Citius, Altius, but not Fortius?

I suppose it's a bit late for an Olympic analogy (or perhaps I'm being particularly early for Beijing!), but I've been thinking about the Olympic motto and its applicability to roller coasters. "Citius, Altius, Fortius" means "Faster, Higher, Stronger". Nowadays there's no doubt that roller coasters are faster and higher than ever, but can they be said to be "stronger"?

Let's start with "higher". Amusement parks have been routinely breaking height records for many years now. In 1989, Cedar Point, a park that seems to aim to break a record with every coaster they build, topped their Magnum XL-200 coaster at 205 feet tall. At the time this felt unthinkably high. It was, after all, an era when a 100 foot coaster was still pretty substantial. Cedar Point also took the unusual approach for the time of building their new steel coaster without making it go upside down. During a time when going upside down as many times as possible was the rage, they staked their claim on height alone. It worked out very well for them indeed. Magnum was wildly popular. This ride even inspired a whole new term among enthusiasts, "hypercoaster". Though the definition of this term is a bit confused, it clearly implies something beyond what coasters had offered before.

However, time has passed, and 200 feet tall is far from unthinkable these days. A quick check of rcdb.com indicates that there are at least 36 roller coasters 200 feet tall or higher. The year 2000 led to a host of new milestones. Two coasters, Millennium Force (also at Cedar Point) and Steel Dragon 2000 (in Japan) cracked the 300 foot barrier. Indeed, Steel Dragon 2000 had two follow-up hills that were still higher than 200 feet. In the same year, Son of Beast at Kings Island showed that even a wood coaster could top out at more than 200 feet, though this can't be said to have been an unqualified success.

It took more than 10 years to get from 200 to 300 feet, but it didn't take that long to make the next 100 foot jump. Once again Cedar Point was in the record hunt, opening Top Thrill Dragster in 2003 at 420 feet high. This milestone required an altered approach. Rather than have a slow lift hill to get the trains to the highest point on the coaster, they used a launch mechanism. The trains were shot along a horizontal track at high speed before climbing vertically to the top point on the coaster. After a single twisting drop, the coaster ends with a long brake. The entire thing is over in 15 seconds. A traditional coaster layout of such a height would be prohibitively expensive, so this minimal approach helped keep the cost down. Once again, Cedar Point aggressively pursued the height record by taking a different tack from other parks. However since then, they've been topped. Six Flags Great Adventure took the record last year, opening a similar, but higher coaster.

Because of the physics behind coasters, breaking a height record is pretty much tantamount to breaking a speed record too. The higher a coaster, the more energy it will have, which translates to higher top speeds. Hence Kingda Ka is also the fastest roller coaster in the world, peaking at 128 miles per hour.

It's harder to find anything corresponding to "strength" of a coaster. Perhaps the closest matching concept is G force. Every coaster exerts force on its riders, and stronger forces leave the impression of a more powerful, wilder ride. So if rides are getting higher and faster, do they also have stronger G forces?

Unlike height and speed, there's no direct relationship between height and G forces. A coaster could be very high, but if its hills were shallow, configured like ramps, it would generate very few interesting forces. On the other hand, a steep drop or a very tight turn could lend even a small coaster very strong forces. The coaster designer has a lot of freedom as to how strong to set the G force, no matter how high or fast the ride is.

There are reasons not to try to break G force records. It's expensive to build a tall coaster, but the height doesn't put physiological stress on the riders. On the other hand, it would be very easy to build a ride that surpassed human G force limits. And pushing the limits too far would make a ride that only the healthiest people could ride. Designers are much more conservative than this, keeping the G forces tightly within strict limits.

However, designers of the past were less constrained. They didn't have computers to aid them in limiting ride forces, and seem to have been less concerned about pushing the limits. There was less pressure from insurers to be conservative, and fewer threats of personal injury lawsuits. Hence there's an argument to be made that coasters of the past are at least as strong as those being built today. In terms of a wild, powerful ride, the venerable Coney Island Cyclone still stands as a coaster by which all others are measured. Here are some other vintage coasters that I think do better than holding their own: the roller coaster in Vancouver; the Comet at Great Escape in New York; the Grand National in Blackpool, England; the Cyclone at Lakeside in Colorado; and the Big Dipper at Geauga Lake in Ohio. Each of these, as well as others, offers intense forces that rival the record breakers being built today.

The records being broken today are impressive. Record-breaking coasters certainly bring in the crowds to the parks that build them. But I think too much attention to records diminishes many worthy coasters that may actually be wilder. And an older coaster can be much more reliable than a modern technological marvel. Neither Top Thrill Dragster nor Kingda Ka have run consistently since they've been built. Great Adventure is hosting a coaster enthusiast event, Coaster Celebration, at which they will offer attendees extra ride time beyond park hours. But Kingda Ka is not on the extra ride list.

In the quest to be ever higher and faster, I think that older coasters have become underappreciated. Some of the wildest and strongest coasters are also ones that have been thrilling their riders for years.