Twisted Colossus

Twisted Colossus is a steel roller coaster located at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California. Originally designed and built by International Amusement Devices, the roller coaster opened as Colossus, a dual-tracked roller coaster, on June 29, 1978. It was the tallest and fastest wooden roller coaster in the world and the first with two drops greater than 100 ft. Colossus became well known after appearances in film and television, including the box-office hit National Lampoon's Vacation and the made-for-TV movie Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. For 19 years, it was the park's main attraction until the opening of Superman: The Escape.

After more than 36 years in operation, Six Flags closed Colossus on August 16, 2014. Rocky Mountain Construction renovated the ride converting its wooden track to steel, allowing for the addition of inversions and steep drops. It retained much of its wooden structure, however, and reemerged as Twisted Colossus on May 23, 2015.

History

For its next attraction to debut in 1978, Magic Mountain wanted a wooden roller coaster for the classic "rumble and sway" experience that they felt was missing from steel coasters.[2] They hired Ohio-based International Amusement Devices (IAD), who began designing Colossus in January 1977.[3]

Ride experience

Colossus

The previous configuration of the roller coaster featured two drops greater than 100 ft; the first drop was 115 ft and the second was 105 ft. The ride spanned two and a half minutes and reached speeds up to 62 mi/h.[5] Its original configuration was noted for numerous and sustained air-time moments, which were eventually toned down or eliminated by reprofiling and/or braking.

The ride begins on the blue track, boarding from what was the right side track's station. Immediately after dispatch, the ride makes a 90 degree left turn, is sent through a set of drive tires to boost the train towards the pre-lift section, and makes another left turn. After going through a series of small hills in the pre-lift, the train makes its way up the right side of the lift hill, catching up to the train on the green track. Immediately after the lift hill ends, riders are sent down an 80 degree, 128 foot drop. The trains then go through a small airtime hill and then up another tall hill, crossing under Goliath. The train then proceeds to go through a banked turn to the left, and goes through a "high-five" element. After this, the blue tracked train drops down and goes under the train on the green track while it does its top gun stall. The blue track goes through an airtime hill, taking riders close to the train in the green track's stall. Then the blue tracked train does a zero-g roll. After a double up and a quick turn to the left, the blue track turns green and the train hits a brake run, before returning to the left side of the lift hill. The green track is identical to the blue tracked segment up through the high-five, which is banked in the opposite direction as to create the "high-five" illusion with the blue track. After the high-five, the green track does a double down and does a top gun stall crossing over the blue track. After crossing under the blue track's zero-g roll, it then goes up a double up and turns left, where the train hits the final brake run.[14]

Because Twisted Colossus is a "racing coaster" with one long continuous circuit, it may be considered a Möbius Loop roller coaster. However, unlike most Möbius Loop layouts, it only has one station and one cycle sends riders through both sides. This is different from a traditional Möbius Loop layout (such as Racer at Kennywood), which takes riders through only half of the ride's "complete" circuit before stopping and unloading at the other station.

Because of the unusual setup of a one-station Möbius Loop layout, to race, the operators on Twisted Colossus must properly time dispatches. While a train is in the blue side, the ride operators will sometimes call out " __ seconds to race", counting down to encourage riders to board quickly so they can race. To give the ride operators extra time, the green lift can run slower than the blue lift, giving the blue side time to catch up.

previousnames	Colossus (1978–2014)
location	Six Flags Magic Mountain
section	Screampunk District
coordinates	34.42778°N, -118.5975°W
status	Operating
opened	May 23, 2015‡R1R‡
previousattraction	Colossus
type	Steel
manufacturer	Rocky Mountain Construction
designer	Alan Schilke
model	I-Box – Custom
track	Möbius Loop with one station
lift	Chain lift hill
height ft	121
drop ft	115
length ft	4990
speed mph	57
inversions	2
duration	3:40
angle	80
restriction in	48
trains	4 (3 max. in use)
carspertrain	6
rowspercar	2
ridersperrow	2
virtual queue name	Fast Lane
virtual queue image	Cedar_Fair_Fast_Lane_availability_icon.svg
virtual queue status	available
transfer accessible	available
rcdb number	12282

Twisted Colossus

History

Modifications

Closure and Twisted Colossus announcement

Characteristics

Ride experience

Colossus

Twisted Colossus

In pop culture

Use in media

Incidents

Awards

External links

References