El Toro (Six Flags Great Adventure)

El Toro (Spanish for The Bull) is a wooden roller coaster located at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey. Designed by Werner Stengel and manufactured by Intamin, the ride opened to the public on June 11, 2006. Intamin subcontracted Rocky Mountain Construction to build the ride, and the coaster's track was prefabricated, allowing for quicker installation and lower construction costs.[2] El Toro is the main attraction of the Mexican-themed section of the park, Plaza Del Carnaval. It replaced another roller coaster, Viper, which closed following the 2004 season.

When it opened, El Toro had the steepest drop of any wooden roller coaster in the world at 76 degrees, a record that was later broken by T Express at Everland in 2008. Among wooden coasters, its height of 181 ft ranks fourth, its drop height of 176 ft ranks second, and its maximum speed of 70 mph ranks third. The coaster has been well-received, and has consistently ranked in the top three of the annual Golden Ticket Awards publication from Amusement Today.

History

Description

El Toro carries a Mexican theme, and its name translates to "The bull" in Spanish. The ride's queue is surrounded by Southwestern-style buildings of Plaza del Carnaval, and it features abandoned "wagon wheels" and Spanish posters along a wall separating the queue from the ride.

Ride layout

After departing from the station, the train makes a turn to the left, passing through the ride's structure. It then begins to climb the 181 ft tall cable lift hill. Once the entire train is on the lift the cable increases its speed to around 13 mph. Once at the top of the lift the speed of the cable gently slows down, but it is barely noticeable on the ride. After cresting the top of the lift, the train briefly travels forward and makes a 180-degree turn to the left. It then drops 176 ft at a 76-degree angle, reaching a top speed of 70 mph. As the train reaches the bottom of the drop, it comes close to the track above, creating a headchopper effect. It then travels up a 112 ft camelback hill followed by a second camelback hill at 100 ft. It then rises and then travels through a 180-degree downward-banked turn to the right, and up another banked turn to the left. The train goes through a small second hill that speeds past the station and the lakeside. The train then makes another turn and up a smaller hill where riders experience -2 g forces on an ejector airtime hill, crossing over the former Rolling Thunder track.[12] After coming down the drop, the train snakes through twists and turns. After coming out of the twister section, the train slows down as it moves through small "S" curve camelback hills and into the brake run.[13][14][15]

Trains

El Toro operates two trains, labeled A and B, each with six cars per train. Riders are arranged two across in three rows for a total of 36 riders per train. It has a theoretical capacity of 1,200 guests per hour.[14] Both trains contain a cosmetic bull head mounted on the front car.[16] The trains have padded "wings" at shoulder level to prevent riders from being injured during moments of strong lateral forces.[17]

Track

The wooden track is approximately 4400 ft in length, and the height of the lift is approximately 181 ft.[14] El Toro is very different from a traditional wooden roller coaster because it uses prefabricated wooden track. It was built and designed by Intamin, who also worked with employees of Rocky Mountain Construction to build the ride.[18][19] Instead of carpenters cutting, shaping, and laying down the track on site by hand, the track is laser cut in a factory. This means that the track is manufactured to a higher degree of precision than could be achieved by hand.[20] The "Plug and Play" aspect of the coaster speeds its construction, since track does not have to be completely manufactured on site. In addition, because of the speed of construction, the costs of building the coaster are lowered due to fewer man-hours spent on its construction. The riders are subject to a coaster whose track is as smooth as steel. El Toro is the first Intamin "Plug and Play" (Pre-Fab) wooden roller coaster in the United States and one of four in the world. The other three are Colossos

location	Six Flags Great Adventure
section	Plaza del Carnaval
coordinates	40.13886°N, -74.43463°W
status	Open
opened	June 12, 2006
soft opened	June 11, 2006
previousattraction	Viper
type	Wood
manufacturer	Intamin
designer	Werner Stengel
model	Wooden Coaster (Prefabricated Track)
track	Out and Back
lift	Cable lift hill
height ft	181
drop ft	176
length ft	4400
speed mph	70.0
inversions	0
duration	1:42
angle	76
capacity	1400‡R1R‡
restriction in	48-77
trains	2
carspertrain	6
rowspercar	3
ridersperrow	2
virtual queue name	Fast Lane
virtual queue image	Cedar Fair Fast Lane availability icon.svg
virtual queue status	available
rcdb number	3183

El Toro (Six Flags Great Adventure)

History

Description

Ride layout

Trains

Track

Records

Incidents

Awards and rankings

External links

References