Thursday, March 11, 2010

A Blast From The Past - A CCI at Bells Amusement Park?


It wasn't that long ago we broached the subject of TGG being one of the the first design teams to have a two-way tunnel in the design of a coaster. But long before that, in a previous design effort for Bell's Amusement park in Tulsa OK, Dennis McNulty pencilled in that idea for the never built "Tulsa Terror."

His 1995 proposed dogleg out and back paralleled Louisville Avenue. The fact that houses were right across the street gave ample fodder for residents opposed to the expansion to protest the noise. The zoning battles were fought for years.

It would have been nearly 2400 feet long and around 88 feet high with the below grade tunnel at the bottom of the first drop. Lots of action on the return run, with a double down, a big airtime hill before the return tunnel and a double up before the brake run. Unfortunately the design was never fully developed.

The unique tunnel would have been right next to the the park's Schwarzkopf Wildcat with a ground level pathway above the track. It would have served as another entrance into the park.

Alas it never came to pass, as Bell's was forced to close due to some shady maneuvering by the landlord. It sure looks like a fun ride, and now with the way coaster names have become very generic, it would have been a signature ride for Bell's. Hopefully Robbie Bell can resurrect this project at a new location sometime in the future.


1 comments:

Unknown said...

WOW. Thank you so much for posting this! I thought I had seen it all when I saw the BoomTown USA concept artwork the park released around 2001, but this makes it much more clear what they were trying to do. I really wish it had worked out. Now all we have in this state is Frontier City.