Left: View from the top of the lifthill Pictures: Tivoli Gardens

The little monster stretches itself 28 meters in the air - only those knowing the park can foresee how big this ride will appear in the Gardens. As always, Tivoli will perfectly integrate the floorless looper into the Chinese area - restaurants, games and souvenir shops will even be placed below the track. But it remains to be seen if this massive steel construction will spoil the atmosphere of the park.

In the preliminary stages the ride has already won through against three competitors: The concept pushed out the Intamin Rocket Coaster, the Gerstlauer X95 and the Maurer Söhne X-Car Coaster. B&M found their way into the park´s heart and deliverd a coaster that surely fulfils the high expectations. Dæmonen is anticipated to open to the public in Denmark´s capital Copenhagen at the 16th of April.

97 degrees downwards

As many as three novelties wait for the visitor of family park Bobbejaanland in northern Belgium this year. The so far biggest Junior Coaster by Vekoma Rides Manufacturing from the Netherlands is among them, in addition there will be a gigantic pendulum in primeval design swinging to a height of almost 45 meters and the silver and black Typhoon looping coaster.

The compact design from Gerstlauer, based in southern Germany, offers four inversions, two helices and a breathtaking first drop on a track length of 670 meters. The chain lifts the cars (each one seating eight passengers in two rows) to a height of 26 meters before they dive down. Steeper than vertical, with an angle of 97 degrees the vehicles plunge to be caught by the track and directly being catapulted into a vertical loop. This element literally frames the other three inversion looking from the longside of the ride. After the loop a clearly laid out track follows. On the one hand it lacks creativity, but nevertheless it offers a balanced and varied experience. The two heartline spins, placed in a height of 20 meters directly behind each other, convey an intense feeling of altitude, and the two helices aren´t mean with positive g-forces. On entering the first one the g-forces reach a momentary maximum of five times the acceleration of gravity.

. Test rides at the Gerstlauer factory (pictures and video clip) .

Typhoon takes the place of the Schwarzkopf Looping Star who put his riders upside-down for 24 years. The optical appearance is pretty futuristic: The small rocket toboggans glide through the cool look of the steel construction, and the station looks like a control center. On the third of April this rocket ride will start into its first season.

Picture: Universal Orlando

Regarding the selection of the location Universal treads new paths for the first time: The attractions use the buildings of known dark rides: In Hollywood Steven Spielberg´s E.T. had to move out of the soundstage, in Orlando it was the colossal King Kong with its Tram ride. Especially the location in Florida comes along with the best qualifications for the roller coaster part: As one of the largest soundstages in the world, it has a footprint of 6500 square meters and is 17 meters high. The storyline with the pre show and the show rooms are identical at both parks while the track layout varies slightly.

Universal doesn´t reveal much, only that Revenge of the Mummy will overshadow every existing ride: 80 million US-Dollars have been invested into both versions. Whether those grandiose promises will correspond to reality or not can be checked in Orlando from the middle of May and in Hollywood from the middle of June.

Dragon's Fury cars spin above a themes area Picture: cwoaguide.com

The spinning coasters from Munich-based company Maurer Söhne are well known as the compact SC2000 from traveling fairs as well as from Phantasialand where Winja´s Fear & Force rotate their passengers around their own axis for two years now. The last two rides are peppered with numerous special effects like vertical lifts, see-saw elements or dropping track segments, and so they are two of the technically most sophisticated coasters in Europe. For the British park operator Tussauds this was reason enough to built two customized rides in two of their English destinations.

One is heading towards Alton Towers, the park with the first B&M coaster in Europe, the second towards Chessington World of Adventure in the south-west of London. Both spinning coasters are about 450 meters long, up to 18 meters high and offer totaly different track layouts.

Spinball Whizzer orients to the theme of a gigantic pinball machine. The car with its passengers becomes an oversized ball that aims at numerous targets. The highlight of the compact layout is an arrangement of two interlocking halfpipe turns, at whom the car goes up a steep face, makes a turn high in the air and glides down again, out of the 80 degrees steep and 12 meters high element that causes a directional change. The entries and exits of those figures are arranged parallel, so there will surely be many encounters between the cars.

