January 2015 update: This ride is now going to be called El Diablo. Same ride, they just decided on a different name, likely to incorporate it into Plaza del Carnival rather than Golden Kingdom.
Six Flags Great Adventure announced today the addition of a new ride for the 2015 season. Looping Dragon, a Larson 22 meter Fireball model, will be placed in the Golden Kingdom section of the park, around the former location of Rolling Thunder which was removed this past off season. The ride will feature “face-off” style seating and “heart pounding” 360 degree loops.
It will be Great Adventure’s 13th roller coaster…wait, what?
Okay, I like that Six Flags is getting a new flat ride. They really do need help in that department and a giant Larson Superloops style ride fits the bill nicely…but calling it a roller coaster? I don’t think even carnivals call their Fireball or Ring of Fire rides “roller coasters” even though they could potentially benefit from doing so.
What I’m actually more excited about is the fact that Six Flags is actually going to use the Rolling Thunder area for something rather than neglecting it like they’ve done with some other areas of the park. There’s a lot of room back there and I see Looping Dragon as just the first of many improvements to that area of the park.
So, while a lot of people are poo-pooing all over this addition, I have to say… I ain’t even mad. It’s also going to be fun seeing the coaster credit whores fight about whether it’s a new credit or not!
Here’s the newsletter article about the new ride. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a Fireball ride described with such gusto.
2 Comments
I HAVE in fact seen carnivals call their super loops coasters. Just this past spring, at a local carnival, my friend asked the op running the fireball if it was a “coaster”. He then went on a lengthy rant/discussion on how it was. In the end, my friend ended at the conclusion that super loops were coasters.
I’m still not so sure though, myself. I guess you could call it a type of powered shuttle coaster, and they certainly are more of a coaster than the sky master/Kamikazee rides that essentially do the same thing, however, I’d say that’s pushing it.
Personally I’d call it a hybrid of coaster and flat.
But wait, as I type this, I’m thinking.. “Why the hell do I even care?!?!!????!!!” I HATE super loops! After one ride at the fair this spring, I was done, and immediately headed over to the far superior larson manufactured ride on the other end of the midway… Tha ARM/Larson Super shot !… Absolutely kick@$$ airtime whoops painful, unsafe WTC feeling (even though it was a brand new super loop) hangtime any day!
Suck it super loops!!!
I don’t think it’s a coaster because it doesn’t really have a rolling stock. Roller coasters have trains with wheels that travel down tracks. A Superloop ride is a train attached to a conveyor belt of sorts that spans the inside of the loop. If the train had wheels underneath and was propelled by tire drives or something (like Schwarzkopf’s Katapult coaster) then I’d be more inclined to say that it’s a coaster.
I’m not a huge Superloops fan either, but I’ve been on some pretty awesome ones where the ride ops let the ride go at full bore. They can get surprisingly fast; far faster than Kamikaze type rides! I doubt SF will run their’s at such speeds, but I still think it’s an all right addition nonetheless. I don’t like how they’re calling it a coaster, but for a park that needs flats, I’m not complaining.