New Coaster Coming to Austin's Cotaland And Raging Waters Unveils New Drop Slide
New Coaster Coming to Cotaland at Circuit of The Americas
Ride Entertainment announced that Gerstlauer Rides GmbH will install “Palindrome” at Cotaland in Austin, Texas, the company’s first Infinity Shuttle roller coaster in the United States. Named after a word, phrase, or sequence that reads the same backward as forward, “Palindrome” will feature a 95-foot-tall vertical lift hill, a 1,230-foot-long track (2,080 feet when the ride is experienced both backward and forward), a top speed of 51 mph, two inversions, and a vertical “hop stall,” before riders experience the coaster again, but this time backward.
The “hop stall” on the ride’s vertical spike is a bump in the track that the trains roll over before coming to a stop at the top of the spike and pro-vides airtime to riders. The trains then roll back over the bump in reverse as they begin the backward journey over the course. Another unusual feature of “Palindrome” is that it will cross over a street with vehicles on it while the coaster is operating.
“Palindrome” will open in late 2022. Cotaland park is located at the Circuit of The Americas racetrack.
gerstlauer-rides.de, rideentertainment.com
Raging Waters to Launch ‘Bombs Away’
Raging Waters Los Angeles is excited about unveiling its brand-new drop slide, “Bombs Away,” when the California park opens for the 2022 season on May 1. Once riders reach the top of the ride’s six-story tower, they can choose between two experiences: an enclosed looping slide or an open vertical drop slide. In either case, riders step into an enclosed capsule and then, without notice, the floor under their feet drops away and sends them down either a six-story, 70-degree Aqua Drop in which they reach a top speed of up to 30 feet per second, or a twisting, turning loop through an enclosed, 325-foot-long tube, designed by ProSlide of Ottawa, Canada.
“We know our guests have been waiting to blast off in ‘Bombs Away’ since it was first announced in 2019,” said Roland Reyes, general manager of the water park, in a statement. “The slides’ debut was delayed by the COVID‑19 pandemic. These drops are over the top, and we are so excited for sliders to step in and see the ‘Bombs Away’ experience was worth the wait.”
