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FERRARI WORLD
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Official Website
 Park News - (10/5/2024) Ferrari World Abu Dhabi has just opened the world’s first Ferrari themed Esports Arena at the theme park.
The new Esports Arena is said to offer a large number of unique racing experiences. In addition to numerous PC-based gaming setups, the experience also includes 20 Gran Turisomo driving simulators, and 3 Formula-1 simulators with 9 official tracks available, including the local Yas Marina course. Plans are also in place to add new tracks and special challenge experiences as unique new offerings each month.
(8/25/2024) Not that long ago Screamscape posted an update on the status of Formula Rossa at Ferrari World, which has been closed since the start of the year with no explanation from the park. Now a new picture taken this week at the park reports that all of the mechanics for the launch system now appear to have been removed from the launch track run.
The great this is that finally we are seeing some sign of work taking place on the ride. What happens next should be telling, if anyone is around to see it. If they are working with Intamin to rebuild and update the current launch system, then work to install it all back should begin before too long. However, if they are looking to replace this with a new magnetic launch system, then the next step may actually be to remove the actual launch track itself, and replace it all with new track designed for the new launch system. When Dragster at Cedar Point was undergoing conversion into Top Thrill 2, Zamperla also had to remove and replace the launch track from the station (which was also redesigned anyway) down to the hydraulic launch motor building.
(8/3/2024) I’ve mentioned this on social media a couple times this year, but I guess I failed to mention it here on the site. Formula Rossa, the world’s fastest roller coaster (149.1 mph in 4.9 seconds) has been closed since January 2024. I’m sure most of the big coaster fans out there are aware of what Formula Rossa is, but for everyone else, the roller coaster is a now rare Intamin Accelerator Coaster, which uses a hydraulic based launch system to pull the train via a launch cable to an incredible speed in a short time-span.
Only about a dozen of these systems were ever built between 2002 and 2010, each one custom made to the coaster’s needs, and before too long it became a little more public knowledge that these systems were a bit finicky, heavy on the maintenance side, and it was typically a matter of ‘When?” that the launch system was going to crap out unexpectedly. The repair process was always a lengthy and expensive one, so it was no surprise when Intamin decided to retire the launch system for good, making Formula Rossa the last one (and fastest) ever built.
Now, just because Intamin isn’t selling these anymore doesn’t mean they don’t support them, but because the systems are both rare and essentially custom built for the needs of each ride, getting the launch system repaired has now become a process that can take around a year or more! Xcelerator at Knott’s Berry Farm was the very first of the Accelerator coaster line, and when the launch system took a dump on Snoopy’s front lawn, poor Knott’s had to deal with angry guests from March 2022 all the way until November 2023 before they could get Xcelerator reopen. While the majority of this time was to replace the launch system, during pre reopening testing of the launch system in Spring 2023 something else broke, that shut the ride down all over again for another 6 months.
Over time, I believe we’ve seen just about every one of these coasters shut down for an extended period of time to repair the launch systems. Over the past decade, we’ve also seen a number of these rare roller coasters closed. Some were removed and sold to new owners such as Zaturn (in storage in Russia), and Kanonen (sent to Lost Island to become Matugani). This year we’ve also seen Zamperla take on two of Intamin’s former problem children, replacing the launch systems with new magnetic launches along with new trains, with Italy’s former Senzafiato having just reopened in Canada as ThunderVolt. The other is the well known conversion of Top Thrill Dragster into Top Thrill 2 at Cedar Point, which converted the launch into a magnetic swing launch system, only to suffer from issues involving the new trains which shut it down after just under 2 weeks of operations.
So bringing the discussion back to Abu Dhabi’s favorite speed demon and the fact that it is now August 2024, we can only assume that like all the rest of this line, the launch system at Ferrari World finally died as the reason for this very extended closure. To be honest, I’m surprised it took this long, given the rather harsh climate in Abu Dhabi, but then again, given the small size of Ferrari World, I’m sure the daily load on Formula Rossa wasn’t as intense as it might be on a ride like Kingda Ka at Six Flags in the US.
There is an interesting choice here for the Ferrari World team to choose from, one that most parks with other Accelerator systems wouldn’t have open to them. The first option is to just pay to repair it, and this is most likely what is happening in order to regain their record of having the World’s Fastest Roller Coaster. (Fun Note: Kingda Ka was able to retake the top spot in January 2024 with its 128mph launch.) So Ferrari World could just simply repair the existing launch system and return Formula Rossa to service just as it was designed, where they may get another 8 to 13 years of service before they need to go through this all over again.
While this would likely be the best plan of action, for now, there is one interesting problem. Depending on just how long it takes for Ferrari World to reopen Formula Rossa, the clock is ticking on that record breaking achievement, as Falcons Flight in Saudi Arabia is not only real, but will likely be ready to begin testing by late 2024 or early 2025. Unlike Formula Rossa, Falcons Flight will achieve a top speed of 155.3 mph without a finicky launch system, but through the use of pure gravity aided by a reliable magnetic booster system on the big drop. While Falcons Flight may not be ready to open to the public before Ferrari World can reopen Formula Rossa, the speed record will definitely be lost forever once it does.
This begs the question, should Ferrari World even bother trying to restore the existing launch system, or should they opt for something new? As I mentioned, the design of Formula Rossa is fairly unique. The launch system was designed specifically to take the world speed record, but the rest of the ride’s layout was not. As a result, you’ll notice that the Formula Rossa trains enter into a series of trim brake fins as soon as the train reaches the end of the launch train and all the way up the first hill, reducing the speed of the ride considerably for the remainder of the run. Sure, Formula Rossa is still fast, but really not much faster than something like SkyRush or Millennium Force. Given the length of the launch track, and the true slower speed required to complete the layout, it wouldn’t be out of consideration to see Formula Rossa eventually converted to use a more traditional magnetic launch system that would max out at a slower speed than before. In fact, this may be the most logical course of action for the ride once the speed record has been lost forever, and a replacement magnetic launch system really only just has to launch the trains faster than Kingda Ka’s 128mph speed to maintain its place as the second fastest coaster in the world.
Currently, Ferrari World isn’t say anything official about what’s going on, with only a notice on their website that Formula Rossa “is unavailable until further notice”. So for now we watch and we wait to see what happens.
(10/5/2023) Ferrari World has announced the return of the Roof Walk experience back to their park offerings. The experience is offered at limited times, depending on the weather conditions, and is said to have a maximum group size of 8 guests at a time. For an upcharge ticket, the experience will allow you to go up on the roof of the massive building for a guided tour.
(2/9/18) According to BlooLoop, an agreement with the Abu Dhabi government has been signed with SkyTran to build a unique overhead rail system that in the first phase would connect Ferrari World to the new Warner Bros World theme parks by 2020. This will be a direct connection between the two attractions where riders sit inside enclosed four-person pods. Future phases will connect to other nearby attractions, hotels and even the Abu Dhabi International Airport. (2022 UPDATE - Current Status Unknown...)
2024 - Nothing is known at this time...
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