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by Jeremy Schoolfield
Cedar Fair isn’t a big believer in theming, but the opportunity provided by its two new coasters was just too good to pass up.
The company’s vice president of planning and design, Rob Decker, says “Intimidator” is a name Cedar Fair’s been kicking around for years but knew it couldn’t be used without an alliance with the moniker’s most famous icon: NASCAR legend Dale “The Intimidator” Earnhardt. So in 2008 Cedar opened negotiations with Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI) about a licensing partnership; the entertainment company knew using Earnhardt’s name would lead to high expectations, Decker says, “so we dialed them right into our development process.”
Originally the new coasters—“Intimidator 305” at Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia, and “Intimidator” at Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina—were to open a year apart, but Decker says the company wanted to jumpstart its presence in the southeastern United States market (a haven for NASCAR faithful), so both rides were brought into the 2010 season.
Jeff Steiner, executive vice president and general manager of DEI, says he’s approached with countless branding ideas all the time, so the company is quite particular in its selection process. Part of what sealed the partnership with Cedar Fair, he says, is these two high-speed coasters fit “the man and the image”; Carowinds’ “Intimidator” stands 232 feet tall and speeds up to 80miles per hour (mph), while Kings Dominion’s “305” tops out at, you guessed it, 305 feet. “This is something Dale would be very proud of if he was here today,” Steiner says.
Both sides of the partnership see benefits. The coasters are DEI’s first foray into the amusement park business, because “in today’s economy it’s all about new relationships and new ways of doing things,” Steiner says. He is “very interested in working with [Cedar Fair] at other parks.”
For Cedar Fair, “being associated with Dale Earnhardt is fantastic,” says company president and CEO Dick Kinzel, because it opens the two parks up to the fervent NASCAR fanbase. Kings Dominion is less than 30 miles from the Richmond International Raceway, while Earnhardt was born in the Charlotte area. The driver maintains a devoted following even nine years after his death, so a ride on these “Intimidators” could become a rite of passage for many.
In addition, Carowinds is partnering with the new NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte (open since May) for promotional cooperation and discounts between the two entities. Tim Newman, CEO of the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, says the combination of “Intimidator,” the new hall of fame, and the Charlotte Motor Speedway creates an “epicenter of all motorsports attractions in the region” and will allow tourists to spend racing-themed vacations in the city.
Both parks make the most of the Earnhardt brand with theming throughout the attraction, extending even beyond the queue. At the entrance to each ride is a replica of Earnhardt’s iconic black No. 3 Monte Carlo, along with a wall noting all his victories. The coaster trains for both “Intimidators” are themed to the car, as well, with NASCAR-style advertising on the sides, while the Victory Lane merchandise buildings are emblazoned with an Earnhardt mural.
For all their similarities, though, these two new attractions couldn’t be more different once riders strap in to the seats. Though they are separated by more than 300 miles and are not being marketed together, Cedar Fair officials nonetheless hope coaster and NASCAR fans will be compelled to experience both this summer and for years to come. “It’s going to establish us as the thrill parks of the Southeast,” Kinzel says. Here’s a look at each one:
‘Intimidator 305’
 Kings Dominion Intamin
Sometimes the easiest comparisons are the best. When renderings of “Intimidator 305” were released last year, the instantaneous description popped up everywhere: “It looks like a combination of ‘Millennium Force’ and ‘Maverick.’” (Both “Millennium Force” and “Maverick” are Intamin coasters.)
Yep, pretty much sums it up.
“305” draws its name from the 305-foot-tall first hill, which is similar in look and feel to the iconic start to Cedar Point’s “Millennium Force” and makes this one of the tallest coasters in the world. The Intamin Giga Coaster (defined as topping 300 feet) has a few upgrades, though, starting with a new cable lift that brings the 32-passenger train up a 50- degree angle at an astounding 30 feet per second (besting “Millennium” by eight feet per second). Intamin’s Sandor Kernacs says the cable’s speed was critical to capacity and layout for the entire ride; if the train went up the lift any slower, a third train would be necessary to maintain capacity, and an extra train would mean adding a block brake midcourse.
