Roller coaster from hell
Nov 20th, 2003 by Ned
Last fall my group from work went on an outing to Six Flags of New England. The Superman rollercoaster (they’re named after superheroes) was a real monster: you accelerate to 77 miles per hour going (what feels like) straight down and spend a mile worth of track looping and twisting before you decelerate enough to stop the train. I was pretty impressed. Here are some pictures that Matt posted from that trip. Then I remembered to check the Roller Coaster DataBase,
a “comprehensive, searchable database with information and statistics on over 1700 roller coasters throughout the world.” I wanted to see how the Superman ride stacked up against the others. It’s in the top ten in terms of speed, but there are some faster ones. Then I noticed that one rollercoaster absolutely dominates all others in the categories of speed, height, and drop: the Top Thrill Dragster of Cedar Point in Ohio. I remember reading an article in Wired about roller coasters like this long ago. I did a little more research and found this extremely entertaining review at ThrillRide.com. One hundred twenty miles per hour, 420 feet straight up and straight back down… here’s what a professional ride reviewer had to say about his ride:
[After three seconds] I can’t scream anymore. Unqualified terror and the forces pummeling my body literally strangle me into silence. We’re still accelerating. Four… Knifing through the air, the train hits 120 brain-splattering miles per hour. And now things really go berserk.
Finally, here’s a video of what it looks like in action (Windows media). I hope my group doesn’t go on any outings to Cedar Point. With enough peer pressure I might end up riding this thing.
