El Toro (roller coaster)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| El Toro | |
 El Toro, with Kingda Ka in the background |
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| Location | Six Flags Great Adventure |
|---|---|
| Park Section | Plaza Del Carnaval |
| Type | Wood |
| Status | Open |
| Opened | June 11, 2006 |
| Manufacturer | Intamin AG |
| Designer | Werner Stengel |
| Model | Wooden Coaster (Prefabricated Track) |
| Track layout | Hybrid Out and Back/Twister |
| Lift/launch system | Cable lift hill |
| Height | 188 ft (57.3 m) |
| Drop | 176 ft (53.6 m) |
| Length | 4400 ft (1341.1 m) |
| Max speed | 70 mph (112.7 km/h) |
| Inversions | 0 |
| Duration | 1 min. 43 sec. |
| Max Vertical Angle | 76 degrees |
| Capacity | 1500 riders per hour |
| Height Restriction | 48 in (121.9 cm) |
| El Toro at RCDB | |
| Pictures of El Toro at RCDB | |
El Toro is a wooden roller coaster at Six Flags Great Adventure. It opened to the public June 11. It was designed by Intamin AG of Switzerland. It has the steepest drop of any wooden roller coaster in the world, at 76 degrees. It is the third tallest (188 ft) and third fastest (70 MPH) wooden roller coaster in the world. It is also the first wooden roller coaster to use a cable lift hill instead of the traditional chain lift. Because of the extreme negative g-forces (airtime) on the ride, the lap-bar restraints are very tight, causing some problems for older riders.
El Toro is the main attraction of a new Mexican-themed section, Plaza Del Carnaval. Some of the ride's track is located in Rolling Thunder's infield. It is the steepest lifted (as opposed to launched) roller coaster in the park.
Contents |
[edit] Construction
El Toro is very different from a traditional wooden roller coaster because it is a prefabricated wooden roller coaster. This means that instead of trackers cutting, shaping, and laying down the track on site by hand, the track is laser cut in a factory. This means that the track is manufactured to a higher degree of precision than could ever be achieved by hand. The track is also made so that it snaps together like Lego pieces. The track also is made of more layers of wood that are tightly bonded together instead of nailed together by hand like a traditional wooden roller coaster. This has three major benefits, two being to the park and the other being to the riders. The "Plug and Play" aspect of the coaster speeds construction of the coaster since track does not have to be completely manufactured on site. In addition, because of the speed of construction, the costs of building the coaster are lowered due to less manhours spent on the construction. The riders benefit from a coaster, that while being wooden, is near steel smooth. Some roller coaster enthusiasts may find that aspect to take away from the ride since it would not have the same character as a traditional wooden roller coaster though. El Toro is the first Intamin AG "Plug and Play" wooden roller coaster in the United States. The other two are Colossos at Heide Park in Germany and Balder at Liseberg in Sweden.
[edit] The ride
El Toro's lift is unique not only in that it is the only cable lift on a wooden coaster, but in that it is also the only cable lift that does not lift the train directly out of the station. On other cable lifts, the catch-car attaches to the train while it is in the station, then pulls it out of the station and up the lift. On El Toro, this system was not possible because of the turn before the lift. Instead, there is a flat section before the lift with a large number of drive tires that initially push the train up the lift. Once the first car of the train is past the catch-car, the cable begins moving and the catch-car locks onto the first car. As soon as the entire train is on the lift, the cable accelerates to its full speed of 13.5 MPH. At this speed, it takes about 15 seconds for the train to reach the top of the lift. The cable slows down slightly as the train crests the lift, but this is barely noticeable on the ride. The cable continues to pull the train until the entire train is over the top of the lift.
El Toro has several similarities to Viper, the coaster that it replaced. The most obvious similarity is that El Toro uses Viper's station, the only part of Viper that was not torn down. The station previously held two Viper trains at once, with a loading platform in the front and an unloading platform in the rear. The ramp that was previously Viper's main exit is now used only for wheelchair access, as El Toro has a new exit on the other side of the station. During El Toro's construction, the station was gutted and an entirely new platform built. Like El Toro, Viper turned left out of the station before the lift hill and turned left at the top of the lift before the first drop. El Toro's entrance uses an iron arch that is very similar to the one used for Viper's entrance, but a good deal wider.
