When Top Thrill Dragster opened in 2003, it was the kind of project that only the boundary-pushing Swiss ride manufacturer Intamin could’ve conceived. Yep, three years after smashing through the 300-foot height barrier with the Modern Marvel: Millennium Force, Intamin returned to Ohio’s Cedar Point with an unfathomable ride to shatter the 400-foot height record, crafting the world’s tallest and fastest roller coaster.
Actually, Top Thrill Dragster was the second in Intamin’s “Accelerator” ride model (the first being Knott’s Berry Farm’s 205-foot tall Xcelerator). The ride infamously pushed to its limit the capabilities of the then-new technology of the hydraulic launch – basically, using highly-pressured hydraulics to rapidly spin a massive drum, reeling in a high-tension cable connected to the bottom of the ride vehicle.
Top Thrill Dragster’s hydraulic launch made the ride capable of not just incredible speed, but instantaneous acceleration – riders famously launched from 0 to 120 miles per hour in just four seconds. But the hydraulic system also had its pitfalls. The incredibly complex, pressurized process launching trains every 45 seconds or so left the ride subject to frequent downtime. And since it’s an inherently physical process (with a winch cable literally reeling and unreeling at jaw-dropping speeds over and over), the launch was subject to failure – as occurs when those cables snap or shred, sometimes injuring riders.
There’s no question that the original ride deserves its in-depth memorialization in our Lost Legend: Top Thrill Dragster feature… but there’s also no question that the ride was a massive albatross for every year of the two decades it operated. Ultimately, it was an accident seemingly unrelated to the ride’s launch that forced its closure and reimagining… And that’s where the worries began…
Questions and Answers
In August 2021, Top Thrill Dragster was closed. Cedar Point quickly acknowledged that the ride would be “SNBO” (standing but not operating) for the 2022 season. It came and went. It wasn’t until September 2022 that the park fessed up to the ride’s fate: “Top Thrill Dragster, as you know it, is being retired.” Of course, it was that little “as you know it” that became a glimmer in the eyes of fans.
Naturally, rumors of outlandish reimaginings, extensions, and rebuilds spread through Internet message boards. Friends of friends who worked at the Dippin’ Dot stand on the midway heard that the ride would have 30 feet added to its eight, stealing back the “world’s tallest roller coaster” crown from Six Flags’ near-twin, Kingda Ka. But more grounded fans focused on three significant questions: Which manufacturer would take lead on any inevitable reimagining? given that Cedar Fair’s relationship with Intamin had been on ice for years… What would they do about the troublesome, expensive hydraulic launch that almost certainly wouldn’t survive a rebuild? and How would Top Thrill Dragster crest its 420-foot tall top hat without it?
When the details of Top Thrill 2 were unveiled in August 2023, we got our answers.
It would be the unlikely Zamperla to take the job. The Italian ride manufacturer is far more known for their flat rides than their roller coasters, and the roller coasters they have built are largely of the family variety. But Zamperla put in a bid to reimagine Top Thrill Dragster as their first in a line of “Lightning” models they expect to bolster them into the big leagues of thrill ride manufacturers.
That answered the second and third questions, too. Zamperla would employ the much more standard and expected launch system du jour: linear synchronous motors (LSMs). Basically, LSM launches position dozens – even hundreds – of motors down the length of a ride’s track. The trains, meanwhile, are affixed with metal fins arranged to “skim” through narrow gaps in the motors. When supplied with electricity, the motors become electromagnets, drawing in the train’s fins and then repelling them out of motor after motor after motor.
LSM launches are fast (see Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Maverick, Revenge of the Mummy, Cheetah Hunt, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, and hundreds more around the globe)… but they’re not instantaneous reeling of a cable fast. They are, inherently, gradual accelerations, as each successive motor attracts-and-repels. Disney California Adventure’s Incredicoaster, for example, uses LSMs to travel from 0 to 55 miles per hour in four seconds – the same time frame in which Top Thrill Dragster’s hydraulic launch could reach its twice-as-fast top speed.
So as to how LSMs could propel the train over the top hat? Well… they couldn’t. At least, not in one go. Instead, Top Thrill 2 would turn Dragster’s runway into a multi-pass LSM launch, propelling the train forward to a top speed of 76 miles per hour (by our count, in about 8 seconds). That’d only be enough to get the train about halfway up the ride’s 420-foot tall tower. So the train would “roll back,” passing through the same LSM runway backwards, with the boost getting riders up to 101 miles per hour, blasting up a new “rear spike”. The train would stall out there, plummet down, and pass forward through the LSMs again, this time achieving the magic number of 120 miles per hour, making it over the top hat before spiraling back down to the finish line.
Okay, okay, LSMs would also make Top Thrill 2 “smart” in the sense that LSMs are computer-controlled and precise; they’re able to adjust power with nuance the way a chaotic, mechanical, hydraulic launch cant. They’re also – inherent in electromagnetism – powered by a non-contact force, meaning no friction, no cables, no frays, no water sprays to cool off overheated boosts, no shreds, no re-spooling of drums… just electricity!
