Medusa (Six Flags Great Adventure)

Medusa, formerly known as Bizarro, is a steel roller coaster located at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey. Manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard, the ride debuted as the world's first floorless roller coaster on April 2, 1999. It was repainted and rethemed to Bizarro in 2009. In 2022, it was repainted and renamed back to Medusa.

History

Medusa was part of a $42 million expansion at Six Flags Great Adventure announced in January 1999, and was one of three roller coasters introduced in the expansion.[1] The ride officially opened on April 2, 1999 as the first Floorless Coaster in the world.[2]

On October 23, 2008, Six Flags announced that Medusa would be re-designed for the 2009 operating season.[3] On April 1, 2009, Six Flags officially announced the details of Bizarro.[4]

Ride experience

Layout

Once the train is loaded and secured, the floor retracts and the front gate that blocks the train from leaving while loading opens. After leaving the station, the train makes a left turn to climb the 142 ft tall chain lift hill. Once riders reach the top, they go through a small pre-drop before dropping 132 ft to the left at a 55-degree angle. The train then reaches a top speed of 61 mph as it enters a 114 ft vertical loop, followed by a 96 ft diving loop. Upon exiting the dive loop, the train passes the station and goes through a zero-g roll, followed by a cobra roll over the ride entrance. Out of the cobra roll, the train rises up into a mid-course brake run which is located next to the lift hill. Similar to the first drop, the train drops to the left and enters a 270-degree helix, before passing through two Interlocking corkscrews. After the corkscrews, the train goes through a small dip and makes a left turn into the final brake run, before making another left turn to reenter the station.[11][12][13]

Trains

Medusa operates with three steel and fiberglass trains. Each train has eight cars that have four seats in a single row. In the first few years of the ride's operation as Bizarro, the middle two seats of the last row were removed on each train to install a computer and power module for the on-board audio. This reduced the capacity of the trains from 32 to 30 riders per train.[14] Each seat on every train had a speaker to the left and right of the rider, with a recording of a montage of movie quotes being played for the duration of the ride. For the 2013 season, the on-board audio speakers and the computer module were removed; this returned the train's capacity back to 32. By late-2013, Six Flags proposed that the audio equipment would be given to Six Flags America so that the park's stand-up roller coaster Apocalypse could be fitted with an audio track for the 2014 season. However, these plans never came to fruition.

Track

The ride's track is approximately 3985 ft in length and the height of the lift is approximately 142 ft. The first drop is 132 ft. From 1999 to 2008, the ride was painted with lime green track and purple supports. Upon the retheming to Bizarro in 2009, the track was repainted blue with dark purple supports. Upon the retheming to Medusa in 2022, the ride was repainted with green track and orange supports.[12]

previousnames	Bizarro (2009–2021)
location	Six Flags Great Adventure
section	Frontier Adventures
coordinates	40.13823°N, -74.43234°W
type	Steel
status	Operating
opened	April 2, 1999
manufacturer	Bolliger & Mabillard
designer	Werner Stengel
model	Floorless Coaster / Medusa
lift	Chain lift hill
height ft	142
drop ft	132
length ft	3985
speed mph	61
inversions	7
duration	2:20
capacity	1350
cost	US$15000000
restriction in	54
gforce	4
trains	3
carspertrain	8
ridersperrow	4
rowspercar	1
virtual queue name	Fast Lane
virtual queue image	Cedar Fair Fast Lane availability icon.svg
virtual queue status	available
rcdb number	502

Medusa (Six Flags Great Adventure)

History

Ride experience

Layout

Trains

Track

See also

External links

References