Oblivion is a steel roller coaster at the Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire, England. Marketed as the "world's first vertical drop roller coaster", it was manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard as the first Dive Coaster.
Oblivion was constructed for a price of £12 million (equivalent to £ million in ) beginning in 1997. Themed as a secretive facility, it was billed as an experience which had four stages, "physical trauma, psychological breakdown, the schizophrenic sequence, and finally chaos", reflected by screens placed in the ride's queue. Oblivion was promoted across multiple forms of media as part of its advertising campaign prior to the coaster opening on 14 March 1998.
Oblivion stands 19.8 m tall and features a 55 m drop at an 87.5-degree angle into an underground tunnel, where riders reach a top speed of 109.4 km/h and experience 4.5 g. Its track is 372.5 m long, and the ride lasts one minute and fifteen seconds.
Following Oblivion, Bolliger & Mabillard have constructed more than fifteen other Dive Coasters, including a mirror image of Oblivion – Diving Machine G5 at Janfusun Fancyworld.
History
Throughout the 1997 season, the Fantasy World area was closed to the public – except Black Hole – in order for construction to begin on a new ride under the codename "SW4" ("Secret Weapon 4"). Signage posted on a fence surrounding the area stated, "World first ride opens [in] March 1998". Details about the attraction were not revealed until March 1998, when it was announced as "the world's first vertical drop ride" and the name Oblivion revealed.[1]