Adding to the drama, they also said that details regarding the new coaster would not be revealed until January of 2001, leaving plenty of time to let speculation run rampant. And, man, did it ever.
Remember some of the rumors that made the rounds? A record-breaking inverted coaster. A combo lift hill-linear induction motor coaster. A giga-coaster. And then there was this truly bizarre notion: parts of the old Phantom would actually remain, with new sections built around it. Crazy idea, right?
So crazy, it just might work. Prompted by the amazing outcry from the public at large, Kennywood chose to spill the beans early and let the world in on their bold scheme. Coming in 2001, the park's second major revamp of an existing roller coaster: Phantom's Revenge.
As Kennywood President and CEO Harry Henninger explains, "Since announcing our plan to replace the Steel Phantom with a new coaster, coaster lovers from around the world have expressed dismay at the thought of losing what many believe to be the best, most exciting drop of any roller coaster on earth - the 225-foot plunge which sends the Steel Phantom speeding through the Thunderbolt." Indeed, the venerable Phantom was ranked as the 19th most popular steel coaster in the latest Amusement Today Golden Ticket Awards survey.
So rather than toss out the good with the bad, Kennywood has hired D. H. Morgan Manufacturing (engineers of such notable hypercoasters as Dorney Park's Steel Force, Valleyfair's Wild Thing and Worlds of Fun's Mamba, and Nagashima Spaland's Steel Dragon 2000, the largest and fastest coaster on the planet) to perform some serious reconstructive surgery.
The two primary hills (seen at right), will remain pretty much as is. But the long flat section of track between them will be replaced with a camel back hill, promising an added measure of airtime. The coaster's signature hyper-dive will be extended by five feet, maxing out at 230 feet total. At the base of the revamped second drop, the trains will enter an 82-degree banked turn and hustle back up to plunge into a 230-foot-long tunnel that empties out between the Thunderbolt and the park's classic Turtle ride (The Turtle, of course, is one of the few surviving Harry Traver-designed "Tumble Bugs," a fixture at the park since 1927). And the knot of four inversions that currently finishes off the Phantom's run, well, those are history.
The trains themselves are also going under the knife. The original Arrow chassis will carry new Morgan-crafted coaches, and it's hoped that lap bars will be the only restraints required. Dana Morgan, President of Morgan Manufacturing, had this to say: "Kennywood has provided us with a unique opportunity to create a totally new ride experience, while still retaining the Steel Phantom's world-class drop through the Thunderbolt structure. The new ride will be very fast, very smooth, and feature lots of airtime!" We couldn't ask for anything more.
How much will Phantom's Revenge improve upon its predecessor? Perhaps Kennywood's own history provides a clue. In 1924, the park debuted a John Miller woodie called the Pippin. Decades later, in 1967, Andy Vettel kept the Pippin's first and last drop, and a tunnel, threw everything else away, and came up with the ferocious Thunderbolt a year later. That's a pretty fine precedent, I'd say. Will history repeat itself?
