chaos riding The Wildcat over and over and over again!!! It was simply AWESOME!!! The very next year in 1984 I watched on the news in palpable HORROR as The Wildcat was engulfed in flames due to a freakish incident at the park. I felt it was an inside job done for insurance money cause the park was on it's way to closing down. That was the nail in the coffin of a dying Idora Park, and I instinctively knew it. I literally CRIED like a baby watching the news that day!!! BTW NO disrespect to your recreation, BUT there was NO CURVED first drop on the original. Your creation has hints of the original layout in the run. My favorite part was the 3rd airtime hill after the 2nd roundabout hill. I ABSOLUTELY Loathe curved 1st drops. I understand they are for keeping the speed to a minimum for the course ahead to avoid iinjuries. Yet I still feel they take away from any real excitement that I long for in first drops. Even the aesthetics of a curved 1st drop annoys me Greatly in a NOT my personal preference kinda way. Lol. GCI are known for curved first drops. I am an Intamin & RMC LOVER!!! Coasters are my favorite thing on earth 🌎 .

[@coasterp2199]

@@The444traveler There actually was a curved first drop when the Wildcat was originally built. I'm not sure when but it was replaced with the new flat turn that you are talking about. The link I'm attaching shows a model that was built using the original blueprints. You can see what the original drop looked like: facebook.com/281900948588967/photos/a.281953011917094/281953075250421/?type=3&theater