Roller Coaster Frenzie

Last week while traveling in California for Spring Break with my family I had the pleasure of taking everyone to Six Flags Magic Mountain. While my amazing wife looked after our “to short to ride” almost 5-year-old, Brandon (soon to be 9) and I took to the skies by way of steel superstructures and restraint bars. We did convince Catherine to ride The Viper but we didn’t capture it on video.
My son has turned into quite a coaster junkie. Over our last three visits to this park he’s ridden a total of 30 times between the 15 coasters in the park. Brandon doesn’t head for “kiddie land”, if you go to the park with him be prepared to experience everything the park can dish out in the way of maximum thrills. He’s ridden (from lowest thrill to biggest) Goldrusher, Ninja, Revolution, Colossus, Batman, The Riddler’s Revenge, Scream, Viper, Goliath, and Tatsu. On our next visit we’ve planned to round out the adventure by riding X2, and Deja Vu.

So, why all the talk about coasters? Because I have video! Using a Nikon Coolpix S51 point-and-shoot digital still camera in video capture mode I filmed our experiences on both The Viper and Goliath. Our friend Mariel Thomas rode Goliath with us. It was quite a ride. Check them out and let me know what you think! Below the video links you’ll find some interesting facts about these two coasters.

Goliath - Magic Mountain

Viper - Magic Mountain

Goliath

1. 7th tallest drop in the world at 255 ft (78 m)
2. Max speed is 85 mph (137 km/h)
3. 235 ft tall (72 m)
4. Max vertical angle 61 degrees
5. Max G Force: 4.0, Because this is sustained longer than on most roller coasters you can have a grayout or blackout if you don’t compress your stomach as you hit the double helix.

Viper

1. 7 inversions varying between loops, corkscrews, and a butterfly (some call it a pretzel)
2. Max speed is 70 mph (110 km/h)
3. 188 ft tall (57 m)
4. 171 ft drop (52 m)
5. Max vertical angle 50 degrees.
6. Max G Force: 4.1. Very short.. no grayout or blackout issues.
7. Holds the current world record for the highest 360 degree loop maxing out at 144 ft above ground.