El Toro's on-ride camera is located at the bottom of the second drop. It takes a single, vertically oriented picture of each of the 6 cars. Riders intending to purchase their photo are advised to sit in the front row of any car. It sometimes flashes when a train is on the lift, probably to warm up.
[edit] Trains and station
El Toro has two trains, each seating 36 passengers (3 rows of 2 passengers per car, 6 cars per train), the second longest trains in the park. El Toro has a capacity of 1500 guests per hour, 100 more than Kingda Ka. The trains are simply known as "Train A" and "Train B". Train B is a darker shade of brown than Train A. The trains have padded "wings" at shoulder level to prevent riders from being thrown too far to the side in the final twister section. These wings were originally made of plastic, but were replaced by much stronger metal ones after several of them broke in the middle of El Toro's opening season. A pair of the original plastic wings can still be found on the test seat.
El Toro's restraints are very sensitive, which can sometimes result in a car (or sometimes the entire train) being unlocked and re-checked because one of the restraints was not down far enough to allow the train to be dispatched. When El Toro first opened, this resulted in very long dispatch intervals, sometimes up to 5 minutes. This situation has improved greatly over time; it is now common for each train to be dispatched less than half a minute after the other train finishes its circuit.
El Toro's U-shaped lapbar restraints (a safer design than Intamin's usual T-shaped restraints) use a hydraulic locking system, which means they can be pushed down to any position, where they will stay. A ratchet-based restraint, in contrast, only locks at each notch and will often be too loose or uncomfortably tight. It also utilizes magnetic brakes - the brake fins are mounted to the underside of the train and the braking magnets are mounted to the track.
El Toro is unusual in that, because of space restrictions, it does not have a garage for its trains. Instead, it has a single open-air storage track, and the other train is stored in the station. When on the storage track, the train rests on its upstop wheels (the wheels that run under the track to keep it from flying off) rather than its main wheels. This allows for easier maintenance of the main wheels.
[edit] Height Restriction Notes
Despite predictions by some park employees that the height restriction would be 54 inches, Six Flags, Intamin, and the state of New Jersey determined that the height restrictions would be 48 inches. This comes as no surprise because virtually every wooden roller coaster has a height restriction of no higher than 48 inches (some even lower). The only restriction on a wooden roller coaster of 54 inches and higher is on Cyclone at Six Flags New England.
[edit] Test seat
El Toro recently received a test seat, located in the entrance plaza, a welcome addition because of the restraint system's sensitivity to "guests of exceptional size", now referred to as "guests of unique body shapes" due to political correctness. The test seat (which is actually two seats) is an exact replica of the front row of one of the cars. It has fully functional, hydraulic-locking restraints, identical to those on the trains. the seats of El Toro were not designed to support guests with waists greater than 36 inches, while with most other rides guests with waists 42 inches and up are put into a special seat which El Toro does not have.
In addition to the lapbar restraints, the test seat includes the seatbelts used on the ride. When fastened, they must be pulled tight enough so that the yellow line is visible. If they cannot be pulled this tight, the guest will not be able to ride.
The test seat is linked to the ride's control panel, on which the status of its restraints is displayed. This most likely serves no practical purpose, however.
The instruction sign above the test seat has a mistake on it. It says "The yellow stitch in the must be pulled through the buckle and be visible in order to ride", which should read "The yellow stitch in the seat belt must be pulled through the buckle and be visible in order to ride".
[edit] Firsts, records, and trivia
- First modern wooden coaster with a cable lift
- First cable lift on which the catch-car attaches to the train while it is in motion
- First prefabricated wooden coaster in the United States
- Steepest drop on a wooden coaster
- 3rd tallest and fastest wooden coaster in the world, behind Son of Beast and Colossos.
[edit] External links
- Channel 6 Action News Morning Team rides El Toro
- Roller Coaster Database entry El Toro Construction Tour Pictures
- CoasterSims- El Toro Construction Tour
- GadvUpdates- El Toro Construction Tour
- GAInsider- El Toro Construction Tour
- East Coast Coasters El Toro construction Tour Official
- Six Flags Great Adventure El Toro ride page