“I don’t like the block brake because it breaks up the coaster,” Kernacs says. “You have one coaster from the top of the lift to the block brake, and another coaster from the block brake back to the station. Usually, the second coaster is never that good.”
The first drop stands at 85 degrees—5 degrees steeper than “Millennium”—making it seem to riders as if the track disappears from underneath them on their 300-foot plunge to the earth. From that point on, though, the comparisons to “Millennium Force” end. Instead of racing right back up a second hill out of the first drop, “305” dramatically moves into a 4-g banked curve that Kernacs says is the most intense turn his company’s ever created. It lasts approximately four seconds as the track snakes back around underneath the lift hill and ascends into a 150-foot-tall airtime hill.
“We can never beat that,” Kernacs says of the trio of elements that open “305.” Thing is, he still had half a coaster to finish. So he turned for inspiration to “Maverick,” and that 2007 Cedar Point coaster’s high-speed, ground-hugging layout. The rest of “Intimidator 305” is a series of S-curves and sudden transitions that keep riders guessing—right down to the final overbanked turn that concludes a 5,100-foot-long trip.
At a price tag of $25 million, “Intimidator 305” is the largest investment in Kings Dominion’s 35-year history. Its size and speed make it an instant force to be reckoned with— so much so, in fact, that a trim was added to the initial drop within weeks of the ride’s debut to slow its speed.
“The heritage and vision of Kings Dominion has always been thrill rides, and this one extends that,” says Richard Zimmerman, who was the park’s general manager from 1999- 2007 before becoming a regional vice president for Cedar Fair. “It’s going to feed our core base but will bring in a lot of people from outside our traditional areas.” www.kingsdominion.com
‘Intimidator’
Carowinds Bolliger & Mabillard
Carowinds is hoping the third time’s still the charm, as “Intimidator” is Cedar Fair’s third Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) Hyper Coaster in as many seasons. Previous installations at Canada’s Wonderland in Toronto and Kings Island in Mason, Ohio, met with acclaim, and “Intimidator” looks to follow in their sprawling footprints.
 “It’s going to put Carowinds on the map,” says park general manager Bart Kinzel. “We’re going to become a destination— it takes us to the next level. You can see [the track] from all over the place.”
Indeed, like a beacon on the eastern edge of the park, the ride’s 232-foot first hill is easily visible from I-77, the major highway that runs past Carowinds. At $23 million, this coaster stands as the largest single investment in the park’s history and demonstrates Cedar Fair’s continued commitment to Carowinds since purchasing the park in 2006.
“Intimidator” offers an out-and-back experience in the basic shape of a giant “L,” with eight hills covering 5,316 feet of track. B&M President Walter Bolliger says the first drop offers the most negatives g-forces on the ride at about 0.4, but he’s particularly pleased with the second drop. Coming off the initial 211-foot descent, the train goes up 178 feet and then turns drastically to the right in a twisting dive maneuver that nevertheless maintains a weightless feeling for riders. “We wanted to give a different feeling,” Bolliger says. “It’s wonderful.” The ride is an airtime machine, overall, with, according to Bolliger, nearly 13 seconds of total weightlessness.
Though it may not be quite as high as its Kings Dominion neighbor, “Intimidator” still stands tall among its peers. Its 232-foot peak makes it the eighth tallest of all coasters in North America and second tallest of its kind in the world (topped only by Europa-Park’s “Silver Star” at 239 feet). “Intimidator” makes good use of B&M’s relatively new Hyper seating arrangement, where the middle two seats in the four seat car are moved “forward” for better views all around. Be sure to get a quick glimpse of Charlotte over your left shoulder before the screaming begins. www.carowinds.com
Contact Senior Editor Jeremy Schoolfield at jschoolfield@IAAPA.org.
More Coasters New in 2010
‘The13teen’
Alton Towers Inatmin
Alton Towers did a magnificent job keeping the big secret of its new coaster, but eventually the reveal had to come out: “Th13teen” is the world’s first roller coaster to feature a freefall drop.
