New in 2013: Gold Striker © California's Great America

With a height of 33 metres and a top speed of approximately 87 kilometres (54 miles) per hour “Gold Striker” will surely soon be California’s most interesting woodie. One of its special feature beside the rapid course, is the tunneled first drop which creates a special sense of speed. The wooden track of “Gold Striker” measures 974 metres (3,197 feet) and the trip passes by the park’s signature Star Tower attraction.

Model of Karacho

However, all technical data and facts are on the table – and these are quite something to write home about. An engine with a performance of 2000 HP ensures that the cars, seating 8 persons each, accelerate from 0 to 100 kilometres per hour within merely 1.6 seconds when leaving a 70-metre long tunnel. The specified total length of the course on top of 130 steel girders amounts to 700 metres and the ride’s peak marks 30 metres. Besides the already mentioned launch tunnel, there will be another tunnel section, a dark ride section and an airtime hill.

Moreover, the cars guarantee plenty of fun. “We created the train as open and broad as possible. Big, full-suspension running wheels add to the pleasant ride comfort.”, said Andreas Simonis, staff member of Gerstlauer Amusement Rides. The cars will merely be equipped with lap bars making the ride sensation somewhat more thrilling and free. All these elements combined allow Karacho to turn out to be a quintessentially Tripsdrill overall experience and, without a doubt, one of this year’s most interesting new attractions.

Competition for the name Karacho

Erlebnispark Tripsdrill had called a competition beforehand, in order to find an appropriate name. More than 1,300 suggestions came in. The board of directors and the marketing department have eventually settled with “Karacho” (a German noun for “doing sth. at full pelt”) – an exceptional name for an exceptional roller coaster at an exceptional theme park.

The Smiler © Alton Towers

Funny symbols all over London
© Alton Towers

According to the park’s earlier press release, “The Smiler”, Alton Towers’ ninth roller coaster sure to be one of the most interesting new attractions in 2013 in Europe, is “an all-knowing controlling force that will make riders compliant until they become a smiling advocate”. Sounds awesome! We’ll see …

Logo of Huracan © Bellewaerde Park

Nearly 30 years after presenting the last coaster, a Vekoma Boomerang, to the park’s portfolio, Bellewaerde Park in Belgium is about to add a new one in the next season. And this one is meant to give home to one of the most powerful Mayan gods: Huracan.

Located in the Mexican theme area, it will replace the former dark ride “Los Piratas” and use the already existing building to create an adventure that mostly will take place indoor and feature a whole clutch of special effects. By choosing Huracan (the god of wind, storm and fire) as eponym for the new attraction, guests can anticipate an impressive effect show: fog, water, fire and laser and more will guide the trains through an upstream dark ride section and make this coaster unique.

Artwork © Bellewaerde Park

New for 2013: Juvelen © Djurs Sommerland

Djurs Sommerland in Denmark finally announced a new hit for the upcoming season. After introducing the Intamin Mega-Lite Coaster “Piraten” (“The Pirate”) in 2008 and the Mack Water Coaster “Skatteøen” (“The Treasure Island”), folks at Djurs Sommerland are back in the coaster news again with a new adventure taking place at the park’s Mexican themed area in 2013: “Juvelen”.

This jungle adventure will have some specialities to offer: First of all, it will be Europe’s first multi launch coaster, reaching a maximum speed of 85 kilometres per hour in its second and last launch. The layout close to the ground with many curves and some airtime hills will not feature any enormous high peaks, so that the trip will totally be family-orientated. Secondly, a Danish record is going to be broken: With 1000 metres it is named Denmark’s longest roller coaster. In combination with several sudden changes in direction it is supposed to become a twisty ride.

Manufactured by Intamin, the coaster will have a third distinctive feature. The trains will have a completely new design. Sitting on a car in shape of a beach buggy, the experience at this jungle expedition will be a different one in comparison to other rides, as the artwork of the trains lets imagine a great free moving room. Because of the many curves on a low level and with a banking up to 80 degrees, it promises a quite unique feeling, one will not find on any other ride in Europe.

Hades 360° © Mount Olympus Water & Theme Park

When the god of the underworld first showed up at Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park Resorts in 2005, his legend brought one of the best adventures on a wooden coaster to the amusement park anyone was able to find in the world at this time. The anything other than ancient ride has several specialities to feature: Its supporting structure is completely made of steel while a traditional wooden coaster track is used. But that is not the most striking feature so far.

What really catches the eye of everyone visiting the park is the following: After the lift hill the train drops straight into an underground section. The 65° steep first drop stands in perfect view of the car park and…ends right under it. Wondering, where in hell Hades will let its passengers end, the train rushes through the earth under the feet of the astonished spectators and finally shoots up into the sky at the very opposite site of the parking lot, just to take a turn and going underground again. This section is the world’s longest underground tunnel ever realized and furthermore features a 90° banked curve in complete darkness.

