RMC has sumthin’ up its sleeve

A roundup of coaster news from Six Flags Over Georgia, Dorney Park, and RMC

Summer’s fleeting days will soon be over. Take advantage of my end-of-the-season About Theme Parks special offer. Until Labor Day, get 25% off an annual paid subscription. That’s $45, or less than the cost of admission to most parks, for a whole year of About Theme Parks. That comes out to $3.75 per month, less than the price of a churro or a box of popcorn. Get bonus content, and support quality journalism (ahem, that’s me) by subscribing now. Thanks for your consideration!

The end of the season typically brings a flurry of announcements about what will be coming to parks next year. This August is no different. Let’s review some recent reveals about new coasters, starting with a wet and wild humdinger from Six Flags Over Georgia.

Six Flags makes a splash

At last week’s Coaster Fest event, the park shared the news that it would be opening a first-of-its-kind “Ultra Surf” coaster. On its Web site, it indicates the new ride would be an “Ultra Splash” coaster. Regardless, both refer to the type of Intamin shuttle ride, and not its in-park name, which SFOG says fans will be able to help identify through a voting campaign to be announced.

Six Flags Over Georgia made a splash with its recent 2024 announcement. (Six Flags)

Here’s the deal on the splashtastic coaster. A 24-passenger boat-like train will be propelled both forwards and backwards using LSM-powered magnetic launches on a 590-foot, U-shaped track with 144-foot-tall spikes on either end. It will reach a top speed of 60 mph as it navigates an airtime hill (backwards-facing airtime is a relatively rare, out-of-your-seat treat) and a splash pool.

The vehicle will resemble a surfboard (with SeaWorld Orlando’s Pipeline, surfing-themed coasters are apparently having a moment), and its two, outward-facing rings of seats will freely spin, giving passengers a disorienting ride experience. Each of the four times it passes over the splash pool, riders will experience a different water effect, including a wild-sounding water vortex tunnel. The water effects will be designed to soak both passengers and spectators, although SFOG says that it will be able to tone down the splashing on colder days.

The new model would seem to be a combination of Intamin’s Surfrider models, such as Avatar Airbender at Nickelodeon Universe in Minnesota (although with the thrills cranked up to something more like Intamin’s Impulse coasters such as Steel Venom at Minnesota’s Valleyfair), married to a Mack Rides PowerSplash, such as Aquaman: Power Wave at Six Flags Over Texas. As with all shuttle coasters, the new one at Six Flags Over Georgia may suffer from low capacity and long wait times, given its one-car, 24-passengers-at-a-time operation.

You can get a sense of the ride from this Intamin video.

In other Six Flags news, construction has finally gone vertical on Kid Flash Cosmic Coaster, the P’Sghetti Bowl family ride from Skyline attractions that is supposed to open this year at the Georgia park and Fiesta Texas. At this point, the debut of both of the rides may be delayed to hype the the 2024 season.

Dorney Park: What a dive

It’s been awhile (2005, to be exact) since Dorney Park in Pennsylvania opened a brand new coaster. In 2024, however, it will debut Iron Menace, a B&M Dive Coaster. Unlike the more extreme Dive Coasters out there, such as the 81 mph, 245-foot-drop Yukon Striker at Canada’s Wonderland, Iron Menace will have a somewhat more subdued 152-foot-drop and a top speed of 64 mph. It will also forego the panoramic carousel turn at the top of the lift hill that is a feature on most Intamin Dive Coasters.

For the uninitiated, the trains on Dive Coasters teeter over the edge of a precipice for what seems like an eternity before releasing into a 90-degree-or-beyond first drop. In the case of Iron Menace, it will be a hairy 95-degree drop. The course will also include a zero-G roll and three other inversions. Using the tag line “Forge your own fate,” the coaster will capitalize on Pennsylvania’s steel mill heritage and include a backstory about a greedy, evil steel baron.

No bull, Moose coasters on the way

The coaster disruptors at RMC are at it again, this time developing a Wild Mouse-style family ride with its trademark I-Box track it is calling–wait for it–Wild Moose. No 2024 (or beyond) installations of the rides have been announced for any parks; at this point, the company just revealed the concept.

Boasting a compact footprint, RMC is pitching the ride as a replacement for Wild Mouse coasters that are showing their age (of which there are many). Unlike a traditional Wild Mouse, which generally features a single car, Wild Moose would have a six-car train, with each low-slung car seating two passengers. That would enable a significantly higher capacity than the mousy rides RMC hopes to replace. Despite the longer train, the new coasters would include signature Wild Moue craziness, with tight turns and a twisted, almost physics-defying layout.

The twisted layout of RMC’s Wild Moose coaster. (Rocky Mountain Construction)

The coasters would use a tire-drive system instead of a traditional chain lift to start the wild ride. The stats that RMC released for its new ride model are a height of 47 feet, a top speed of 35 mph, and a length of 1,260 feet. The company says that the wonky layout is inspired by its “pre-lifts,” the little hills and barely banked turns that it inserts between the loading station and the lift hill on many of its coasters (such as Twisted Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Should RMC or a park that purchases one of the new coasters be looking for a spokesperson, I have a suggestion.

---

What do you think about the mashup splash coaster coming to Six Flags Over Georgia? Are you a fan of Dive Coasters like the one planned for Dorney Park? Wouldn’t Bullwinkle Moose be a perfect rep for RMC’s new coaters?