Titan at Six Flags Over Texas is the tallest, fastest, and longest coaster in all of Texas.
While this Giovanola hyper coaster is statistically the most impressive coaster in the Lone Star
State, is it the best?
For me, no.
But I could see a scenario depending on your taste in rides.
So in this video I will review Titan.
Giovanola was founded in 1888 as a steel manufacturing company.
In the 1980s, Giovanola entered the amusement ride industry serving as a sub-contractor
to Intamin.
Giovanola sub-contracted 22 different roller coasters for Intamin and after a decade of
doing this, the company founded Giovanola Amusement Rides Worldwide in 1998 to sell
amusement rides built directly by them.
Giovanola only built three roller coasters, but their box beam track system was very reminiscent
of the design used by Bolliger & Mabillard, which makes sense considering Claude Mabillard
and Walter Bolliger were engineers for Giovanola who developed their famous track style before
forming their own company in B&M.
This track provided glossy smooth rides and produced an intimidating roar.
Giovanola only built three coasters, but they were defined by one thing- sustained positive
Gs.
Their first coaster was Anaconda at Gold Reef City in South Africa.
This was an inverted roller coaster that opened in 1999.
The ride had a lot of similarities to B&M’s successful Batman the Ride layout, but most
importantly, it demonstrated to the industry that Giovanola could build coasters on their
own.
Their second coaster was a record-breaker.
Six Flags Magic Mountain opened Goliath for the 2000 season.
For 3 months, Goliath held the record for having the largest drop on any roller coaster
at 255 feet or 78 meters.
Six Flags was clearly impressed by the attraction as they immediately ordered a second Giovanola
hyper for the original park in the chain, Six Flags Over Texas.
Six Flags Over Texas had been eying a hyper coaster for years.
Originally, the park wanted to build an Arrow hypercoaster by Judge Roy Scream, but after
the positive reception of Goliath, they instead had Giovanola build Titan, a near-clone of
Goliath.
Titan would be 10 feet taller standing 245 feet or 75 meters in height, but the drops
on both coasters were identical in size.
Titan’s drop was slightly steeper though at 65 degrees versus 61 degrees.
Both coasters would have the same top speed of 85 mph, but Titan had an additional 812
feet or 247 meters of track- bringing the total track length to 5312 feet or 1619 meters.
Titan would include an extra helix in between the airtime hill and the mid-course break
run.
Titan would open for the 2001 season at a cost of $25 million.
But it would be the last coaster ever built by Giovanola, as the company would declare
bankruptcy shortly after the coaster opened.
This wasn’t necessarily the fault of the amusement division, as one of the biggest
contributors was the failure of a hydraulic penstock at the Bieudron Hydroelectric Power
Station in Switzerland late in 2000.
Titan is located in the Texas section of the park.
The ride starts by the park’s picnic pavilions and runs alongside the parking lot.
While this coaster dominates the park’s skyline and is one of the first coasters they
see upon arrival, it can be a royal pain to find.
Titan is located at a dead end serviced by a single, poorly marked pathway.
This path is between the entrance for the El Aserradero log flume and a food stand.
Titan’s sign is barely visible, as the thin letters blend in with the trees behind it.
The easiest way to find this coaster is to follow the signage for the picnic pavilions.
This coaster’s queue line almost as colossal as the coaster itself.
I’m only speaking in terms of physical length though.
Titan has always been a walk-on in my visits to Six Flags Over Texas and a quick check
on Queue-Times.com shows the average wait is no more than 15 minutes most days.
Having a wait this short for a hyper coaster is exceedingly rare, but this coaster has
a high throughput and the convoluted location probably deters people from reriding.
Titan has three trains, each seating 30 riders.
I have only seen Titan use two trains during my visits and the crew working this ride usually
avoids stacking them.
That is assisted by the ride’s long duration; the ride is almost 3 minutes in length if
you include the slow lift and full length of the brake run.
These trains are identical to the ones found on Goliath at Magic Mountain.
The seats are quite comfortable and you’re restrained by a simple seat-belt and lap bar
combo.
