Specific Type: Inverted Coaster
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The European coaster wars heated up on March 22nd, 2002 when Thorpe Park of Chertsey, England pulled the wraps off of Colossus, and with it the most inversions the world had ever seen on any single steel coaster - 10. But next year is when things will really be heating up at Thorpe Park, when March of 2003 sees the debut of Nemesis Inferno, a quadruple-looping steel inverted extreme ride from Bolliger and Mabillard and designer John Wardley. Although containing less than half of the inversions that the neighboring Colossus boasts, Nemesis Inferno will have its own bragging rights with having over 3,000 feet of blood-red track, a total of ten curves, and also the first Interlocking Corkscrew element to be seen on any single inverted coaster. But that's not all that sets this coaster apart from the rest... A heavily-themed ride setting will help to put the Inferno in Nemesis Inferno, with volcanic activity taking place around riders as they get whisked under the track, and diving right through a crater at one point. Also helping to add to the experience will be a unique 'pre-ride' taking place between the station and lifthill in which passengers slowly travel past the theming, through a tunnel, and around several curves, not knowing what to expect next. And with an additional Vertical Loop and Zero-G Roll totaling off the four inversions, Nemesis Inferno will be all that you could ask for for its maximum 95-foot height and 50-mile per hour top speeds.
Thorpe Park visitors enter the line for Nemesis Inferno in the park's Calypso Quay area and are taken deep into a fiery volcanic land. The queue twists and turns before it finally arrives in the station so that future riders can choose their seats on the inverted, floorless, 4-abreast train parked in the station. And after the 8 rows of the train are full, adventurers depart on their journey. A first diving U-turn to the right gets the ride moving out of the station, then the second half of an S-curve takes the train into a tunnel leading underneath the station building. The train rolls along in the darkness for a moment before exiting out and dipping down and around another banked S-turn. Nemesis Inferno ventures around one more turn, then it's onward to the lift hill at last. Passengers are transported from ground level to a moderate 95-foot lift crest where the train disengages from the chain and the real extreme ride begins. Nothing below riders' dangling feet, a first 180-degree swoop carries the coaster back down to the ground and into the start of a first loop taken at a velocity of 50 miles an hour. After completing 360 degrees of up, over, and down action, passengers are thrown up through the left-handed Zero-Gravity Roll, this time doing 360 in horizontal fashion. The track banks to complete a turnaround section before leading down to the start of the Interlocking Corkscrews. Flipping up towards the sky, the train completes the first Corkscrew, proceeded by a swooping U-turn and then the second Corkscrew and final inversion. The finale of the coaster takes passengers through a 315-degree spiral to the right, then a climbing Carousel Curve onto the brakes, on last turn taking the train past the transfer track and back to the station. The pressure is building, and it all erupts in March, 2003 when Nemesis Inferno blasts off at Thorpe Park. |
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