Cedar Point announced details Tuesday morning of its reengineered Top Thrill Dragster. It turned out, however, that the big reveal promised for weeks, already had been spoiled by an early, accidental — and accurate — release during the weekend.
Yes, the new ride at the Sandusky, Ohio, amusement park would be called “Top Thrill 2.” Yes, the three “V”s in “revvved” represented something significant, a ride with three launches. And yes, some fans expressed excitement, while others were simply unimpressed.
In effect, the park’s hydraulically launched steel roller coaster will do something deliberately, that previously, riders experienced only when something had gone wrong, a “rollback,” or seemingly weightless, backwards fall from 420 feet.
World record holder, again
The original Top Thrill Dragster was the first strata coaster, known as any roller coaster eclipsing a height of 400 feet. The second, Kingda Ka, at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, opened two years later. It was taller, 456 feet, and faster, 128 mph.
The triple launch for the reengineered ride, however, means that Top Thrill 2 will last longer than before — nearly two minutes — and will become a new, roller coaster record-holder. Kingda Ka launches riders just once with no backwards free fall.
The announcement, which turned out to be somewhat of a letdown to some because it confirmed what fans had already uncovered, was leaked in advance. Some fans already deduced Cedar Point had partnered with Zamperla Rides to design the “new experience” and use its Lightning trains to add to the ride’s speed and comfort.
New ride, new criticism
One fan commented on social media that it seemed like Cedar Point took the original ride, which was shut down in 2021 after a Michigan woman was seriously injured by a falling hunk of metal, and combined it with another popular ride, the Wicked Twister, which was also retired in 2021.
It was some said, as if those two coasters had a baby.
Others wondered why Cedar Point didn’t make the ride a few feet taller or a few mph faster.
Still, the park claimed “it will once again redefine roller coaster innovation in 2024 with the debut of Top Thrill 2, the world’s tallest and fastest triple-launch strata roller coaster,” which would put riders “in the driver’s seat for one of the greatest races of all time.”
Cedar Point is known for thrill rides that have broken records. It is home to the first coaster more than 200 feet tall, the Magnum XL-200 hyper coaster; the first more than 300 feet tall, the Millennium Force giga coaster; and the first more than 400 feet tall, the former Top Thrill Dragster strata coaster.
The park also used the announcement to sell a limited-time, $99 Gold Pass for next year which it said would allow holders to “take repeat laps” on the new ride. And it began selling Top Thrill 2 merchandise, which some thrill seekers said seemed too soon, but also acknowledged in line with other coaster reveals.
Another ‘scream machine’
And, despite the criticism, the park touted the ride as new and unique.
“Top Thrill 2 will be the boldest and most advanced roller coaster Cedar Point has ever introduced,” Carrie Boldman, the park’s vice president and general manager, said. “It’s another one-of-a-kind that could only be built at Cedar Point.”
Riders, the park said, will peel out at 74 mph, and race to the top of the tower, which is often called the top hat, and rollback, something that would occasionally and unintentionally happen on the original ride. Many riders, over the years, said that was something they wished would happen and could experience.
Next, the roller coaster, which Zamperla called a “scream machine,” will launch riders at 101 mph.
And then for a third, and final, launch, riders will go at 120 mph, which will put them over the top hat, and then zoom into a 270-degree spiral and almost straight down as they race toward the end of the ride and the Top Thrill finish line.
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.
