Insane Coaster Wars is an American television series broadcast by Travel Channel that premiered on July 8, 2012, and has three completed seasons. [1] Each episode is based on a certain roller coaster category and features four coaster's per category. Before the series began, Travel Channel announced the four roller coasters in each category and allowed voters to decide which one is the best. At the end of each episode, the ride with the most votes would be the winner. Also, in the seventh episode, the top ten roller coasters from past episodes were grouped together and one was named the best. [2] [3]
Season | Episodes | Originally aired | DVD release date | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Season premiere | Season finale | Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | |||
1 | 7 | July 8, 2012 | August 12, 2012 | — | — | — | |
2 | 7 | June 9, 2013 | July 21, 2013 | — | — | — | |
3 | 7 | June 29, 2014 | July 20, 2014 | — | — | — |
Ep # | Total | Title | Produced by | Written by | Winner | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 8 | "World's Fastest Coaster" | David M. Frank | Gabriel Garza & Michael Gallagher | Formula Rossa | June 9, 2013 | |
Fans from each park rank the world's fastest roller coasters; Formula Rossa at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, Superman – Ride of Steel at Six Flags America, Shambhala at PortAventura Park, and Tatsu at Six Flags Magic Mountain. [12] | |||||||
2 | 9 | "305-Foot Terror Machine" | David M. Frank | Elisabeth de Kleer & Michael Gallagher | Intimidator 305 | June 16, 2013 | |
Fans from each park rank the top coasters; blue fire Megacoaster powered by GAZPROM at Europa-Park, Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion, Tower of Terror II at Dreamworld, and Titan at Six Flags Over Texas. | |||||||
3 | 10 | "World's Tallest Woodie" | David M. Frank | Gabriel Garza, Elisabeth de Kleer, & Amy Plemons | Leviathan | June 23, 2013 | |
Fans from each park rank the top coasters; Leviathan at Canada's Wonderland, Griffon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Colossos at Heide Park, and Skyrush at Hersheypark. | |||||||
4 | 11 | "0-100 in Under Two Seconds" | David M. Frank | TBA | Texas Giant | June 30, 2013 | |
Fans from each park rank the top coasters; Dodonpa at Fuji-Q Highland, Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure, Expedition GeForce at Holiday Park, and Texas Giant at Six Flags Over Texas. | |||||||
5 | 12 | "World's Steepest Drop" | David M. Frank | TBA | Maverick | July 7, 2013 | |
Fans from each park rank the top coasters; Furius Baco at PortAventura Park, Volcano: The Blast Coaster at Kings Dominion, Takabisha at Fuji-Q Highland, and Maverick at Cedar Point. | |||||||
6 | 13 | "Upside Down Under" | David M. Frank | TBA | X2 | July 14, 2013 | |
Fans from each park rank the top coasters; Superman Escape at Warner Bros. Movie World, X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain, iSpeed at Mirabilandia, and X-Flight at Six Flags Great America. | |||||||
7 | 14 | "World's First Hypercoaster" | David M. Frank | TBA | Magnum XL-200 | July 21, 2013 [13] | |
Fans from each park rank the top coasters; Katun at Mirabilandia, Magnum XL-200 at Cedar Point, Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland, and Batwing at Six Flags America. |
Cedar Point is a 364-acre (147 ha) amusement park located on a Lake Erie peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. Opened in 1870, it is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the U.S. behind Lake Compounce. Cedar Point is owned and operated by Cedar Fair and is the flagship of the amusement park chain. Known as "America's Roller Coast", the park features 16 roller coasters – fourth-most in the world behind Canada's Wonderland and Energylandia (17), as well as Six Flags Magic Mountain (20). Cedar Point's most recent roller coaster, Steel Vengeance, opened to the public on May 5, 2018.
Kings Island is a 364-acre (147 ha) amusement park located 24 miles (39 km) northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, United States. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the park first opened in 1972 by the Taft Broadcasting Company. It was part of a larger effort to move and expand Coney Island, a popular resort destination along the banks of the Ohio River that was prone to frequent flooding. After more than $300 million in capital investments, the park features over 100 attractions including fourteen roller coasters and a 33-acre (13 ha) water park.
