Great Coasters International being a trailblazing, airtime-inducing, revered name in the theme park industry isn’t anything new. With 25 years of coaster manufacturing for parks across the globe, from Six Flags to Alton Towers to Happy Valley, they’ve easily become one of the most sought-after wooden coaster creators.
GCI is known for their swooping turns, curved drops, comfortable yet exciting ride experience, and sustainability. GCI rides hold up well, delivering ride after ride and thrill after thrill for riders of all ages and intensities. Their layouts are unique, challenging the standard out-and-back to provide for a truly unique ride experience. In the fall of 2019, it seemed as though this American company had played all their cards.
How wrong we were.
GCI’s Titan
At IAAPA’s 2019 convention in Orlando, Florida, GCI rolled out their latest creation. Propped up on the midway at cult favorite park, Fun Spot America, was a hunk of track, maybe eight feet in length and four in width. The prototype resembled the flat-topped shape of wooden coaster track, but that’s where the similarities ended; this track was undoubtedly steel. And? It was GCI.
GCI’s all-new steel track is “capable of anything,” per the manufacturer’s website. “Launches, inversions, anything,” their promotional video boasts. Though wooden track is capable of both launches and inversions (see Dollywood’s Lightning Rod or Fun Spot Kissimmee’s Mine Blower, respectively), steel track is far more malleable and lends itself to elements where wooden coasters, at least thus far, have been limited.
This steel track is a big deal. As a well-established company, the possibilities for what they may do with this track are quite possibly endless. Granted parks purchase models with this unofficially-named “Titan” track, we will see coasters that break boundaries and records of inversions, airtime, and force.
The first integration of Titan track would be seen a year after its debut in the very same park. In the fall of 2020, Fun Spot’s beloved GCI White Lightning received an upgrade: the same thrilling ride experience, with a small patch of steel track. This updated track can be found on a small dip during the return trip of this out-and-back layout. Though a minimal change, perhaps not even noticed by the majority of guests, this section of track is noticeably smoother while also allowing the trains to absolutely haul on the return trip and into that final brake run.
With such a small patch of track making such a grand impact on an already well-paced and exciting coaster, it’s dizzying to begin to imagine an entire coaster of this new track.
Steep Competition
These new GCI models will improve parks on their quality alone, but that’s not exactly what makes GCI’s steel track game-changing in the theme park landscape. To get a full view of why GCI going steel is going to change everything, we’ll have to look to their competitor: Rocky Mountain Construction.
Rocky Mountain Construction is another American-based company known for their well-paced layouts and unique elements. What are they also known for? Steel track. RMC has made a name for themselves in the business by refurbishing wooden coasters past their time. The most revered example of one of these retrackings is in Steel Vengeance, which replaced Cedar Point’s infamous Mean Streak in 2018.
Though its founder, Alan Schilke, is far from a rookie in the industry, RMC is a relatively new company on the scene, yet their impact has already been monumental. Their transitions and elements, somehow violent and smooth, have been mimicked by manufacturers like Intamin and S&S. Their competition has yielded improvement in every good way.
This pertains to GCI because, with the inclusion of their steel track, GCI can do what no other coaster manufacturer has done thus far: compete directly with RMC. Like RMC, GCI can now refurbish wooden coasters with steel track–we’ve already seen that on a small scale with White Lightning. Future wooden coasters in need of a shine-up now have another option of manufacturer if they’re looking at going steel. This means both manufacturers will have to step their game up in order to compete. The winner of this head-to-head battle is not GCI or RMC, but us, the riders. As with the coaster wars of the past, when manufacturers get competitive, riders yield the rewards with shiny new toys, faster, taller, and better than before.
The Ins and Outs of Titan Track
This steel track is good for more than new creations and bold retracks. There is great practical use to incorporating steel track into existing GCI attractions. Reinforcing high-stress areas of wooden track with steel track could improve the lifespans of coasters while maintaining that “wooden” feel that many enthusiasts prefer over hybrid/steel options. While wood expands and rots over time, steel track is cheaper and easier to maintain.
It’s the box shape of the track that maintains the feel of a wooden coaster, as well as most of what we’ve seen from RMC having wooden supports, but we’ve yet to see just how GCI will implement their new track in a ground-up construction.
One thing is for sure: once GCI starts constructing these hybrid/steel coasters, every single area of the coaster industry will have to take a massive step up. GCI, one of the most respected wooden manufacturers in the world, is entering the game of steel coasters.
Yes, it was just a patch of flat track we saw at IAAPA. Yes, it’s only a few feet of track implemented on White Lightning. But GCI’s Titan has barely even showed its hand yet. We’ll be there when they do.
