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Video: Magic Mountain's Colossus Roller Coaster To Be Reborn As Modern Hybrid 'Twisted Colossus'
Magic Mountain's Colossus roller coaster will ride once again, as it turns out reports of its death were greatly exaggerated. In spring of 2015, the Six Flags theme park will revive the classic wooden coaster with a more modern and thrilling style.
Rechristened as "Twisted Colossus," the new roller coaster will use the original wooden structure that has stood at the park for over 36 years while integrating a contemporary steel track. Twisted Colossus will still feature the same 'racing' dual tracks like its predecessor, but the initial drop will set the tone that this isn't your father's Colossus. Nearly vertical at 80 degrees, riders will hit a top speed of 57 mph before taking them through new features unlike any other wooden roller coaster in the world. A "high five" section where the separate trains will twist around each other through overbanked turns give the impression that the riders can actually reach out and touch each others' hands and the new coaster will have two inversions, which are unusual on wooden-structured rides. The new ride will lengthen the ride to almost 5,000 feet and almost four minutes long. It will be the longest hybrid roller coaster in the world.
Computer simulation of what Twisted Colossus will ride like
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Twisted Colossus will be built by Rocky Mountain Construction, who in recent years have made it a trend of updating Six Flags' aging wooden coasters with inversions and building new wooden rides with loops at their theme parks nationwide. The "high five" section of Twisted Colossus seemed to arise out of competition, as Rocky Mountain's rivals Gravity Group were the first to introduce the gimmick in China's Dueling Dragon coaster according to the LA Times.
The original Colossus opened in 1978, and its reign was marred from the onset when a rider was thrown from the roller coaster. It briefly became a movie star as the Screemy Meemy in 1983's National Lampoon's Vacation. Colossus closed on National Roller Coaster Day, August 16, earlier this month and as a final farewell Magic Mountain held a 36-hour riding marathon.
Update, April 30: Twisted Colossus now has an official opening date of May 23, according to KTLA.
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