Outlaw Run – Silver Dollar City’s 2013 Roller Coaster

It looks like roller coaster enthusiasts from all over will be converging on Branson, MO next year. Yesterday, Silver Dollar City officially announced the rumored 2013 roller coaster. It will be called Outlaw Run. Thanks to its Rocky Mountain-designed steel track, this “wooden” coaster will boast a one-of-a-kind upside-down element (pictured under construction here) known as an outside banked turn, the steepest drop (81 degrees)  of any “wooden” coaster in the World, and most shockingly, a double barrel roll.

Not Your Father’s Wooden Coaster

Outlaw Run - Double Barrel Roll - LoopThe 90-degree banking on Gravity Group’s The Voyage and Ravine Flyer II have been very cool. El Toro’s insanely smooth ride was ground-breaking in my opinion.

And now we’ve got a wooden or a wooden-ish coaster (I can’t ignore the steel topper track) with a double barrel roll. Sure, Son of Beast had a vertical loop for a while, but the hang time from a barrel roll sounds more fun than a positive g-force-filled loop. I was already really excited for this coaster and depending on what Magic Mountain’s cooking up for ’13, it may move to my most anticipated new coaster.

Outlaw Run – Behind the Numbers

As a few readers have pointed out in the comment section, Outlaw Run will be a bit on the short side at 2,937 feet in length. The ride’s length doesn’t phase me one bit as it looks to be quite an eventful run. The fact its 107′ tall lift provides a 162′ foot drop makes me smile. This means that Outlaw Run will take advantage of the park’s terrain and drop riders into a ravine or down a hill of some sort. 68 mph is darn fast for a “woodie”! And, it should be pretty smooth thanks to the steel topper track.

The Category Conundrum: Wood or Steel or Hybrid

Rocky Mountain Construction - Topper TrackI’ve been including quotes around “wooden” when referring to this ride because it’s a bit of a genre-bending roller coaster. From what I’ve been able to gather, Outlaw Run looks like it’ll be a roller coaster with a wooden support structure and Rocky Mountain Construction’s steel topper track. In past projects (on rides like Tremors and Georgia Cyclone) the all steel topper track replaced the top two layers of the existing wood stack. So, unlike the I-Box track used on the New Texas Giant, there’s still a good amount of wood being used in the track.

A case could be made for both sides. I’d like to call it a hybrid for now and I’m somewhat okay with the park calling it a woodie. At the end of the day, I don’t think it matters what this coaster will be categorized as, but it definitely blurs the line.

Learn more here: SilverDollarCity2013.com. Also, check out this image of the ride’s layout and a teaser video:
Silver Dollar City - Outlaw Run Layout

Nice use of sister park’s Thunderhead at Dollywood

What are you thoughts? Leave a comment below.

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