One cool feature on these trains is that you have zippered pouches on the seatbacks for
loose articles such as phones, wallets, and keys.
This helps speed up dispatches by eliminating the need for someone to take a trip to a cubby
and it also keeps these items more secure.
In terms of seat selection, I have a slight preference for the front for the sense of
speed you get in the first half.
The back has one extra airtime moment if you’d prefer that.
Titan begins with a slow climb up the lift.
It takes nearly a minute to ascend this hill.
But I don’t mind since you get some awesome views of the park to your right and the sports
stadiums for the Texas Rangers and Dallas Cowboys to your left.
Once reach the top, you slowly crest over the drop.
Now unfortunately, this drop is not as good as those found on hypercoasters from other
companies like B&M, Intamin, or even Morgan.
If you look at the profiling, you can tell you quickly hit your max angle of descent
and you hold it for a very long time.
And it’s more shallow than a lot of other hypercoasters.
If you’re in the back row, you do get some decent floater airtime for the first half
of the drop at least.
The pullout is really gradual and its oddly one of the few spots on the ride that doesn’t
crush you with positive Gs, but it’s cool how you fly through an underground tunnel
and the speed will make your eyes water if you’re riding up front.
That’s followed by a gargantuan turnaround.
This element feels sort of awkward on a hypercoaster; it feels more akin to a turnaround you’d
see on a classic wood coaster.
But it does offer some laterals since it’s barely banked at the top.
Unfortunately, the entrance and exit to this element offer no airtime.
And that’s a general flaw with this coaster.
You then dive towards the ground, getting slammed into your seat from the intense positive
Gs.
And then you rip over a camelback.
This hill delivers rather weak but very sustained floater airtime throughout the entire train.
And sadly, that is the last airtime moment on this coaster.
Airtime hills are the most prominent element of most hypercoasters, so what does Titan
do instead?
It focuses on positive Gs.
So if those are your thing, you’ll love Titan.
This camelback is followed by a 540 degree upwards helix.
And this is easily the best part of the ride.
This helix is taken at breakneck speeds and the positive Gs are unbelievable.
It offers some of the strongest positives of any coaster and I started to greyout on
each ride.
It really is a shame that Goliath is missing this element.
Up until this point, Titan has felt fast.
But that all changes on the mid-course brake run.
You come to a loud and grinding halt.
I’m pretty sure this brake can be heard throughout the park.
It really kills this coaster’s sense of speed and that’s one of the biggest advantages
of a hyper coaster.
That being said, I understand why you’re slowed severely since the Gs in the second
half are intense even under these circumstances.
I’m curious to know how strong they’d be if you went through the second half unbraked.
You slowly turn off the mid-course down this twisting drop.
And then you traverse an overbank that drops you back down to the ground, allowing you
to regain some speed.
That’s followed by another intense helix.
The magnitude of the positive Gs on this helix pales in comparison to the first one, but
they’re sustained for just as long.
I don’t usually see any grey on this helix, but I know quite a few people who do.
After this helix you navigate a few lackluster turns and then hit the brake run, ending the
ride.
So what would I rate Titan?
I would give this coaster a 6.5 out of 10.
This is a contrarian hyper coaster.
Most have out-and-back layouts loaded with airtime hills.
Titan has just one airtime hill and instead focuses on positive Gs.
This is not what I personally look for in a hypercoaster, but if those types of forces
are your cup of tea, you’ll love Titan.
I do still enjoy Titan, as the ride is extremely smooth and has good speed in the first half.
I’m just comparing it to the other hyper coasters out there.
I will take Titan over Goliath because of that extra helix and I will take it over two
of the Cedar Fair Morgan hypers in Mamba and Wild Thing.
But I’m going to take the airtime focused hyper coasters over this almost every time.
So those are my thoughts on Titan, the Giovanola hyper at Six Flags Over Texas.
What are your thoughts on this ride?
Have you ridden this coaster or its sister ride in Goliath?
I would love to hear your thoughts down in the comments.
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