But the elation of the ride’s survival melted for many with the disappointing premise of its whole selling point – a breathtaking, jaw-dropping, instantaneous acceleration creating one of the world’s most extreme ride experiences – being replaced with a more standard launch that you can find on lots and lots of coasters. Cedar Point’s promise that “now everyone will get to experience the thrill of a rollback” didn’t seem to make up for the disappointing idea that the train’s initial launch would barely make it halfway up the tower – a kind of fitting demonstration of just how pathetic LSMs were next to the old ride’s launch.
But man… The reviews are in… And what folks have to say is pretty hard to argue…
What We Gained
The newly-reborn Top Thrill 2 officially opened to the public on May 4, 2024 and to be clear, fans’ forum frustrations were quickly run over and flattened.
Reviews have been more or less unanimous. Top Thrill 2 definitely isn’t just a “lesser” version of Top Thrill Dragster. It’s also not a “return to form” or an equal substitute for the old experience. Nope. It’s actually a whole new ride that independently serves as one of the best roller coaster experiences on Earth. Cedar Point has effectively re-entered this ride into the Coaster Pantheon and created a new genre-defining experience.
That initial launch? Sure it doesn’t accelerate as quickly as Top Thrill Dragster’s. But turns out 0 to 75 is still a pretty major launch, and curving up into the ride’s vertical ascent with enough wherewithall and breath to actually appreciate it is kinda neat.
Rolling in and out of today on Top Thrill 2! @cedarpoint @TonyClarkCP #TopThrill2 #CedarPoint pic.twitter.com/NKqUe7Pcyc
— CP Rundown (@CPRundown) April 29, 2024
Oh, and then the rollback and second launch? It’s now apparent that accelerating backwards at 101 miles per hour is kind of awesome. In fact, that launch – and the pull-up into a new, 420-foot tall rear spike – basically encapsulate the entire experience of Six Flags Magic Mountain’s iconic Superman: Escape from Krypton… and on Top Thrill 2, it’s basically just an appetizer. After multiple seconds of floater air at the top of the spike – hovering over Power Tower – the ride falls as far as Millennium Force, vertically, like it’s nothing.
Then, after a near-miss “head-chopper” visual effect with the ride’s station, we get the full monty, 120-mile-per-hour race for the sky. And unlike Top Thrill Dragster – which tended to teeter atop the 420-foot tall top hat for a moment, appearing as if it might rollback (and indeed, sometimes doing so), Top Thrill 2’s electromagnetic launch crests the top hat with confidence – and a surprising pop of airtime as you gaze out across Lake Erie.
If you haven’t yet, be sure to watch this on-ride POV video of the Top Thrill 2 experience…
So sure, we’ve lost the “0 to 120” launch that defined the previous version of this ride… But in exchange, we’ve got three launches (including a 100 mph backwards one), a rear spike of floater air, and a minute-long ride (versus the original’s infamous 17 seconds). On paper, it’s easy to understand why fans would be frustrated about the reduced stats of the new ride’s acceleration… but in practice, this ride provides that same 120 mph launch and more. Unanimously, Top Thrill 2 is a winner that’ll be more reliable, more safe, and frankly, more extreme than its predecessor in many quantifiable ways.
If there’s one criticism to be had of the new Top Thrill 2, it surely comes down to policy. Cedar Point ruffled major PR feathers when – just weeks before the ride’s opening – they announced that their policies and procedures around it had changed. Apparently in consultation with Zamperla, the park decided at the last minute that Top Thrill 2 would follow in the footsteps of many RMC coasters, requiring riders to completely divest themselves of “carry-on items” – including phones, wallets, and eyeglasses – with such serious oversight that queueing guests pass through metal detectors.
There’s just one problem – unlike RMC rides, that often have free lockers located deep into ride queues and just before the station, the late decision from Cedar Fair and Zamperla unfortunately means that there was no time (and perhaps, no place) to build in-queue lockers. That means that – shucks! – practically every single rider will need to fork over a couple bucks to rent a locker outside of the ride’s entrance.
And then, will need to endure the multi-hour waits for this new headlining thrill without so much as the lines on their palms for entertainment (and even those will be hard to see if you didn’t bring or buy a glasses strap, since glasses also need left in a pre-queue locker. Oops). It gets worse for those in sandals or flip-flops, who will need to purchase a pair of shoes to enter the queue at all since strapped-on footwear isn’t allowed past the lockers.
Top Thrill Dragster hasn’t been the tallest or fastest roller coaster in the world for decades. But it remained a top 10 experience for its location, its intensity, and its guts. None of those factors are missing now. They’re just rearranged. So even as Cedar Point bills the ride as “the world’s tallest and fastest triple launch coaster,” leave the would-be records behind for a moment… instead, just know that this ride will leave you breathless in its own right.