Six Flags Magic Mountain, formerly known simply as Magic Mountain, is a 262-acre (106 ha) amusement park located in Valencia, California, 35 miles (56 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles. It opened on May 29, 1971, as a development of the Newhall Land and Farming Company and Sea World Inc. In 1979, Six Flags purchased the park and added the name "Six Flags" to the park's name.
Kingda Ka is a launched roller coaster located at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, United States. Designed by Werner Stengel, Kingda Ka is an Accelerator Coaster model from Intamin that opened as the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world on May 21, 2005. It is also the world's second strata coaster, a full-circuit roller coaster taller than 400 feet (120 m); Top Thrill Dragster was the first and previously held both records.
The Beast is a wooden roller coaster located at Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio. Designed and manufactured in-house for $3.2 million, the ride opened in 1979 as the tallest, fastest, and longest wooden roller coaster in the world. Decades later, it is still the longest, spanning 7,361 feet (2,244 m) across 35 acres (14 ha) of hilly terrain. Two lift hills contribute to the ride's duration of more than four minutes, which also ranks as one of the longest among roller coasters. A refurbishment in 2022 increased the angle of the first drop and lengthened the ride by 2 feet (0.61 m).
Millennium Force is a steel roller coaster located at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. Manufactured by Intamin, it was the park's fourteenth roller coaster when it opened in 2000, dating back to the opening of Blue Streak in 1964. Upon completion, Millennium Force broke five world records and was the world's first giga coaster, a term coined by Intamin and Cedar Point to represent roller coasters that exceed 300 feet (91 m) in height and complete a full circuit. It was briefly the tallest and fastest in the world until Steel Dragon 2000 opened later the same year. The ride is also the third-longest roller coaster in North America following The Beast at Kings Island and Fury 325 at Carowinds.
Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain is a steel roller coaster built by Vekoma at Disney's Animal Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The ride is themed around the Yeti protecting the Forbidden Mountain next to Mount Everest. It is the only roller coaster at Disney's Animal Kingdom, and the tallest roller coaster at any Disney theme park.
A fourth-dimension roller coaster is a type of steel roller coaster whereby riders are rotated independently of the orientation of the track, generally about a horizontal axis that is perpendicular to the track. The cars do not necessarily need to be fixed to an angle.
Montu is an inverted roller coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in Tampa, Florida. Designed by Swiss manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard, it is the park's second roller coaster designed by that company following the success of Kumba, which opened 3 years prior. When the ride opened on May 16, 1996, it was the world's tallest and fastest inverted roller coaster, a title it has since conceded to Alpengeist at sister park Busch Gardens Williamsburg. The ride stands 150 feet (46 m) tall and reaches speeds of 60 miles per hour (97 km/h).
Tatsu is a flying roller coaster designed by Bolliger & Mabillard at the Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park located in Valencia, California, United States. Manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard, it opened as the tallest, fastest, and longest flying coaster in the world on May 13, 2006. It became the park's seventeenth coaster, featuring a height of 170 feet (52 m), a track length of 3,602 feet (1,098 m), and a maximum speed of 62 mph (100 km/h). Tatsu also features the world's tallest pretzel loop and the only zero-gravity roll inversion on a flying coaster model. Nearly a decade later, The Flying Dinosaur opened at Universal Studios Japan in 2016, breaking Tatsu's length record and matching its speed. In its debut season, Tatsu was ranked 40th among steel coasters in the annual Golden Ticket Awards from Amusement Today, peaking with a rank of 28 in 2012.
Kraken is a steel roller coaster located at SeaWorld Orlando in the United States. Manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard, the ride opened as the second longest floorless coaster in the world on June 1, 2000, with a track length measuring 4,177 feet (1,273 m). It features a total of seven inversions and reaches a maximum speed of 65 mph (105 km/h). The coaster was named after a fictional sea monster of the same name. In late 2016, Kraken underwent a refurbishment and reopened as Kraken Unleashed in June 2017. A virtual reality experience was added to the ride, but due to technical difficulties and extensive wait times, the feature was permanently removed the following year.
