Takabisha
Specific Type: Euro-Fighter
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Capping off a stream of 6 coasters in just over a decade with the massive, imposing Eejanaika 4D coaster from Arrow, Fuji-Q Highland when very quiet on the coaster front for a number of years rounding out a collection of half family coasters and half high-profile and unique thrillers. On May 11 2011, Fuji-Q announced a new coaster that would more than make up for the 5-year drought. Dubbed Takabisha, which roughly translates to mean “high-handed” or “domineering” and puns the literal name “high fly car,” the new coaster would stand 141 ft tall, contain 7 inversions, and feature the world’s steepest drop at 121-degrees.
Built by Gerstlauer at a cost of around $30 million, Takabisha is a highly-customized Euro-Fighter model coaster, utilizing both a traditional lift hill and a LIM launch. Just two weeks before the coasters July 18th opening, Timber Drop at Fraispertuis City grasped the record of world’s steepest coaster when it opened with a 113.1-degree drop, but Takabisha stole it away for the 14th Guinness World Record set by Fuji-Q Highland. Facing a solid wall in the station, the train starts off its journey by immediately turning into a pitch black tunnel, completely eliminating every visual the rider may have to tell them where they’re going, or what direction they’re facing. Without warning, the track drops down very suddenly and begins to roll to the right, harder and harder and ultimately rolling the train completely upside down and around through an eerily slow barrel roll that rolls out to the left where light can be seen below. A small dip suddenly sends the train bursting forth as the train is propelled out of the darkness at 62 mph straight up into a massive and twisted inverted top-hat element that looks like a stretched and heightened corkscrew. Exiting the first inversion, the train is sent up through the unique “banana roll,” which is halfway between an inverted top hat tower and a cobra roll inversion that ultimately reverses the trains direction. The odd inversions don’t stop as the train immediately barrels into a “back-tracking” corkscrew – think a mixture of a vertical loop stretched sideways like a corkscrew. Rising to the left, the track suddenly changes direction as it twists back down to the right over a Stengl-dive inspired hill that is followed by a bunny hop into a short break run. Under cover, the train is turned around a lined up with the 141-foot sheer vertical lift hill. Slowly rolling over the top the train droops down over a short piece of 45-degree angled track that slows the train to an absolute crawl as it creeps gingerly towards the drop which, the bottom of which can be seen below but the track leading to it cannot. Suddenly, the brakes release and the track curls back under itself, inverting riders at 121-degrees down the unnerving drop. The track ahead then rises and rolls right, inverting the train before curving back down under itself through an immelman inversion that hurtles directly into an inside top-hat inversion that reverses the train yet again. One last immelman is followed by a low bunny hop that ends in the final brake run, ending the twisted 3,300 foot sensory overload. Takabisha is certainly not for the faint of heart, but that certainly didn’t stop a couple from exchanging their wedding vows on the coaster back in April of 2012. With a lift, a launch, a twisted set of non-standard inversions, and a 121-degree mid-course drop, Takabisha is certainly one of the most unique coasters created to date, following in the tradition of its predecessors: Fujiyama,Dodonpa, and Eejanaika. |
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