Cedar Point unveils reimagined, 420-foot-tall Top Thrill 2 roller coaster after two-year closure
Cedar Point, the popular amusement park in northern Ohio, announced Tuesday morning that a reimagined version of its iconic Top Thrill Dragster ride will debut to thrill seekers next summer after the ride was forced to close.
It's been two years since roller coaster fanatics have been able to ride Top Thrill Dragster, which sent riders in the air at 120 mph in just 3.8 seconds. Cedar Point, located in Sandusky, Ohio, shut down the ride in 2021 when a mishap led to a woman being seriously injured by a metal bracket that flew off the coaster.
The big reveal of the revamped ride, however, had already been spoiled by an early accidental release during the weekend: Yes, the new ride at the park would be called "Top Thrill 2." And yes, the three "V"s in “revvved” represented something significant: a ride with three launches.
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Featuring a second 420-foot-tall tower and reaching a top speed of 120 mph, the Top Thrill 2 − a hydraulically launched steel roller coaster − will be the world’s tallest and fastest triple-launch strata roller coaster, Cedar Point claimed in a news release.
"Top Thrill 2 will be the boldest and most advanced roller coaster Cedar Point has ever introduced," Carrie Boldman, the park’s vice president and general manager, said. "It’s another one-of-a-kind that could only be built at Cedar Point."
The news had roller coaster enthusiasts buzzing on social media, with some Cedar Park fans expressing excitement and others claiming to be unimpressed.
Unlike its predecessor, Top Thrill 2 will deliberately do something that previously would be a sign of the ride's failure: It will perform a "rollback," a seemingly weightless backward fall from 420 feet above the ground.
World record holder, again
Opened in 2003, the original Top Thrill Dragster was the first strata coaster, known as any roller coaster eclipsing a height of 400 feet.
The second one to open two years later, Kingda Ka, at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, was taller, (456 feet) and faster (128 mph.)
But when the triple launch for the reengineered ride opens next year, Cedar Point's ride will reclaim the world record as the tallest and fastest of its kind, as Kingda Ka launches riders just once with no backward free fall. Top Thrill 2 will also last longer than before at nearly two minutes.
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The announcement, which was previously leaked, may have been less of a surprise and more of a confirmation of what fans had already uncovered. Some fans already deduced Cedar Point had partnered with Zamperla Rides to design the "new experience" using the company's Lightning trains to add to the ride’s speed and comfort.
New ride, new criticism
Top Thrill Dragster was shut down in 2021 after a Michigan woman was seriously injured by a falling hunk of metal.
A lawsuit was recently filed by Rachel Hawes, who claims she is permanently disabled and has already amassed some $2 million in medical expenses with future expenses expected to be more than $10 million.
One fan commented that it seemed like Cedar Point took the concept for the original ride and combined it with Wicked Twister, a ride that was also retired in 2021.
Others wondered why Cedar Point didn't make the ride taller or faster.
Still, the park said "it will once again redefine roller coaster innovation in 2024 with the debut of Top Thrill 2, the world’s tallest and fastest triple-launch strata roller coaster," which would put riders "in the driver’s seat for one of the greatest races of all time."
Top Thrill 2, which Zamperla called a "scream machine," will send riders peeling out down the straightaway at speeds reaching 74 mph as they race to the top of the 420-foot tower, which is often called the top hat. The "rollback" will send the riders into reverse before it launches for a second time, this time reaching speeds of 101 mph.
After a second moment of weightlessness, the train begins a third and final launch at 120 mph, which will take riders over the top, and then down into a 270-degree spiral toward the finish line.
Cedar Point is known for thrill rides that break records. It is home to the first coaster more than 200 feet tall, the Magnum XL-200 hyper coaster; the first more than 300 feet tall, the Millennium Force giga coaster; and the first more than 400 feet tall, the former Top Thrill Dragster strata coaster.
The park also used the announcement to sell a limited-time, $99 Gold Pass for next year which it said would allow holders to "take repeat laps" on the new ride.
“My sincere congratulations to Cedar Point on the announcement of this incredible project," Antonio Zamperla, president and CEO of Zamperla, said in a statement. “I cannot wait until next year when we see this record-breaking scream machine come to life.”
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Cedar Point unveils 420-foot-tall Top Thrill 2 roller coaster
