One of the most debated coaster battles of the UK has to be the battle of the 3 Gerstlauer Eurofighters - Speed: No limits, Saw The Ride and Rage. I felt this was relevant to write about, as I finally ticked off all 3 of them as part of my UK road trip.
Saw was the first of these I rode, back in 2017, then I got on Speed and Rage both for the first time in August 2020 within 2 weeks of each other.
Theming:
Theming wise, Saw definitely has the upper hand with extensive set pieces and storyline. my favourite part of this is definitely the indoor section of the queue and station. Neither Speed or Rage have indoor areas of queue, but their stations are sheltered. Although, I really liked the bright colour scheme of rage with yellow track and pink supports. I wouldn't say either have theming, but rage had a storyline in the photo book that our on-ride photo came in which was cool, and Speed had nice signage.
Queue Times:
I had to put this in just to recognise HOW SHORT A QUEUE Speed had. We were there at the start of August (in the middle of the summer) and it was walk-on. All day! The longest we queued all day at the park was 10 mins for Megafobia in the morning. I think the reason the walk-on queue surprised me so much is because I'm used to Saw's queue which is regularly over 90 mins. Rage wasn't too bad, think we queued around 10-15 mins for both rides.
Layout & Elements:
I've been on Saw many times more than Speed and Rage, so by this point i know the layout off by heart - indoor show scene, drop, in-line twist, lift hill, immelman, dive loop. I like some of the aspects of this layout, mainly the indoor section, and the immelman is very enjoyable and different. Although, do have to mention, this is the newest of the 3 coasters, and i find it one of the roughest. Speed has a completely different layout, going straight into the lift hill, followed by an airtime hill, a vertical loop, a heartline roll, and a downward helix. Speed was incredibly smooth, and I loved the surprise airtime hill after the drop. Something else to mention about Speed- It's lift hill is SO SLOW😂, I had a full-blown conversation while we were going up it! That doesn't take away from the coaster, as it is probably my favourite of the 3 in terms of layout and elements. Rage's layout features a lift hill, vertical loop, cutback and heartline roll. The layout is very compact, having to fit in adventure island, a very small park in a small footprint. I really enjoyed Rage, and we had multiple rides on it throughout the day (full Adventure Island Post out soon) all of which were great, if slightly rough, but were still fun.
After much debate, I have decided my favourite of the 3 is (drumroll please...) Speed! The layout is so interesting and original, not like anything I've ridden before. The pop of airtime, zero queue all day and the fact you are so close to the track when outside the coaster just make such an incredible if not interesting coaster. It was hard to decide as I love Saw's theming and indoor queue, but how rough I've found it recently have definitely put it down my list.
If you've ridden any of these, which one(s) are you're favourite? Talk soon!
Cleo
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