Steel Vengeance is a steel hybrid roller coaster,
located at Cedar Point, in Sandusky, Ohio, USA.
The ride, which was manufactured by American company, Rocky Mountain Construction, became
the park’s third operating hybrid roller coaster - after the likes of Gemini and the
Cedar Creek Mine Ride.
All three of these rides feature a metal track, reinforced by a grid of wooden supports.
However, unlike the other two, Steel Vengeance uses RMCs modern iBox track technology, allowing
for the ride to complete multiple inversions as it navigates the course.
Cedar Point’s new addition opened to the public on the 5th of May 2018.
Upon debut, the ride broke an alleged 10 records, many of which were within the category of
Hybrid roller coasters.
It currently resides as the tallest, fastest and steepest hybrid roller coaster, also becoming
the world’s first hyper-hybrid, that’s a hybrid coaster measuring over 200ft (61m) high.
On the grander stage, Steel Vengeance did set a new world record.
The ride features a total of 27.2 seconds of airtime during it’s layout, more than
any other roller coaster around the globe.
The ride can be found in FrontierTown section of the park, next to the likes of Maverick,
another of the Cedar Point’s well loved rides.
Interesting, the story of Steel Vengeance plays on this competition between the two
attractions.
Once intimidated and disrespected by the musings of Maverick, characters Blackjack, Chess and
Digger have returned to FrontierTown to right the wrongs.
Upon their return, the trio set about constructing a one-of-a-kind machine.
Mirroring Blackjack’s impressive height, Chess’ unconventional and wild personality,
and Digger’s blazing speed - the gang’s impressive new roller coaster is the new force
to be reckoned with - giving them control of the FrontierTown area.
As visitors walk up to the ride, they are greeted by the entrance sign, which has been
chained to a large rock face.
Guests can then enter the caged queue line, which travels beneath the ride.
Scattered throughout the queue are signs, allowing them to learn more about the characters
and storylines involved within the attraction.
After traversing the line, visitors enter the plain station building, and board one
of three trains.
The mining themed trains consists of 6 cars, each of which seat riders in 2 rows of 2.
This leads to a total of 24 guests per train.
Once visitors have boarded, they leave the station building, undergo a right hand turn,
traverse two bunny hills, and begin the upwards climb.
Riders ascend the 62m (205ft) high chain lift hill, and crest 61m (200ft) drop.
At this point, the trains dive towards the ground, at the maximum vertical angle of 90
degrees, and reach the top speed of 119kmh (74mph).
After the drop, riders traverse a speed hill, followed by a large airtime hill.
Guests then quickly navigate a second, outward banked, airtime hill, followed by a double-up,
leading riders into the first inversion, an upwards Zero-G Roll.
The trains travels through a 90 degree banked turn, and enters the second inversion, a Zero-G
stall.
Guests head towards the ground through a double down element, immediately followed by elongated
double up, into the mid-course brake run.
Riders then turn left, and descend a large drop.
After navigating yet another double up element, the trains enter a twisted airtime hill, followed
by an overbanked turn, and a second Zero-G roll.
At this point, the rest of the ride experience uses a mixture of airtime hills, overbanked
turns, and a final Zero-G roll to direct guests back towards the station building.
78 seconds after being released from the top of the lift hill, the trains plough into the
final break run, marking the end of the ride.
Throughout the experience, visitors travel through four inversions, and navigate a total
of 1750m (5740ft) of track.
Despite its notable statistics and many records, Steel Vengeance hasn’t always been a world
record breaking coaster.
In fact, the ride was the result of a dramatic upgrade to a previous roller coaster at the
park, Mean Streak.
Mean Streak was a large scale wooden coaster, built in 1991.
During its 26 years of operation, the ride built up a bad reputation.
Therefore, many were happy to see the ride close in 2016.
At this point, the track of the ride, as well as part of the support structure was removed,
allowing for the layout to be altered and improved.
It is safe to say that most prefer Steel Vengeance over its predecessor, as a result of the smoother,
faster, and more exciting ride experience.
Furthermore, many name the ride to be their favourite roller coaster in existence, quoting
its abundance of all types of airtime.
However, the rides brief life hasn’t been all plain sailing.
Shortly after opening, a train failed to fully stop on the final brake run, causing it to
the lightly collide with a second train in the station.
The ride closed for several days prior to the incident, before reopening with only a
single train in operation.
Steel Vengeance has since returned to normal operation, after the rides brakes and blocking
systems were altered by RMC themselves.
With a ride so loved and highly rated as Steel Vengeance, it leads us to question when, and
where, the next world leading roller coaster will be built.
I’d like to hear your thoughts about what type of ride you think could possibly beat
Steel Vengeance.
Thank you for watching, and I’ll see you all next time.
Be sure to check out the adventures of myself, Taylor of Coaster Studios,
Logan of Koaster Kids,
and Chad of Ohio Valley Coasters in our recent vlogs,
as we are travel around some of Europe’s best theme parks.