Wicked: Difference between revisions
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One of the unique aspects of Wicked is it lacks the traditional over the shoulder style restrains found on most launch roller coasters. Lagoon's Wicked uses a unique lap bar style restrain that actually locks the lower half of the riders body in place. This allows the upper half to freely move and adds to the thrill of the overall experience. | One of the unique aspects of Wicked is it lacks the traditional over the shoulder style restrains found on most launch roller coasters. Lagoon's Wicked uses a unique lap bar style restrain that actually locks the lower half of the riders body in place. This allows the upper half to freely move and adds to the thrill of the overall experience. | ||
On rare occasions, Wicked's trains do not make it all the way over the tower after being launched. When this happens the ride is designed so that the trains will roll backwards into the launch tunnel where they are safely stopped and re-launched. | |||
Revision as of 23:07, 17 March 2015
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| Location: South Midway |
| Opened: June 2007 |
| Manufactured By: Zierer |
| Ride Model: Launch Tower Coaster |
| Ground Dimensions: 112 ft x 404 ft |
| Height: 110 feet |
| Top Speed: 55 mph |
| Max G-Force: 4.85 g |
| Power Consumption: 680 kWh |
| Ride Duration: 1 min. 36 sec. |
| Trains: 6 |
| Vehicle Capacity: 8 (2 rows of 4) |
| Hourly Capacity: 1200 riders an hour |
| Colors: Green track, gray and yellow supports |
| Height Restrictions: Riders under 50" in height may not ride. |
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Wicked is a steel Tower Launch roller coaster located at Lagoon.
Ride Details
Wicked features single-car trains that seat two rows of four riders. It uses LSMs (Linear Synchronous Motors) to launch riders 90° straight up its 110 foot tower. It actually has two separate LSM launches, one before the tower, and one straight up it. This is immediately followed by a 90° drop straight down the other side of the tower. The ride is launched out of a tunnel. Originally there was a "boom" sound effect played when the train was launched, but it is no longer used.
The ride travels through an overbanked turn and a heartline roll. The ride is slowed considerably during its safety brake run and travels through a unique half-pipe section which consists of two compact vertical turns that simulate the half-pipe movements that snowboarders or skateboarders make. The tunnel at the end of the ride was planned to include a water effect as the car entered the tunnel. You can still see the hardware installed that would have provided the effect, but it was never used.
One of the unique aspects of Wicked is it lacks the traditional over the shoulder style restrains found on most launch roller coasters. Lagoon's Wicked uses a unique lap bar style restrain that actually locks the lower half of the riders body in place. This allows the upper half to freely move and adds to the thrill of the overall experience.
On rare occasions, Wicked's trains do not make it all the way over the tower after being launched. When this happens the ride is designed so that the trains will roll backwards into the launch tunnel where they are safely stopped and re-launched.
Construction
Wicked was built in 2007. At the time it was the most expensive ($10 million), fastest (55 mph) and tallest (110 feet) roller coaster at Lagoon. Cannibal has since surpassed Wicked in all of these areas, though Wicked still exerts more G-forces on riders than Cannibal (4.85). The ride was built by Zierer, and was co-designed by Lagoon's head engineer Dal Freeman and was the first roller coaster of its type built. The ride was built on what used to be part of the south parking lot. It was the first steel Roller Coaster to be custom designed for Lagoon.
Welding Problems
After Wicked was completed, some of the welds in its tower were found not to be to code. The tower was dismantled and re-welded by Intermountail Lift leading to a several month delay in the ride's opening.
Video
Click "Expand" to see an on-ride video. Possible spoilers.