Last year I heard that Thorpe Park were building a similar roller coaster to the World's tallest and fastest, Kingda Ka
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingda_Ka
I had recently been on Rita at Alton Towers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_-_Queen_of_Speed
so was interested to see how Stealth compared.
Earlier this year I did some more research and discovered that Stealth was less than half the size of Kingda. I assumed this was down to cost, but apparently this was not the case.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stealth_%28roller_coaster%29
To avoid the queues, we purchased Ultimate Fastrack tickets for £63
http://www.totalthorpepark.co.uk/
which allowed us to jump the queue for all rides, although if we had been only interested in jumping the queue for Stealth we could've done this more cheaply. These tickets proved a wise investment, as the queue was 70 minutes in the late morning
Comparing the acceleration of the 'coasters
|
Name |
Speed (mph) |
Time (s) |
|
Rita |
62 |
2.5 |
|
Stealth |
80 |
2.3 |
|
Kingda |
128 |
3.3 |
it can be seen that Stealth is quicker than Rita but slower than Kingda. We went on Stealth 5 times - even on the last run the acceleration takes you by surprise. When reaching the top of the ride it feels as though the ride may not have enough momentum to crest the top - this happens on occasion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollback_%28roller_coaster%29
must be pretty terrifying if you are not expecting it.
After cresting the top of the hill, the ride goes into freefall before returning to the beginning - the whole ride takes 14 seconds. I wouldn't fancy queuing up for an hour for this!
I am planning to visit Six Flags next year.....