Shockwave
Specific Type: Double Loop
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It all started with simple roller coaster at a park in California called Magic Mountain, now known as Six Flags Magic Mountain. That coaster, Revolution, soon changed the world. It was simple in design, but radical in purpose. It was the first modern coaster to negotiate a vertical loop during its course. Soon, looping coasters, as they were called, began popping up everywhere. Arrow dynamics came out with their Corkscrew design soon after the opening of Revolution. Anton Schwarzkopf soon realized that he would have to up the ante. It was blatantly obvious that the next step in the evolutionary ladder of looping coasters was the double loop. Coincidentally the company that would buy Revolution and its home park, Magic Mountain, would be the next to stop at Schwarzkopf's doorstep. Six Flags wanted a big coaster for both of there parks in Texas and Georgia. It was soon decided that both would receive double loopers, Shockwave at Six Flags over Texas would open first. It would also be the only one of the two to feature two consecutive vertical loops. It was to be first in the world, but Arrow had beaten Schwarzkopf to the punch and had built there scratch double looping coaster at Geauga Lake. A very special note about the coaster is its special track structure. It uses common round blue supports, but it has a Riddler green box track similar to the track on Intamin SLCs and some track sections on Intamin mega coasters. The only other coaster to sport this special track scheme is Shockwave's special brother Mind Bender at Six Flags over Georgia.
Riders enter the station from the left and prepare to board the train. The train itself is seven cars long, each car holding four people in a two by two arrangement as in all first generation Schwarzkopf trains. The trains have large headrests, which are needed because of the g-forces on the ride. If you do not keep your head back against the rest then the forces of the loops will threaten to bend you into a pretzel around your shared lap bar. After the riders board the train it proceeds through a forty foot long section of transfer track and up onto the lift hill. The lift hill takes the train slowly up 116 feet into the air. As the train crests the lift it slows down drastically and crawls over the top into a swooping 180 degree turn. The coaster climbs back up nearly to the full height of the lift and drops down the green track (blue supports, formerly blue track and blue supports) and into the first of the two consecutive loops. Forces of equivalent to 5.9 times gravity are experienced while negotiating the first loop and the second loop only slightly less intense. The coaster then climbs into another swooping turn that brings it around the right side of the station. The coaster drops down level with the ground and zooms back up into yet another swooping 180 degree turn. This turn takes it over the track just past the station and through the center of a go-kart track. It dips once and up and into a diving 45 degree turn to the left followed by a 225 degree turn to the right to line back up with the station. One more quick dip under the overpassing track and into an extremely long brake run, designed so that the coaster could handle three trains as do most of Schwarzkopf larger portable coasters. |
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