California's
Six Flags Magic Mountain will kick off the 2011 season with not one, not two, but three "new" roller coasters (and arguably four--more on that later). All total, Magic Mountain will be able to boast 18 coasters and reclaim the "most number of coasters on the planet" title (wresting it from coaster rival, Ohio's Cedar Point). Of the three (or four) rides coming in 2011, only one is truly new: Green Lantern. The unique coaster looks to be a load of fun.
Green Lantern at Six Flags Magic Mountain Stats
- Type of coaster: Fourth Dimension "ZacSpin" model
- Height: 117 feet
- Top speed: 35 mph
- Number of inversions: 3
- Track length: 825 feet
- Ride time: 2:00
See Six Flags Magic Mountain's Green Lantern
Shining a Light on Six Flag Magic Mountain's Green Lantern
There aren't many fourth-dimension coasters in the world, but in 2011, Six Flags Magic Mountain will have two of them. By positioning the seats to the sides of the tracks and enabling them to spin on separate axes that are independent of the trains, fourth dimension coasters offer wild, disorienting rides in which passengers have a hard time determining up from down.
X, which received a makeover and was rechristened X2 in 2008, is a pioneering fourth dimension coaster and revered among coaster fans.
Green Lantern, which will be much more compact than X2, will provide a seat-spinning experience, but will be much less intense and intimidating than its fourth dimension sister coaster. Instead of X2's 175-foot lift hill and 215-foot first drop, for example, Green Lantern will climb 117 feet and have no initial drop, per se. Instead, it will zigzag back and forth on a track that will look something like a giant printing press.
In between the zigs and zags, the eight-passenger trains will stay relatively straight; but at the ends of each horizontal section of track, the trains will flip upside down, and the seats will spin, sending passengers head over heels, as they attempt to right themselves. The trains will alternate between traveling forwards and backwards.
With a top speed of 35 mph, Green Lantern won't be setting any speed records. In fact, it will be flirting with junior coaster speed status. Nor does it appear that it will be delivering any airtime or pulling much in the way of positive G-forces. Nonetheless, the novel ride looks to be sufficiently precarious to give even hardened coaster warriors a serious case of the willies.
Green Lantern will sport an electric green track with darker green-colored trains. Other than the color scheme, it doesn't appear that the coaster will have any Green Lantern themeing (unlike, say, the more heavily themed Terminator: The Coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain). The slightly obscure DC Comic hero will be featured in a major motion picture starring Ryan Reynolds that's set to debut in June 2011. Expect Six Flags to capitalize on the movie's spotlight when it opens its Green Lantern coaster around the same time.
Superman: Escape from Downtime?
Had Six Flags focused solely on Green Lantern for its 2011 goodies, coaster freaks would have been pleased (or as pleased as coaster freaks can get, I suppose). But the SoCal park will also be giving its launched Superman coaster a much-needed makeover. When it debuted in 1997, Superman: The Escape was the world's tallest, fastest coaster. Problem was, it often fell shy of its theoretical top speed of 100 mph and far shy of the top of its 415-foot tower. Even worse, the groundbreaking ride often ground to a halt and experienced a lot of downtime.
The renamed Superman: Escape from Krypton will get new, more open cars and, hopefully, a new lease on life that will keep it up and running with greater speed and height. The park will also reverse the shuttle trains so that they will blast out of the station backwards, and send passengers free-falling down the 415-foot tower facing forwards.
With its twin L-shaped tracks, Superman could be considered two coasters. Since the tracks and launch mechanisms are identical, however, the rides are the same. Six Flags says that it plans to reverse the direction of one of the trains (launching it facing forwards and free-falling backwards) a few months after Superman is relaunched. That would give riders the opportunity to experience two different coaster experiences.
Is Mr. Six Nixed?
The third goodie in Six Flag's 2011 bag of coasters will be a transplanted junior coaster from the shuttered Six Flags New Orleans. The ride was supposed to debut in 2010 as Mr. Six's DanceCoaster. It will now be known as Little Flash, in homage to the DC Comics superhero. (Does this mean adios to the bespectacled Mr. Six?)
The off-the-shelf 44-second ride will climb 28 feet and reach a top (not-too-Flashy) speed of 22 mph. Riders as short as 42" will be able to climb aboard the new-to-Magic-Mountain coaster.
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