Spinball Whizzer has a very compact design

Picture left: towerstimes.co.uk - picture right: Alton Towers

Logo: Hershey Park

A coaster train races through large parts of Hershey Park like a whirlwind and even iteracts with three existing attractions. The adventure on the rectangular, 792 meters long layout lasts for only 60 seconds, but it will create a steady adrenalin rush for sure.

Storm Runner is the logical successor of the Intamin Rocket Coasters Xcelerator and Top Thrill Dragster, uniting horizontal launch and Top Hat with novel and newly arranged inversions. The well-known hydraulic launch system was adjusted to a top speed of 115 kilometers per hour and it catapults the projectile into the familiar but slightly modified Top Hat element within two seconds. The entry and exit are now arranged at right angles. But this 46 meters high element is just the beginning. Three inversions that can hardly be defined in places follow. One begins like a huge vertical loop and ends in a banked curve - the train positively dives into the depth. One Barrel Roll and the novel Flying Snake Dive complete this arrangement.

Two trains operate on the track that is over so fast that the designers chose a twin loading station with a switch to prevent the trains from blocking themselves in the station. Unlike at the first two Rocket Coasters the riders here will be secured by an over the shoulder restraint. Storm Runner will open on Mai 8th at Hershey Park, Pennsylvania, the amusement park run by the Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Company which emerged from the Hershey Food Corporation in 1927.

Right: Four back-to-back camelbacks

Until last year, Wild- und Freizeitpark Klotten was a white spot on the coaster map. In 2004 everything is different: The "hot trip" through the volcano will open to the public at a park that to date has only put its money on larger game and amusement devices. Even a look at the plans shows the dimensions of the project: The 532 meters long Gerstlauer roller coaster is only the beginning. In 2005 a themed gastronomy is due to open in a huge stylized volcano, one year later a log flume with two drops and a backwards section is supposed to complete the project. The whole point is that both rides will be embedded in an artificial landscape made of natural stone.

In the second half of 2003 a pasture of 150 times 75 meters, located high above the Moselle valley, was transformed into a rocky terrain with ravines, tunnels and lakes. The rock faces are up to six meters high and form a canal that is only three meters wide in places. In one part this canal is shared by the coaster and the log flume: The cars of the coaster negotiate some bunny humps while the boats of the water ride swim calmly underneath. Next to this breathtaking interaction of water, steel and rock the track of the only 20 meters high roller coaster offers ingenious ride combinations. The second drop, implemented as a spiral, high speed curves close to the ground with directional changes next to the steep face, four successive bunny humps inside the rock ravine, helices and a tunnel - the ride guarantees for entertaining fun.

The "hot trip" through the vulcano has a classic start: Lift hill, rolling first drop and two mouse curves - all of this at a dizzy height. But then the design positively plays with the technically feasible and the appeal of an artificially designed landscape made of natural stone. Slowly, almost at walking speed the car enters a helix leading downwards. Suddenly the decline increases, the car is almost put vertical when the track banks by 81 degrees to the side and goes down... The vehicle negotiates one and a half turns within a height difference of 11 meters. This helix with a diameter of only nine meters offers a quite unusual drop whose proportions are unparalelled. Panorama of the volcano and the magnificent helix The car races towards a steep face of natural stone, negotiates a curve and nestles into the rock as if only this evasive manoeuvre could avert the collision. Close to the ground the vehicle rushes through a narrow, twisting valley. It can only go on like this - steel and rock form a breathtaking combination, and Nemesis at Alton Towers seems to send its regards. But the manoeuvres at Klotten are a lot tighter due to the single cars, the rock faces are closer and there are track elements that would not be negotiable with a coaster train. The ride keeps the action to the very end - the grand finale consists of another helix and a 180 degrees turn through a tunnel. Almost nobody took notice of this coaster during its construction, but it could become a real highlight in Germany. It will start its operation on April 1st at Wild- und Freizeitpark Klotten. It can be hoped that it will bring the appropriate amount of visitors towards the park near Koblenz, a little south of the famous Nürburgring, and that it finds the appreciation it deserves. The pictures are copyrighted by Ingenieurbüro Lambert / Wild- und Freizeitpark Klotten.