On 24 October 2019, the park announced that the Tower of Terror II would close on 3 November the same year, to make room for future development and expansion to the park. As of 2010, the ride was 4th in the tallest roller coaster rankings, 3rd in the tallest roller coaster drop rankings and 4th in the fastest roller coaster rankings. It propels passengers to just under 161 kilometres per hour (100 mph) with a maximum of 4.5 g and 6.5 seconds of weightlessness. The original ride featured a shorter, 80-metre (260 ft) tunnel, a rigid lap bar using a hydraulic locking system, and would carry 15 passengers at a time. The steel and concrete structure cost A$16 million to construct. The ride was originally known as the Tower of Terror until it was modified and relaunched in September 2010 as Tower of Terror II. The ride was situated on the Dreamworld Tower, which also houses The Giant Drop free fall ride. When the Tower of Terror opened on 23 January 1997, it was the first roller coaster in the world to reach 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), making it the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world of its time. I’m looking forward to this summer when one of the cars on the twin tracks will be turned around to run forward, allowing riders to choose between the two options.The Tower of Terror II was a steel shuttle roller coaster located at the Dreamworld amusement park on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. My suggestion: Request one of the eight inside seats. * The highly restrictive protective side panels on the six outside seats, designed to prevent riders from reaching out to touch the launch tunnels during the return run-out, may make some riders feel like they’re in a straight jacket. * The disorienting backward launch doesn’t seem as fast or scary as the old forward launch. * I expected to race toward the iconic Fortress of Solitude at terrifying speeds, but during our test runs we crept into the ice cave tunnel finale at a disappointing crawl. That’s not to say there weren’t some downsides to what remains a super-short 20-second ride: I rode it five times in a row, and it got better each time. The direction-reversing makeover makes Superman twice the ride it used to be and twice as fun. Superman was never my favorite ride at Magic Mountain, registering somewhere in the middle of the pack of what will soon to be a record-setting 18 coasters. The new backward launch saves the best thrills for the second half of the ride, like a plane zooming toward Earth only to pull out of the dive just before smashing into the ground. The old forward launch always seemed like a mad rush toward a brick wall, only to be propelled skyward at the last possible moment. In many ways, Superman is still the same ride, but the experience is entirely new. The biggest rush came at the bottom as the car swooped through the L-shaped transition from vertical drop to horizontal run-out. My cheeks flapped and nostrils flailed like a stunt pilot in a wind chamber as tears streaked from my eyes during the demon descent. At the precipice, I screamed as the coaster stalled for a moment of weightless hang time – still the best moment of the ride, forward or backward.įilled with anticipation rather than relief (as was usual on the old ride), I looked left and right at the commanding view before turning my attention again to the 40-story drop before me. The further we climbed, the more my jaw drew open until my gaping maw turned into a maniacal grin. Hurtling along the 600-foot-long stretch of flat track, I was never sure when to expect the vertical ascent. For a split second I thought, “Where did the track go?”ĭuring the ultra-smooth magnetic launch, my body pressed against the new over-the-shoulder restraints as I rocketed backward at 100 mph. Magic Mountain season pass holders can ride it during any of the coming weekend previews.Īs I stepped into one of the new streamlined trains, I was taken aback as I stared at a black cinder block wall. Scheduled to reopen March 19, the rebooted Superman is undergoing invitation-only “ technical previews” for Facebook fans, radio contest winners and others. I took a test drive this week on the re-dubbed Superman: Escape From Krypton coaster at the Valencia amusement park between takes of a TV commercial shoot for the revamped ride. But now that Six Flags Magic Mountain” href=””> Six Flags Magic Mountain has flipped the trains around to run backward, the fun is just getting started when you reach the top. I used to think the ride on the Superman shuttle coaster essentially ended when the car reached the climatic 415-foot-high peak.
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