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Are you ready to blast off in your 50s car ready for a thrill of your life?  Ready to hold on to the grab bar as you rocket from 0 – 80 mph in just 2.3 seconds?  I am lets ride!

Xcelerator is a high octane thrill ride that serves as the center piece of Knott’s Berry Farm’s thrill ride collection.  This Intamin AG coaster was the first “Accelerator” coaster (note the name) and oppened the doors for a long line of high tech new coasters that are mega hits at parks today.  Opened in 2002, Intamin and Knott’s Berry Farm designers coloborated to create this new breed of thrill that is still a hit with guests today.

Knott’s Berry Farm’s star attraction, is great, but not what I feel is there true star.  Unfortunately I am not a fan of one trick ponies so while I find Xcelerator great, it just doesn’t quite cut it in my book.  The launch is great.  It is truly intense and depending on the ride operator working, it can be very fun.  Sometimes ride operators read poems, give false countdowns, or just do funny behaviors before sending you flying high out of the station.

Xcelerators problems are in the layout for me, incredible launch, awesome hill, then two mild overbanks.  Yes the hill does give you a great view, airtime and some thrills but what else?  Is that all?  Where are the extra hills or twists and turns where I get more airtime and G-Forces.  The overbanks offer little G-Forces, and nearly no airtime.  I found the ride a bit disapointing and very similar to what I expect Intimidator 305 will be.

Both almost go for the stats, the hype, the gimmick that makes guests want to ride the ride instead of having a quality layout.  It would really be nice to see some low to the ground turns, and twists like Maverick will staying in that small space not only making the ride much longer, but making it more enjoyable.

Another problem is the dispatch, another flaw in the design.  The crews can be working exceptionally fast but the coaster still goes very slow with its dispatch another downfall in the Xcelerator design.

So while Xcelerator does give some great elements, after the intitial jult it just isn’t that much.  Unfortunately this seems to be the case with most all the Intamin accelerators.

Thanks for reading, leave your comments and park thoughts.

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