originally posted on 5/13/2024
Photo: HaeKyung Thompson. View full-sized image.
In 2003, a world record coaster opened at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. Top Thrill Dragster, manufactured by Intamin, was the world’s tallest and fastest coaster at the time, and was appropriately themed to a drag racing strip with trains styled as dragster race cars. As with drag racing, speed is required to win the race, and the coaster certainly won by reaching speeds of 120 mph.
Speed (and a racing theme) is still the name of the game.
Photo: Derek Perry. View full-sized image.
Photo: HaeKyung Thompson. View full-sized image.
Yet Cedar Point wanted the ride to also provide thrills, and with a height exceeding 400 feet, the strata coaster category was born. Top Thrill Dragster utilized a hydraulic cable launch system that took guests from 0 to 120 in about four seconds, up and over a top hat that was 420 feet tall and plunged again at 120 mph — all lasting approximately 20 seconds. One of the world’s most iconic rides since it opened, it operated until 2021 when an incident occurred. The coaster was left standing but not operating, its fate undecided as the park evaluated its options.
Top Thrill 2 is a reimagining of Intamin’s 2003 Top Thrill Dragster.
Photo: Courtesy of Zamperla. View full-sized image.
In November 2023, an announcement was made that shocked the coaster community. Zamperla and Cedar Fair had partnered and revealed that Top Thrill Dragster would evolve into a new roller coaster. Retaining the racing theme, Top Thrill 2 was announced as the world’s first triple launch, dual tower, strata coaster. New trains would be made in the style of a Formula 1 racecar and constructed of aluminum to be lighter and obtain faster speeds. Each of the three trains — black, silver and blue — would accommodate 20 riders.
Top Thrill 2 features new trains and additional track, but still dominates everything around it, including Cedar Point’s plenty-tall Power Tower.
Photo: HaeKyung Thompson. View full-sized image.
Photo: HaeKyung Thompson. View full-sized image.
As each train leaves the reconfigured station, it lines up on the track and prepares for the first linear synchronous motor (LSM) launch to 74 mph. This propels it forward into the top hat, where the train only makes it partially up the tower. Thus, every rider experiences a coveted rollback that occurred rarely on Top Thrill Dragster. The train then launches a second time in reverse at 101 mph onto the newly added 90-degree angle, 420-foot spire, providing a moment during which it stalls so riders can look straight down. Finally traveling forward and straight down, it hits the final launch to 120 mph when riders experience airtime as they crest the original 420-foot-tall top hat and speed through to the finish line.
Top Thrill 2 features launches up a new 420-foot spike as well as Top Thrill Dragster’s original top hat.
Photo: Dave Jackson. View full-sized image.
Photo: Andy Planitz. View full-sized image.
Top Thrill 2 will create new merchandising opportunities for the park that will be sold at a new gift shop.
Photo: Derek Perry. View full-sized image.
What is special about Top Thrill 2 is that it pays homage to Top Thrill Dragster by utilizing elements of the original coaster while reimagining the experience by adding new launches and the 420-foot spire. This was accomplished by sending several original track pieces overseas to place LSMs for the multilaunch element. With the original Top Thrill Dragster, Cedar Point became the first, and so far only, park to have a hypercoaster (Magnum XL-200, at 205 feet), a gigacoaster (Millennium Force, at 310 feet) and a strata coaster, and with Top Thrill 2 this achievement still stands. This is a coaster that will leave guests wanting to ride repeatedly.
— Amanda Hilliard
#ACENews