With the Centre Column being joined to the Ride Stand, which is in turn rooted to the ground, the ride lifts the passengers into the air on its 4.2 metre arms. In a previous post about the QuadStar chassis, we said there was another point of difference and that is that the cars themselves, even when lifted high into the air, remain perfectly level. Many smaller rides tilt over as they lift and for us, this would never have been acceptable. For the rider, it would just feel unstable and would work against the new containment system we have designed.

So the QuadStar has a stabilising rod system that runs inside the arms and as the car lifts, the stabilising rod keeps the car level. It’s very simple engineering on the surface, but does add a level of smoothness and sophistication to the ride that few others can offer. Even the rod is built to BSEN 10/90 along with the rest of the ride and this ensures quality at every single level of the ride design AND manufacture.

The ride arms already fabricated and ready to go

The next job is one of those that any would hate but our team love and that is proper preparation. It’s one of those jobs that is incredibly unglamorous, but for us is critical to ensure a perfect paint job that will allow the finished ride to stay bright and fresh for its whole life. You only ever notice preparation when you see a badly finished job and that’s not our style at all. If we’re going to build something, then we’re going to build it beautifully.

The arms for the quadStar being prepped in the workshop ready for painting

You can see how smooth the finely prepped arms look and the surface is keyed ready for the paint.

The QuadStar arms after paint prep and ready to hit the paint shop

When the primer is applied you begin to see why all of that preparation matters.

The QuadStar Arms being finally prepped ready for the spray booth

But when you see the arms all painted in their final colour you can see that the colour has taken beautifully and they look bright and super clean in their finish.

The arms fully sprayed and curing in the Spray booth

In this next close up, you can see the specially designed channel for the car stabilising rods to run through the inside of the arms. These keep it completely level at any height and ensure a lovely smooth ride.

The arms being finished in the gigantic spray booth

Car Stabilising rods in the workshop being fitted after their paint

As you can see, there is plenty of room for adjustment on the stabilising arms, but once it’s set up, they will need little or no adjustment.

Detail of the car stabilising rods

The stabilising rods fit into a plate that in turn attach to the edge of the chassis and whilst they look simple are beautifully engineered to keep the car level throughout the ride at whatever height the ‘pilot’ chooses to fly.

Fixing plate for the cars which allows the arms and stabilising rods to keep the car level

The fixing plates and stabilising rods are all brought together with the arms to create a near finished arm and it’s now starting to look much more like an actual ride.

The QuadStar arms all prepped and ready for fixing to the centre column

And then the completed arms are trial fitted to the Centre Column, still supported by the overhead crane. (I’ve had to crop it in quite tightly so you can’t see the actual completed car yet!). All of the wiring is being completed by the team and we’re now getting quite close to being able to fully run and test it in the workshop.

Trial fitting of the arm which starts to give you more of a sense of scale

There’s another few posts to come and the next one should show the actual plug for the car itself. This is the raw version of the ride car before all of the finishing is completed. For us, this is getting very close to completion and so you will definitely be able to work out (if you haven’t already) who the ride is for and what the IP is that we’re working with.