Wild Beast
Specific Type: Wooden
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Wild Beast at Canada's Wonderland in Vaughen, Ontario opened with the rest of the park in 1981 as Wilde Beast. The named changed to Wild Beast a few years later. The ride stands as the conqueror of the Medieval Faire section of the park, next to the Vekoma Boomerang Bat and the Arrow looping coaster, Dragon Fire. The ride opened together with Dragon Fire and its sisterMighty Canadian Minebuster. In 1982, Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia opened Grizzly, which is a clone of Wild Beast. Modeled after the defunct Wildcat at Coney Island in Cincinnati, Ohio, the ride stands at a prominent height of 82 feet, reaches screaming speeds of 56 MPH, and lasts for two minutes, thirty seconds over the 3,150 foot course.
The Medieval Faire area of the park can be found to the right of International Street. Entering the queue for Wild Beast, you get a good glimpse of Bat and the lift of Wild Beast. After walking up a small ramp, the loading platform is before you. You can choose one of fourteen rows of this coaster, two for each car with seven cars on both trains. After buckling your seatbelt and latching the restraining bar, the thumbs up is given and you slowly roll out of the sloped station. There is a U-Turn before the lift and a straightaway used for transferring tracks to the storage shed if the crowds are light or one of the trains needs maintenance. During the lift, instructions are being told to you from the speakers on the steel catwalk on the right, not normally seen on wooden coasters. Once passing under the "Do Not Stand Up" sign and next to the Canadian flag, you are released into oblivion. The 78 foot drop gives plenty of airtime as you turn slightly to the left and up into the first turnaround. This turn is taken very slowly to view a nice skyline of the rest of the park. But it doesn't last long enough because you are facing the ground again with a drop to two airtime hills, the latter having a roof over it. In comparison Grizzly's hill contains a tunnel instead of a roof. After the two hops, there is another turnaround taken at a faster speed then the first one, providing many lateral g forces. Then there are three more airtime bunny hops, the first one over the roof of the second air hill of the coaster. After another turnaround confined in the shadow of the first one, there are four more bunny hops which lead into the slanted final brake run. After exiting to the left, you are released into the Medieval Faire midway. |
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