Thorpe Park’s Colossus opened in 2002 as the the first roller coaster to have ten loops. Today, it still holds the record as no roller coaster has went for eleven inversions yet. While I’m sure it’d be a dizzying ride I love looping roller coasters so I’d be fun to take the challenge someday. The Intamin-designed coaster has a vertical loop, cobra roll (2), double corkscrew (2), quad heartline roll (4), and another heartline roll. The quadruple loop looks really cool:
The heartline rolls are reminiscent of the TOGO Ultra Twister coasters. Six Flags shuffled one such coaster from Great Adventure to AstroWorld and finally to Six Flags America where it sits in storage. I never rode Ultra Twister, but I heard it was pretty rough. I’d like to know if Colossos’ heartline rolls are rough or if Intamin found a smoother way to execute the rolls.
According to Wikipedia, Intamin created Colossus by adding two loops to a previous design they had used in a Brazilian coaster Monte Makaya. Aside from adding the two record breaking loops, they also made Colossus 20 feet shorter and a bit slower. With a top speed of only 45 mph, the loops are likely pretty tolerable. Since Colossus opened, a clone was built at Chimelong Paradise in China. It’s known simply as Ten Inversion Roller Coaster.
RCDB has more photos of Colossus. Also, check out Thorpe Park’s website. Thorpe Park, located in Surrey, England is also home to 2009’s SAW: The Ride which features a 100 degree drop. The park also boasts B&M inverted coaster Nemesis Inferno and Intamin launch coaster Stealth. Check out this off-ride video of Colossus at Thorpe Park:
What’s Your Take?
What do you think of Colossus? Have you ridden it? What’s the roller coaster that you’ve ridden that had the most loops? Leave a comment below. Image 2 courtesy of CoasterJunky.