Negative-G - Busch Gardens Tampa 2013 Page Eightteen

Busch Gardens Tampa
Tampa, Florida
January 28 2013
Page Eighteen

The Scorpion Rollercoaster at Busch Gardens Tampa, Tampa, Florida

Anton was well known for tweaking his designs countless times in order to make them perfect.

The Scorpion Rollercoaster at Busch Gardens Tampa, Tampa, Florida

The problem with that is when a park signs a contract for a ride and there is a set price the more the designer modifies it during the production process the more it eats into his profit margin. This happened with Anton sometimes making the ride a loss and eventually leading up to his companies bankruptcy.

The Scorpion Rollercoaster at Busch Gardens Tampa, Tampa, Florida

So as a result there are only so many of Anton's coasters out there. The good thing that unlike those coasters designed by his competitors Arrow Dynamics, Anton's rides age extremely well and are as smooth and reliable thirty+ years later as they were the day they opened.

The Scorpion Rollercoaster at Busch Gardens Tampa, Tampa, Florida

Scorpion is the only permanent version of Schwarzkopf's "Silver Arrow" production coasters. There are three copies of this ride and the other two are portable coasters designed to be able to be easily put up and torn down for traveling fairs and carnivals.

The Scorpion Rollercoaster at Busch Gardens Tampa, Tampa, Florida

It is kind of fun just standing in the station to watch Scorpion as it speeds by right next to you so close that if there wasn't a fence you wouldn't have to reach far to touch it.