 The Intamin custom steel coaster starts out like any other: lift hill (69 feet), drop, turns, more hills. But then it enters the second floor of a building and … stops. A door closes behind it, encasing the room in darkness, and then the ride drops straight down. Not like straight down a hill, either; this is a direct freefall to the floor below, as if the coaster suddenly turned into a drop tower through a combination of hydraulics and magnetic brakes.
One secret the park is still keeping is the length of the drop. Because it takes place in the dark, the freefall feels a lot farther than it actually is, says Morwenna Angove, director of sales and marketing for Alton Towers, and it’s been specially engineered to stop rather suddenly right at the bottom of the drop, rather than the more gradual deceleration typical of most drop towers.
“It is a completely freefall drop—you don’t get any sense of it braking until you’re very, very close to the bottom,” she says.
“Th13teen” isn’t done, though, once the train settles back to earth: It races out of the building backward through a series of twists and turns before coming to another stop. The track shifts again, allowing a mild forward launch to bring the five-car train back into the station. www.altontowers.com
‘Sky Rocket’
Kennywood Premier Rides
 Though the amusement industry is often associated with teenagers, that’s actually the “toughest market to nail down” for Kennywood, says park spokesman Jeff Filicko: “We’re definitely a traditional family park.”
So when the park went looking for its new coaster, “Sky Rocket,” appealing to the teens and early 20-somethings was No. 1 on the agenda. “We wanted something with speed, height, and nonstop energy,” Filicko says.
However, Kennywood is landlocked in its Pittsburgh suburb of West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, so when the park decides to put in a new ride, it doesn’t have a whole lot of land to work with. Filicko says park officials considered all manner of wooden and steel coasters for the new ride but settled on Premier Rides’ bid due to its linear synchronous motor launch that allows for several elements in a rather tight space.
“Sky Rocket” rockets away from the station, hitting 50 miles per hour in three seconds before scampering up a 95-foot vertical top hat. The train— two cars, each with three rows of two riders—then goes straight back down at the ground before pulling into two inversions and nearly stalling above a second top hat midcourse. The back half of “Sky Rocket” includes a corkscrew, an airtime hill, and a series of turns. The new coaster comes in at 2,100 feet long and a ride time of 65 seconds. www.kennywood.com
‘Joris en de Draak’
Efteling Great Coasters International
The guys at Great Coasters are getting used to this whole fire-on-a-wooden coaster thing with this year’s “Joris en de Draak” (“George and the Dragon”) at Efteling in the Netherlands.
 For the second season in a row, GCI installed a wooden coaster with a flame element, this time courtesy of a 34-foot-tall dragon that spits flares at the company’s trademark Millennium Flyer trains as they whiz by at 74 kilometers per hour (46 miles per hour). Not to be outdone, the train on the other side of this racing wooden coaster gets splashed with water thanks to the dragon’s tail.
This is GCI’s first racing coaster since 2000’s “Lightning Racer” at Hersheypark, and “there are lots of design challenges just to keep the two trains interacting at the exact same time, every time,” says Chris Gray, the company’s procurement and assembly director. For example, the 82-foot lift hills are separated by 20 feet, but on the drops the trains first swing away from each other and then come back together between the lifts. They stick together through a series of up-and-down elements before going through a “triple up” over the station and splitting again. The ride also features a 1.1-meter (43.3-inch) height requirement instead of the more typical 1.2 meters (47.2 inches), says Efteling spokesperson Karin Koppelmans.
Some of Gray’s favorite elements are the “reverse banks” toward the end of the 2,657-foot-long course, where one train rides “outside” a curve while the other runs in the traditional “inside” position. They then switch perspectives on the next curve before coming back into the station. “It’s so bizarre looking,” Gray says of the unconventional turns. At press time, “Joris en de Draak” was scheduled to open July 1. www.efteling.com
‘Huracon’
Belantis Gerstlauer
Germany’s Gerstlauer delivered another of its most popular coaster types inside its home country this year, with the 105-foottall “Huracon” at Belantis. The new Euro-
Fighter offers the model’s trademark features, including a vertical initial lift leading to a 95-degree drop. Riders sit two abreast in individual three-row cars as they traverse five inversions along the 560-meter-long (1,837-footlong) track. www.belantis.de |
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