One of the exhibitors in Vienna for the IAAPA Expo Europe was Maurer Rides who showcased their latest product innovations.
Speaking exclusively to InterPark, CEO Jorg Beutler Maurer Rides, who has been working with the company for 30 years, gave his expert thoughts on the innovations of the German ride manufacturers: “We have developed a new interactive spike train called Spike Fun, which has greater capacity and has tilting seats that the guests can move interactively with the joystick or are automatically e-programmed. The Spike Fun is the world’s first roller coaster with 45° rearward tilting seats.
“The seat tilts backwards and forwards during the ride. Depending on the ride manoeuvre, it creates a new seating position which generates a completely new roller coaster feeling.”
The Spike Fun features a host of elements such as a camelback, loops and jump. And riders can get a different experience in every journey thanks to the flexibility of the seat tilting.
The new Spike Fun is a twist on the Spike Racing Coaster. It sits two passengers on each row of a train for up to eight people. Spike Fun has fresh thrills and upside-down elements with controllable speed and motion and double the power with an optional second engine.
Beutler also reflected on another of Maurer Rides’ most recent successes in the shape of the Spike Racing model called Bolt, known as the world’s first roller coaster at Sea: “It is one of our most exciting projects to work with cruise liners and produce a ride at sea. And riding Bolt, the pilot has the freedom to choose their movements and speed, when the go faster or not.”
Making its debut in 2020, Carnival Cruise Line and Maurer Rides presented the attraction on-board the line’s newest and most innovative ship Mardi Gras. Fast forward to the present year and the latest Bolt ride will be opened on-board Carnival Jubilee, the Carnival cruise line’s third Excel-class ship and sister to Mardi Gras and will offer seven-day Western Caribbean itineraries from its homeport of Galveston, Texas beginning 18 November.
Beutler also discussed a new attraction called Watergate: “We have also developed facilities for the co-pilot of our models too thanks to a prototype created at Skyline Park. Depending on the guests, the 
number of buttons they press at a certain time depends on at the end whether if they get a green light then the water element stops but if not, they get soaked.
“The difficulties are in the details of a ride of this nature due to highly sophisticated electronics and technology, but we have learnt to handle this. With Watergate, to get the exact timing of the water to drop was challenging but we succeeded.
“We are also working on monorails and people movers for amusement parks. We have other products in the pipeline but most of the products we are concentrating now are with the Spike products. It is clear to see that going forward, the possibilities are exploding for the future.”
On discussing his favourite Maurer Rides project, Beutler beamed: “Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit at Universal Studios Florida was such a very challenging project but was highly satisfying.”
For more context, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit is a steel roller coaster. It has a height of 167ft (51m), a length of 3,800ft (1,200m), and a top speed of 65mph (105km/h). It is the largest X-Coaster ever built by German manufacturer Maurer Rides.
Images: Maurer Rides
