- Oblivion
- Is it a coaster? Is it a freefall?
No, it's the prototype B&M Dive Machine. The first roller coaster to feature a vertical drop. Never mind the length, feel the steepness! In the clinical and impersonal X-Sector, you're never quite sure what they're doing with the people they take underground...
"Don't look down" is Oblivion's catchphrase, but of course you just have to look down. Oblivion was probably the UK's first internet coaster as well as being the first vertical drop coaster. With extreme excitement surrounding the construction going on at the Towers in 1997 many enthusiasts posted pictures and ideas to web sites and discussion boards about what the new ride, codenamed Secret Weapon 4, would do. In the end, it's not quite a vertical drop at 'only' 88.5° at its steepest, but when you get to these sort of measurements, does it really matter...
Yes, it's a one-trick pony, but it does that trick rather well. From the very start, the whole point of Oblivion is to intimidate. As you walk down the path towards the very concrete, futuristic and sinister X-Sector, the silhouette of Oblivion's turn-around and drop completely dominates the view, and every so often a shuttle will crawl to the edge and tip over, to the accompaniment of the glorious sound of screaming. The queue line that encircles the entrance to the ride houses video screens that continuously play rather disturbing images, planting second-thoughts into your head.
skip the following photographs of Oblivion
The station is a rather confusing affair, I find. Two shuttles are loaded at the same time and it doesn't matter whether you joined the queue in the left-hand lane or the right-hand lane as this just determines which loading platform you arrive at. But on reaching the loading platform the queue splits into a further 4 lanes, the first two of which load the front row of seats and the second two load the back row, except that they load alternately. Perhaps I've just got a simple mind but the whole thing is a little indirect and I still have to pause for a second to work out which lane to join for which seat I want!
Once buckled into the oh-so-comfortable seats that B&M are famous for, the shuttles roll out of the station two at a time - the first heads straight up the lift hill while the second waits at the bottom. The lift hill is extremely steep, at about 45°. The seats are slightly reclined so you'll find that this actually puts you flat on your back. If you have any loose change in your pockets, it will roll out at this point. At the top, you get an unobstructed view of the Towers buildings from above, and a chain-drive guides the shuttle ever so slowly around the corner and towards the precipice of the drop. Yes, that drop.
The edge of the world creeps closer, you can see the track ahead of you just ending. Like a full-stop at the end of a sentence. It finishes. The shuttle reaches the edge and starts to tip forward, but it's still held by a chain drive so it doesn't actually fall over the edge just yet. When it is hanging there at 45°, a voice booms out "Don't.....look.....down" and if you dare to look over the edge you will see the track disappearing into a hole in the ground that is covered in mist so that you can't see the bottom. At this point, you'll also understand the significance of Oblivion's arrow logo! The 3 or 4 seconds that the shuttle is held there seems like an eternity, but eventually it happens...
With a slight click, the chain drive is released and the shuttle is allowed to plummet by gravity 180 feet vertically into the hole. (Note that only 90 feet of the drop is visible above ground). It takes your breath away. But if you're relaxed and realise that, despite what the video monitors say, the ride is perfectly safe then you'll find that you will actually enjoy the feeling. The best way to ride is to put your hands loosely on your lap or up in the air, and tuck your legs underneath and up against the seat or extend them out in front of you. You will just float all the way down. Airtime at its best. The shape of the apex of the drop also tends to push riders out of their seat slightly anyway and since you are literally free-falling with gravity, the sensation is nothing like you feel in normal everyday life.
The entrance to the hole is (usually) covered with fine water spray. This also will take your breath away! And if anyone is wearing glasses it ensures that they will need cleaning afterwards. This is a shame actually because people naturally close their eyes on being hit with a face-full of water and you tend to miss the tunnel and the steeply-banked fan turn that occurs on emerging from the tunnel. At the bottom of the tunnel you are travelling at 70mph and are feeling 4.5Gs - you will probably feel your cheeks rippling!
A short rise follows the fan turn where you'll get another little pop of airtime at the top, and then into the brakes. Yes, this ride lasts a grand total of 7 seconds and probably breaks the record for being the shortest coaster too! However, most riders find they get a huge blast from the drop and will be on a high for several minutes afterwards.
Another little tip for riding positions is to try and ride in the front right-most seat. The shuttles are so wide that they extend beyond the width of the track and at the far end of the vehicle you'll find there's no track beneath you at all so that you feel very exposed. During the fan turn, you will be on the outside and will be flying and swooping freely through the air. And if you want to be really terrified and to get a stomach-in-the-mouth feeling, try looking forwards or upwards during the drop instead of down.
Only one other Dive Machine has been built in the world, G5 in a park in Taiwan, and is a mirror image of Oblivion. RCDB has some good pictures of G5, and since G5 enters the tunnel at a later stage than Oblivion, it is easier to see how high the drop actually is.
However, it is difficult to see where the future lies for the B&M Dive Machine. No other parks have bought one, and there are two main reasons for this I think. Firstly, it is believed that Alton Towers held B&M to a two-year exclusivity contract, so that no other model could be sold within that time. That seems to have killed off interest in the product, after the initial novelty has worn off. Secondly, it's a very short ride for an awful lot of money. It seems that much energy is lost because the shuttle is so short, and it physically can't actually do much more even after a drop of 180 feet. Conventional coasters with longer trains are now getting close to Oblivion's steepness. In particular, Intamin have produced the 80° Millennium Force, the 82° Expedition Ge-Force, and the completely vertical Top Thrill Dragster, and there are several other machines such as Mr. Freeze that have vertical elements. Also, Intamin's drop towers are a neater, more compact, and cheaper way of providing a freefall experience. And because the Dive Machine shuttles are so wide, 8 people abreast, it can't do any severe movements and it is doubtful whether it could perform inversions, so expansion possibilities are limited. Nevertheless, I don't think the ride has reached its full potential with regard to theming - I've always fancied the idea of the shuttles being themed as rubber rafts falling over a waterfall, the vertical track being hidden by the cascading water!
Stop press! Seven years after the birth of the Dive Machine, Busch Gardens Tampa opened a larger model called SheiKra in 2005. It is 200ft high, making it the first hyper-dive machine, and has no less than two vertical drops, an Immelman inversion and a water splashdown. And the sister park Busch Gardens Europe has announced Griffon for 2007, an even larger version which adds a second Immelman, an airtime hill, and 10-across floorless trains to the formula. Don't write the Dive Machine off yet!
And finally, for those about to go down, we salute you...
skip the following close-up pictures
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