8/16/2023 0 Comments Colossus rideIt was the tallest and fastest wooden roller coaster in the world and the first with two drops greater than 100 feet (30 m). Originally designed and built by International Amusement Devices, the roller coaster opened as Colossus, a dual-tracked roller coaster, on June 29, 1978. The ride gained pop culture fame as Screemy Meemy in 1983’s “National Lampoon’s Vacation” with Magic Mountain transformed into Walley World.Īs a final farewell, the park hosted a 36-hour Colossus coaster-riding marathon before closing the ride for a nine-month renovation.Twisted Colossus is a steel roller coaster located at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California. The $7-million Colossus opened in 1978 as the world’s tallest and fastest coaster and the first with two drops exceeding 100 feet. Louis (Screamin’ Eagle and Boss) and Six Flags America (Roar and Wild One). The ongoing relationship with Rocky Mountain portends good things for other parks in the amusement park chain with aging wooden coasters such as Six Flags Over Georgia (Great American Scream Machine and Georgia Cyclone), Six Flags St. Rocky Mountain has since added inversions to Rattler at Six Flags Fiesta Texas (2013) and Six Flags Mexico’s Medusa (2014) while building two new looping wooden coasters: Silver Dollar City’s Outlaw Run (2013) and Goliath at Six Flags Great America (2014).ĭuring budget-conscious times, a rehab project such as Twisted Colossus allows a park to renovate an aging ride at a reduced cost while marketing the makeover as a “new” ride. The remade Texas Giant went on to win the Amusement Today Golden Ticket Award for best new ride of 2011. Rocky Mountain Construction first burst onto the coaster scene with the renovation of Texas Giant at Six Flags Over Texas, which added a steel track and overbanked turns to a traditional wooden coaster. The 7,395-foot-long Beast at Ohio’s Kings Island holds the wooden coaster record. As part of the renovation, more than 3,000 feet of track will be removed from the structure.Īt 8,133 feet, Steel Dragon 2000 at Japan’s Nagashima Spa Land is the reigning longest coaster in the world. But the coaster could have been the world’s longest - wood, steel or hybrid - if the entire 8,650-foot-long structure had been incorporated into the new ride. The nearly 5,000-foot-long Twisted Colossus is being billed as the world’s longest hybrid coaster. In addition, Rocky Mountain is to add steel reinforcements at key locations to support the newly added inversions and overbanked turns.Ĭombining the dueling tracks into a single route will increase the overall ride time from two minutes, 30 seconds to three minutes, 40 seconds. ![]() Similarly, the right spur of track departing from the station is also to be demolished. The biggest change is to come at the eastern end of the track farthest from the station, where construction crews are to remove the upper level of track from the horseshoe turnaround segment of the ride. Indeed, the ride’s overall height and top speed won’t change significantly. Much of the existing white wooden structure that has become a landmark at the park over the last 36 years will remain. ![]() The new Twisted Colossus dual-lift coaster will require precise timing to dispatch one train every 110 seconds so that riders on both tracks will simultaneously climb the parallel lift hills and navigate the high-five element together. Originally built as a dueling racing coaster, Colossus featured tandem 4,325-foot-long tracks where trains raced side-by-side along nearly identical courses. It’s enough to take your breath away just thinking about it.Īll this is possible because Magic Mountain and Rocky Mountain took what seemed like an insurmountable problem - what to do with an aging wooden coaster - and turned it into unbridled inspiration that resulted in a one-of-a-kind ride. In all, riders will experience 18 airtime hills, two lift hills, two 80-degree drops, two zero-G roll inversions and two passes through the high-five element. ![]() The track will be two colors - blue and green - to indicate the two legs of the trip. ![]() Weaving with the track from an earlier part of the journey, the first train will zoom through a second zero-G roll inversion and trim its speed as it climbs another double-up hill before heading back to the station where the passengers will disembark after a three-minute, 40-second journey. Traveling side-by-side over the bunny hops again, the dueling trains will ascend the twin lift hills together and descend the 80-degree drops simultaneously before passing through the high-five element at the same time. Climbing a double-up hill, riders will experience weightlessness on an outward-banked floater before passing through the station again just as a second train on the adjacent track is dispatched.
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