If you’re an amusement park fan, there’s no doubt that the “merger of equals” between Cedar Fair and Six Flags (forming the new Six Flags Entertainment Company) is the biggest news of the year, decade, and maybe of the 21st century so far. But for those of us who’ve been around long enough, the second biggest moment in the industry must be from 2006. That’s when Cedar Fair announced that they would purchase a five-park package – the “Paramount Parks” – from Viacom.
After an eighteen month phase-out of movie tie-ins, all five parks – Kings Island, Kings Dominion, Carowinds, Great America, and Canada’s Wonderland – opened in 2008 without the “Paramount’s” prefix that had long tied the parks to their movie studio overlords. And in true Cedar Fair fashion, theme was out and thrills came rushing in.
Cedar Fair spent about a decade primarily focused on building their speciality – big, bare, steel roller coasters – to dominate the skylines of the former Paramount Parks. At most, that came in the form of B&M “hypercoasters” – 200 foot tall, graceful, out-and-back airtime machines like Diamondback, Behemoth, and Intimidator. But at Kings Dominion, Cedar Fair had a different plan… Perhaps because its local competitor, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, already held a tight relationship with B&M (and indeed, was already anchored by a B&M hypercoaster called Apollo’s Chariot), the Virginia park went bigger. A lot bigger…
Intimidator 305
In 2010, Kings Dominion premiered Intimidator 305. Named after the nickname of NASCAR racing legend Dale Earnhardt, Intimidator 305 was born to be an icon. Think about it. When the ride opened, it was only the third gigacoaster (300+ foot drop) on Earth – and by nature of being Intamin’s second entry in the genre, the only sister ride to the company’s iconic Modern Marvel: Millennium Force.
But Intimidator wasn’t just a copy-paste of Millennium. Instead, it’s often said that Intimidator 305 was something of a hybrid between Millennium Force and Cedar Point’s legendary Maverick – a terrain-hugging Intamin blitz coaster that slaloms along the ground, tossing riders left and right like a buckin’ bronco. Rather than massive, soaring, sweeping maneuvers like Millennium, Intimidator 305 stayed low, rocketing through a course of winding turns and elongated leaps – a blinding speed run that seemed to shave not one molecule of speed along its 5,100 foot long course.
Now, in true Intamin fashion, it had its issues… For example, the ride’s 85°, 90 mile per hour first dive from a 305 foot height looked a lot like Millennium Force’s… but rather than using that momentum to soar into a massive second hill, Intimidator stayed low, tearing through a 270 helix. The maneuver was so intense, riders infamously found themselves momentarily losing consciousness or “graying out,” leading to a quick-fix neutering that reduced the ride’s top speed to 75, then a major reprofiling that turned the helix into a gradually rising turn.
And in true Cedar Fair fashion, it had some issues with theme. After all, the bare steel coaster named for a NASCAR legend was technically set down in the park’s “Congo” themed land… which, to be fair, was also home to an alien-abduction themed launch coaster and an Italian Job stunt chase roller coaster thanks to Paramount, so, y’know…
Still, Intimidator 305 put Kings Dominion on the map. As few would’ve imagined in the cinematic days under Paramount, the Virginia park now featured a genuinely world-class thrill ride – and indeed, one of the most intense coasters on the planet, tailor made for the era of the “Ride Warrior” and Cedar Fair’s emphasis on thrillseekers and teens. But Intimidator 305 is no more… at least, thematically…
