Really Rockin' Roller Coasters! Quiz

Answer: Wooden

The Big Dipper is a wooden out and back rollercoaster located at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in England. It was originally built in 1923 and extended in 1936. It's seen its share of problems. In 1975 part of the main lift hill and first drop were damaged by a fire.

In 2009 two cars collided. Twenty-one riders needed medical assistance with injuries ranging from whiplash to broken noses. In 2010 a car derailed. In 1998 a rider named Richard Rodriguez set a record when he rode it for over one thousand hours - that's more than forty-one days!!! Despite the record being nullified when the Guinness World Records changed some rules, a plaque sits in the station house to commemorate the achievement.

Answer: Top Thrill Dragster

The Top Thrill Dragster opened in 2003 and at the time was the tallest rollercoaster in the world. I visited the park in the summer of 2019 with a son who is a daredevil and wanted to ride it. If there is any hint of bad weather or winds, the ride doesn't operate. On our second day the weather was sunny and it was open to intrepid riders who sit on the launch ride, speed along the track at one hundred and twenty miles per hour, and try to make it over the top of the 420 foot high peak. Often times, the hydraulic system doesn't launch the car all the way up the steep track and riders travel backwards all the way down, to try again.

There is stadium seating set up to watch this spectacular ride and any time the car makes it over the top of the track, the crowd cheers. I think it's more fun to watch than to even attempt riding!

Answer: Takabisha

The Takabisha rollercoaster is located in Tamanashi, Japan. When it opened in 2011 it broke the record for the world's steepest rollercoaster. This ride has a drop angle of 121 degrees! As if that weren't enough, the ride starts with a sudden drop into pitch darkness before beginning a slow roll.

The slow roll doesn't last long and riders are pitched down a long tunnel to a speed of sixty-two miles per hour. No thanks.

Answer: United Arab Emirates

Formula Rossa is a launched rollercoaster that opened in United Arab Emirates in 2010. With such an incredible top speed, riders are required to wear safety glasses (danger of insects in eyes!) and are subjected to a G-force of up to 4.8. The higher the G-force, the more danger of broken bones, shifting organs, and burst blood vessels.

The coaster accelerates to its top speed in just under five seconds and uses a hydraulic launch system that generates a release velocity similar to catapults on an aircraft carrier!

Answer: It goes backwards

The Bat opened in 1987 and featured comedian Joe Flaherty as a vampire promoting the ride in an ad campaign. Riders are pulled backwards up a steep track and when they reach the top, the car is released speeding riders forward. The ride includes a corkscrew and a loop before climbing another steep track.

When they reach the top of the track, the car is launched backwards through the ride. Top speed for this ride is just over forty-six miles per hour.

Answer: France

The very first inversion coaster in history was called the Centrifugal Railway and was built in Paris, France. It was built in 1848 and consisted of a forty-three-foot track leading into a circular vertical loop. Many rides appeared around the world in the 1900s with the same type of circular loop but the G-force associated with the circular structure proved to be too dangerous and these types of inversions were removed.

Inversions in rides wasn't re-visited again until the 1970s with the creation of corkscrew turns.

Answer: The Big Apple

The Big Apple Coaster is located at the New York New York casino and includes a 144 foot drop, two inversions and a view of the strip. Riders enter the ride in the casino itself. This isn't the only coaster on the Las Vegas strip though. Not only a destination for high rollers, it's also a destination for thrill seekers.

There are many thrill rides and coasters located in and around the Las Vegas strip including the Canyon Blaster and El Loco at the Circus Circus casino.

Answer: The Incredibles

The Incredicoaster originally opened with the name California Screamin', in 2001. The name change was inspired by the Pixar movies "The Incredibles" and "The Incredibles 2" - the second of those movies opened in 2018 and the new name for the ride was unveiled in June 2018.

It opened as the highest of all coasters at a Disney theme park and the only coaster at Disneyland to include an inversion. As of 2020, the coaster, at a length of 6,072 feet, held the record for world's longest inverting coaster.

Answer: Blue Fire

The Blue Fire megacoaster opened in 2009 as a part of an Iceland-themed area of Europa-Park. The first forty-five seconds of the ride are in the dark before riders are launched to over sixty miles an hour in just under three seconds. There is a twisted horseshoe roll in this ride which is the first of it's kind in Europe and only the second in the world.

The first is on the Maverick rollercoaster at Cedar Point, Ohio. The Blue Fire uses lap bar restraints instead of over the shoulder restraints, despite having multiple inversions!

Answer: A rider restraint failed

This now permanently closed rollercoaster is located at La Ronde park in Montreal, Canada. In August 2019 it was scheduled to close and within hours of it's last rides, a rider's restraints failed on the way up the first climb. Thankfully no-one was hurt.

The ride was closed for inspection, never re-opened and was demolished. Le Super Manège translates to 'The Super Ride' and was named to show its importance in bringing inversions to the park.