The Voyage is a wooden roller coaster located at Holiday World & Splashin' Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana. Designed and built by The Gravity Group with the help of designers Mike Graham, Korey Kiepert, Larry Bill, Chad Miller, and former park President Will Koch, the roller coaster is themed to the famous voyage of the Mayflower by Pilgrims to North America in 1620. It opened to the public on May 6, 2006. It is widely considered one of the best wooden roller coasters ever built, and was awarded by TIME Magazine as the Best Roller Coaster in the world in 2013.
Griffon is a steel roller coaster located at Busch Gardens Williamsburg amusement park in James City County, Virginia. Designed by Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M), the Dive Coaster model opened to the public on May 18, 2007. It climbs to a height of 205 feet (62 m) and reaches a maximum speed of 71 mph (114 km/h). The roller coaster features two Immelmann loops, a splashdown, two vertical drops, and was the first B&M Dive Coaster to use floorless trains. Griffon was well-received by media and enthusiasts, and it placed third in 2007 in the category of Best New Ride polled by Amusement Today for their annual Golden Ticket Awards. Since its debut, it has also consistently ranked in the top 50 among steel roller coasters worldwide in the same annual publication, peaking at 19th place in 2010.
SheiKra is a steel Dive Coaster roller coaster at the Busch Gardens Tampa Bay amusement park in Tampa, Florida, United States. The roller coaster was proposed by Mark Rose, vice-president of design and engineering for the park, and designed by Bolliger & Mabillard. The ride was planned to be 160 feet (49 m) high, but the park's executives rejected this and the height was changed to 200 feet (61 m). SheiKra reaches a maximum speed of 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) and has a total track length of 3,188 feet (972 m). It first opened on May 21, 2005, and was converted to a floorless roller coaster on June 16, 2007, following the opening of its sister Dive Coaster Griffon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg that year.
Shambhala: Expedición al Himalaya is a steel hypercoaster roller coaster located at PortAventura Park in Salou and Vilaseca, Spain. Manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard, it was the tallest and fastest coaster in Europe at the time of its opening. The height and speed records were beaten in April 2017 by Red Force, which was also opened in PortAventura World in its new theme park Ferrari Land. Among coasters with a lift hill, the height and speed records were beaten in July 2018, when Hyperion opened at Energylandia in Poland. Shambhala is named and themed after the inaccessible land in the Himalayas: Shambhala. The coaster was announced on 24 October 2011, and opened to the public on 12 May 2012.
This is a list of events and openings related to amusement parks that occurred in 2013. These various lists are not exhaustive.
Insane Coaster Wars is an American television series broadcast by Travel Channel that premiered on July 8, 2012, and has three completed seasons. Each episode is based on a certain roller coaster category and features four coasters per category. Before the series began, Travel Channel announced the four roller coasters in each category and allowed voters to decide which one is the best. At the end of each episode, the ride with the most votes would be the winner.
Robb Alvey is an American roller coaster reviewer and video game producer. Alvey has ridden over 1400 coasters around the world, and has documented his travels and those of others on his website Theme Park Review. He has been featured on related documentaries for Discovery Channel, Travel Channel, and TLC.
Lawrence John Chickola is an engineer known for designing roller coasters.
Yukon Striker is a steel roller coaster at Canada's Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario. Designed as a dive coaster from manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard, the ride opened to the general public on 3 May 2019 in place of SkyRider, a roller coaster that was removed from the park in 2014. Featuring a height of 68 metres (223 ft), a length of 1,105 metres (3,625 ft), and a maximum speed of 130 km/h (81 mph), Yukon Striker is the world's tallest, longest, and fastest dive coaster, sharing its height record with Valravn at Cedar Point. Its four inversions and drop length of 75 metres (245 ft) also set world records among dive coaster models.