With the end of the 2012′s summer season retracking work began at the coaster and fans hoped to experience a more smooth trip in the next year, because within the last years the ride got more and more rough. But on this year’s IAAPA Expo in Orlando, manufacturer The Gravity Group and Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park Resorts announced something, hardly anyone would have thought about:

They will follow the trend of combining wooden roller coasters with an inversion. By adding a zero-g-roll to Hades, it will become longest upside-down woodie on earth. That is what part of the retraking and reconstruction is for, because the airtime hill after the first tunnel section will be removed in favour of the new inversion element.

Steel Dragon 2000 at Nagashima Spa Land © Nagashima Spa Land

Since last time the focus was on the European record holder in matter of length – “The Ultimate” at Lightwater Valley – , this time Steel Dragon 2000 at Nagashima Spa Land, the longest roller coaster of the whole wide world, shall be spotlighted. Even though the ride on the European record holder lasts longer, the red dragon in Japan holds the record since its opening in 2000 with a track of 2,479 metres.

Furthermore, it was the tallest coaster at its inauguration (barely three month after the opening of Millennium Force at Cedar Point, Ohio, which so lost its record again), but was outdone by Top Thrill Dragster. Today, Steel Dragon 2000 still is the tallest roller coaster with a traditional chain lift ever built. And this lift hill is an attraction by its self: The upwards climb lasts about 90 seconds and arouses this way a great tension among the riders. In addition to that, it is a special lift system, because there are two separate chains in use. After half of the upward section the train leaves the first chain and hooks into the second one. These two independent closed loops were realized to increase the capacity, because by that, two trains can be on the lift hill at the same time.

Once arrived at the top in 97 metres tall, there is no return. The train drops down 93.5 metres before passing a nearly 77 meters height second hill. Afterwards a twisty section takes riders into several curves, even very close to the ground, so the maximum speed of 152.9 kilometres per hour even feels yet more fast. The last section of this ride is characterised by many bunny hops leading the way back to the station. Two tunnels add an extra point of excitement to all that.

About 4 minutes and nearly two and a half kilometres of pure steel-fun – that is what Steel Dragon 2000 is standing for. The coaster looks every thing other than fragile: Due to earthquake protection, steel was excessively used to prevent any damage of the track caused by the forces of nature.

The Ultimate @ Lightwater Valley © Martin Lewison

Records attract the masses. Amusement parks have been chasing one another for the fastest and highest roller coaster in the last years and with eleven inversions, “Journey to the Stars” at Jinling Happy World, China, is going to set a new record next year. But one type of record is untouched for many years: the length.

Europe’s record holder in this field is “The Ultimate”: Opening in 1991, Lightwater Valley’s iconic attraction now takes riders onto an extraordinary trip for the 21st year. With a total length of 2268.3 metres it ruled former record holder “The Beast” at Kings Dominion, was the world’s longest roller coaster at its inauguration and has so far only been succeeded by “Steel Dragon 2000” at Nagashima Spa Land.

The two lift hills with a height of about 31 and 33 metres are the only pieces of track visitors can see from within the park. The coaster passes the woodland outside of the main park area and due to its layout close to the ground there are no other notable hills to spot. The natural topography is used to create an interesting and quite special ride, that reaches a maximum speed of 80,5 kilometres per hour and lasts over seven minutes.

Conceptualized by the park’s original owner, the construction of “The Ultimate” took eighteen month and cost £5.2 million. While the coaster was designed by Big Country Motioneering, engineers of British Rail were involved to complete the project. They arranged some redesign to be done, so that for example some changes in banking at the second half of the track were made. Even tough it is counted as a steel coaster with a track manufactured by Tabular Engineering, the supports of the two lift hills are made of wood.

d'wervelwind twists at Toverland © Toverland

The Dutch amusement park Toverland has just opened it’s newest attraction called „d’wervelwind“, meaning „the whirlwind“. It’s a spinning coaster designed by the German manufacturer Mack Rides.

Started as an indoor playground with several attractions and a small roller coaster in 2001, the park is being developed continuously. Just three years later a second hall and a small outdoor area was built, containing for example a log flume ride and the prototype of Vekoma’s Motorbike Coaster “Booster Bike”. In summer 2007 the next expansion took place and “Troy”, a GCI wooden coaster, was added to the park’s ride portfolio, marking the biggest coaster of the park so far.

Next year a further expansion will be opened to the guests: “De Magische Vallei” (meaning “The Magical Valley”). Part of the new area will be a river rafting, as well as some smaller attractions for kids and – “d’wervelwind”. To let the guests experience a first impression of the new theme land, the coaster already has opened and invites riders to take a twisty trip.

Reaching a height of 20 metres and a maximum speed of 70 km/h, the 500 metres long coaster winds its way through several turns and curves. In contrast to most of the spinning coasters by other manufacturers, “d’wervelwind” does not feature single cars but a train consisting out of four wagons holding four riders with each pair of them facing opposite directions.

To really get a magical ride, Toverland added an on-board sound system to the trains and an exclusively soundtrack, perfectly fitted to the dynamic of the coaster. In addition to that, other newly composed music tracks will be integrated throughout the whole new theme area. With this an exciting sound design shall be emerged in order to ensure that visitors get into the right mood for the new coaster.

But please note: the coaster will close on 4th November again to allow work on further themeing and the other attractions of the new theme area, which is set to open in spring 2013.