Six Flags Magic Mountain
August 19th, 1999
S T A T S
| Six Flags Magic Mountain August 19th, 1999 S T A T S |
I was impressed by the glassy ride, but even more impressed that yet another diving loop sat right in front of me as we negotiated that bad boy and the world turned upside down again, righting itself and then we were zipping towards yet another inversion. I actually found myself begging for mercy as we flew into the unique oblique loop, sort of loop on its side, and then charged away towards the park's Skycoaster. Man, this is a lot of coaster! I thought as we plunged down into a pit and hit that last corkscrew, this one providing a healthy kick in the seat of our pants as the trains finally roared around into the station. For a stand-up coaster, heck--for just about any type of coaster, this is a genuine masterpiece of a ride and the B&M guys should be commended for besting themselves once again, something they seem to make a habit of. The front row ride was amazing, but the back row delivers a few stinging surprises of its own and nowhere, not once, do you get your ears slammed against the restraints. A true winner, and a beautiful coaster design on top of that. We spent the rest of the day riding old faves and then called it an early night in order to rest up for our trip to Buena Park. There, we'd hit a ride that has a lot of enthusiasts drooling.
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig. I spent a year of my life working at Six Flags Magic Mountain on a bevy of rides including Metro, Jet Stream, Freefall and the Psyclone, Ninja and Colossus rollercoasters. Without all of that biased background, it's still, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful Six Flags parks due to its mountainous setting and lush greenery, which has grown even thicker since the last time that I saw it. After driving down S.R. 138 (dubbed "Deathtrap Highway") into the Santa Clarita Valley, I felt a sense of homecoming as we traipsed down Magic Mountain Parkway and drove into the parking lot. Awaiting us there was a nifty surprise.
The park is already assembling its newest coaster for the year 2000. Rumours have called it "The Y2K Coaster", but beyond all of that--it's certain that it will be a hyper-coaster, meaning no loops--just a lot of intense drops and speed. As we drove towards our rendezvous point, we were delighted to discover acres of freshly painted orange track and blue supports sitting out there for our perusal. Signs warned not to take pictures, which is why you aren't seeing any here, but the cranes were already in action, shoring up supports adjacent to the mighty Colossus.
We met up with Erica, our PR coordinator, and headed into the park, laughing and trading stories about my old days as a ride operator. But the subject soon turned to the newest addition to the SFMM roster of rollercoasters--Riddler's Revenge. We couldn't help it, really. Not with the bright green track looming over us some 156 feet in the air. I was astounded by the sheer size of it--there was a lot of track and a whole lot of elements taking place, but since the park wasn't open yet, I had no time to witness a train making its rounds before I found myself standing in the front row with a paralyzed grin on my face.
Edward Nygma's experiments have resulted in a machine that can make you lose your mind, and the guys from B&M have topped themselves again with an amazing coaster. I was prepared for the vicious onslaught of a Mantis, that diabolical beast of a stand-up coaster at Cedar Point in Ohio, but this would prove to be a much smoother and serpentine creation. Upon ascending the lift, I was afforded a better look at the track layout, which seemed spacious and almost leisurely in its pacing of elements. Cresting the lift, the train dove to the left and picked up speed, 65 m.p.h. and into the yawning first inversion, a world-record setting loop of 124 feet high. We hung in that big puppy for a while, instead of slamming through, which offered up some delicious airtime. Then, a graceful arc and a picking up of speed that brought us into a diving loop.
As we switched back in a right turn and approached the mid-course brakes, I was astounded to see that we still had so much more left to experience--how long was this ride anyway? 4,370 feet to be exact, and we weren't done yet--not by a longshot. Happily, there was no trim-brake engagement and we rocketed forward into the first of two 150-foot long barrel rolls. Again, the smoothness impressed the hell out of me, but the intensity remained high as we banked hard to the left and zipped over a nice air-time inducing camel hump before crawling around in a semi-circle to the right and diving down again.