Specific Type: Invertigo
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In the world of roller coasters, there is one company that is known for its mass production of roller coaster models. That company is none other than Vekoma International of the Netherlands. Their coasters have seen many installations around the world from the well-known boomerang to the inverted standard looping coasters seen at many Six Flags Parks. In 1999 the people at Paramount turned to Vekoma for something new to add to their Kings Island facility. The ride needed to have a decent capacity, but also be thrilling at the same time. Vekoma responded with their Invertigo coaster, which is like the typical boomerangs but with an inverted twist. This wasn’t Paramount’s first venture into the Invertigo design. They had purchased one the year before and installed it at Paramount’s Great America as Invertigo. Face/Off, now known as Invertigo, made its home in the Action Zone section of PKI as an anchor of the new area along with Drop Zone, and opened in the spring of 1999. The ingenious face-to-face seating used on the Invertigo models makes this ride even more fun, because you get to witness the look on the other passenger’s faces. Invertigo rips through 985-feet of yellow track in one minute and thirty seconds executing three inversions along the way, both forwards and backwards, or vice versa depending on which direction is first.
Guest make their way to the loading zone and twenty-eight passengers board the train after choosing whether to face forwards or backwards for the first part of the ride. The lift pulls the train out of the station and up a steep first lift to a 137-foot high summit. Once to the top, the train is held for awhile and then the train releases. The train reaches a speed of 55-mph by the bottom. The Vekoma trains speeds through the station and riders enter the Cobra Roll and fly upwards; flipping over the first half with a Sidewinder maneuver, leveling, and then taking on the second 90-degree inversion in reverse order. Once at the bottom, passengers are then flung upwards again with the traditional up-and-over leg-flinging action. The orange rails head upwards again and the speed wears off before the ride engages on a second chain to tow the train up a second 14-story slope meeting the first at the top. The chain releases and the speed is once again unleashed. The train is whipped through the loop again, this time with the full five-g's being pulled, and then the Cobra Roll inverts the train twice more and sends the coaster back through the station. Flying back up the first ascent, the speed wears out as the catch car grabs the train and riders are lowered back into the station. |
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