originally posted on 11/19/2021 1:21:54 AM
Palindrome.
All renderings courtesy of Gerstlauer. View full-sized image.
The Lone Star State is quite the hotbed of coaster action next year. The two Six Flags parks have major additions on tap. The delayed Aquaman Power Dive from Mack Rides will finally debut with its upgrades at Six Flags Over Texas (Arlington). Fiesta Texas (San Antonio) is brilliantly making its 30th anniversary spectacular with the Bolliger & Mabillard dive coaster Dr. Diabolical’s Cliffhanger. Traders Village (Grand Prairie) is erecting the relocated Screamer from Scandia Amusement Park (Ontario, California), soon to be called Prairie Screamer. In all this fun are also enough small coaster “credits” — more than you can shake a rattler at — that a visitor to Texas could easily increase his or her count by double digits.
ACE News has already reported on the addition of Texas Wildcat at the under-construction COTALand at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas. This Schwarzkopf Wildcat relocated from Lightwater Valley (Ripon, England) has undergone refurbishment and will be as good as new. It joins two small children’s coasters at the new park. But wait, there’s more …
COTALand has signed with Gerstlauer and Ride Entertainment to manufacture and build a totally one-of-a-kind coaster. Enthusiasts should be racing to it.
Called Palindrome, the Infinity coaster will have numerous attributes that make it not only marketable to the region, but also notable to intrigue hardcore fans to see what it’s like.
Near vertical twisted drop.
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The vertical lift is a maneuver most ACEers have seen before, but what follows is totally different. The steep dive off the lift twists during the plunge. From there it is all cool stuff. Elements such as a flipped wave turn and inline twist are delightfully acrobatic, but what’s sure to get big attention is the zero-G stall. This upside-down inversion takes place over guests … in their cars … on a road! It’s like a move from Waldameer’s (Erie, Pennsylvania) playbook — but upside down. Yes, that’s eye opening.
High-speed inline twist.
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But there’s more. The reverse spike has a unique look. Called a hop stall, instead of it just being a vertical tower, it has a slight hour-glass contour. It’s easy to wonder whether riders experience airtime while climbing skyward. It will be fun to see how it all works out.
Matt Hughey, senior manager of COTALand (and an ACE member), came up with the name Palindrome when he pondered what goes forward and backward. It’s certainly original and actually quite clever.
“There were some specific elements we wanted for the ride, and after presenting that to the manufacturers, the challenge coming out of COVID was the timeframe for people to design something specifically for us,” said Hughey. “Several had designs of things they had built — the engineering was done — but where we wanted the ride, a cookie-cutter coaster wasn’t going to fit.”
Zero-G stall.
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At first glance, the ride won’t look overly long. The track is 1,230 feet long, but because of the shuttle nature of the coaster, 2,080 feet are traversed. The two inversions become four and the zero-G stall backward should offer some visually wild hangtime while over the roadway. It truly is a signature piece.
The top speed will be 51 mph, and riders will feel G forces range from -1 Gs to 4.5 Gs.
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The opening of COTALand is targeted for late spring/early summer of 2022. Part of that could be dependent on the installation of a log flume, also recently purchased. Palindrome is expected to open in late 2022.
— Tim Baldwin, ACE News Editor
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