Specific Type: Iron Horse, Hybrid Coaster
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Mean Streak is dead, but nobody is sad. It is a rare thing for a ride to close down and have a gleeful and enthusiastic reaction from coaster enthusiasts. This closure signaled something big, something ambitious, something that people had been clamoring about for years… RMC was coming to Cedar Point. The Mean Streak Iron Horse conversion would take two years to complete. Ever since RMC first introduced this type of technology, that would take an old wooden coaster and change it into a steel hybrid in 2011 the question was immediately asked, “ When will they do this to Mean Streak?” In 2018 Cedar Point fans from all over finally got their wishes, and Mean Streak will now be known as Steel Vengeance. Steel Vengeance would take what RMC had done in the past and push it up to a whole new level. When the ride opened it had a list of firsts and superlatives so long even the most vocal enthusiast couldn’t read it in one breath. The park is calling it the world’s first hyper hybrid, but the first don’t stop there. It opened as the tallest, fastest, longest, steepest, most inversions on a hybrid coaster. The ride also features a twisted snake dive, a brand new inversion where the train will go halfway through a barrel roll, stall upside down for a moment and then roll back out in the opposite direction. However that isn’t all, it also opened with the most cumulative amount of airtime on any coaster in the world at 27.2 seconds. Cedar Point may have made its fans wait, but they delivered a massive engineering feat.
Steel Vengeance will give guests a compelling reason to visit the Frontier Town section of the park where Maverick has been the undisputed king for many years now, but finally a challenger has arrived. The ride has three trains each named after a character in its lore; Jackson “Blackjack” Chamberlain, Chess “Wild One” Watkins and Wyatt “Digger” Dempsey. These three outcasts are back in Frontier Town to try and reclaim their place in the hearts of the guests. Guests are greeted at the entrance to the queue by a large rock formation with the Steel Vengeance sign chained to it. Before guests can saddle up and ride they will have to make there way through the structure of the ride towards the station. All the while the trains will be racing by around them adding to the anticipation. Once guests choose their seat and the ride is dispatched it meanders around to the right slow at first, but then it picks up some speed and a few bunny hops let riders know this is about to get real, even before the train climbs the 205 foot tall lift hill. At the top riders will have a clear scenic view of Lake Erie, but that tranquil view will not last. The train dives down the 90 degree vertical drop reaching a maximum speed of 74 MPH. The train doesn’t stay low to the ground for long and soon riders are facing skyward as they negotiate a massive hill. The train races back down the other side and then into another hill, but this one has an outer banked turn. Riders are launched out to the left as the train turns and drops to the right. The train bounds over a small bunny hop at the bottom but then climbs towards the first inversion a 450 degree barrel roll. This roll goes all the way around and keeps going leaving riders on their sides and the train carves its way through a sharp turn cutting under the lift hill. The track stays high and goes into an overbanked turn, it swoops towards the right and heads into the wooden structure. Riders are tossed into the twisted snake dive as the track descends through the wooden structure. The track dives low and bumps along a few changes in elevation before climbing up to the block brake. The train coasts though the straight track and then banks left and dives for the ground passing under some wooden supports. The track twists and bounds over a small airtime hill, then it veres up and to the right, but without warning jooks, and dives down and to the left cutting through the structure. The train careens into an overbank turn as wooden supports fly by, and then into a zero-G roll before bursting out of the structure. The train soars over two camelback hills before going right back into the dense wooden maze. The train negotiates another overbanked turn before going through the final inversion a barrel roll in the opposite direction. The train continues to roar through the structure and into another overbanked turn before making it back out into the open. The train jumps over a series of bunny hops, and finally into the brake run. Do not underestimate this classic looking wooden frame, those rust colored rails are brand new and this is no longer mean, but it is back with a vengeance. |
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