Cyclone Racer Developments – 1968 to 2013

“The last day of the Cyclone Racer was September 15, 1968,” said Cyclone Race advocate, Downey-based engineer Larry Osterhoudt. “It took them two months to tear it down. Whoever was in charge of the city back then ran a Magnolia bridge to the Queen Mary into the back of it intentionally and cut off ten feet. The placement of Shoreline Drive would have missed the racer by a few feet, it was just a ploy to say why we don’t need it anymore. They were destroying the best roller coaster ride in the world, even to this day.”

“It was located where the parking structure is for the Pike, the seven story concrete sandwich, I call it on Shoreline and Chestnut,” Osterhoudt said recently. “If you go in the elevator, it’s dead center where the pinnacle of the Cyclone Racer had been. It would literally protrude out to the center of Shoreline Drive, where you’ve got the divider island. The whole thing was over the water originally, then the breakwater was built and it receded back. That’s what gives you the ride.”

Sometime in the ‘70s, the late Long Beach Historical Museum owner Ken Larkey was told, “The Cyclone Racer cars were at a Gardena dump. The wrecking company was trying to sell the train of five cars for $500.” Larkey found they had all five cars to one train out of four sets, two on each side. Larkey believed the train was too big, so he handed the guy his business card from the museum and left. Years later, the dump called Larkey. “We wrecked all the cars but two, do you want one?” Larkey paid $20.

“They were half the weight of Ghost Rider car at Knott’s Berry Farm. The Cyclone Racer track lasted a full 38 years. It would never wear out,” said Larkey.

The late Mike Cincola took up the story. “Ken had the upholstery replaced and spray painted the cars. I met with Ken in 1997. I was a one-man effort to restore the ride. All the secrets were lost when they tore it down. They bulldozed the blueprints.”

In September 2011, Cincola decided to display the car in his Lite-O-Line arcade on Long Beach Boulevard as a possible “gateway to get the ride financed to put it back in Long Beach. I have talked to one company in the Bay Area. They looked into the idea, but because of the economy, they wouldn’t go forward. It needs a pier, which he hasn’t estimated. Looks more ominous when it’s on the pier, which really adds to it.”

“The estimate to build to the original specs is $30 million, which will be funded by private investors,” said Osterhoudt. “The Cyclone Racer has the potential to generate over $40 million a year just in ticket sales. This attraction will bring needed tourism to Long Beach.”

“There’s nobody on the current ferris wheel or merry go round,” Osterhoudt said recently. “There’s no attraction. They loaned $20 million to put the repairs on the Queen Mary. You’re going to put a quarter billion in that expansion. The whole Cyclone Racer project would cost $70 million by 2017 prices. The 9,000 square foot pier is $25 million with 14 rides, some of them original Pike rides, a double ferris wheel, Tilt a Whirl and a hamburger joint, it’s a very impressive blue print.”

As of 2011, Osterhoudt asserted he had spent fifteen years in a fulltime effort working on plans for the Cyclone Racer. “I drew blueprints in six months. There’s a secret of the ride, it’s like asking for the secret of Coke. It’s the perfect marriage of what the track is putting out and how the car handles it, It has to do with the center of mass, the width of its track, the trailer design and its two wheels. I reverse engineered the superstructure, the car, which took two years full-time. The model was on display at the 2002 at the L.A. County Fair. From 2002 to now, the prints were redrawn maybe fifty times in auto-cad in 3D.”

“The Cyclone Racer is a complete departure from the modern way they’re doing stuff. It’s the whole experience. That it’s on a pier is a whole experience by itself. It also helps the longevity of the ride.”

At an October 1, 2013 Long Beach City Council meeting, Fifth District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske brought forward a motion to study a possible return of the Cyclone Racer., “I’d like to see Long Beach get back in that groove ahead of the times in many things. The opening of the Jack Rabbit Racer is apparently where Poly High School got its name, apparently from the roller coaster.”

Sixth District Councilman Dee Andrews alerted. “I was going to be against this until she mentioned the Jack Rabbit.”

The motion passed 7 to 1, James Johnson opposed. But then the matter vanished from public view. Even with this type of momentum, the Cyclone Racer never got on track.

steve@beachcomber.news