Cobra at Conny-Land is Switzerland’s tallest, fastest, and best roller coaster.
This shuttle coaster is a visually stunning ride with its beyond vertical spike, super circular
loop, and unique scorpion tail inversion to switch directions. And who would build a ride this
insane? It would be from none-other than Pax. I had to make one heck of a detour to squeeze Cobra
and Conny-Land into my itinerary, but it was well worth it! In this video, I will be reviewing Cobra
and explaining why it’s one of the craziest coasters in the world.
Switzerland is home to two of the most prominent roller coaster manufacturers in the world
in Intamin and Bolliger and Mabillard. However, the country doesn’t have many
notable amusement parks or roller coasters. Most of the roller coasters in Switzerland are
either mountain coasters or kiddie coasters. But there is one notable exception in Cobra.
Conny-Land opened in 1983, but they didn’t install their first coaster until 2007. And they went big
with Cobra. Instead of partnering with one of the aforementioned Swiss manufacturers, Conny-Land
went with the Russian-based Pax. This was a more economical alternative, but it has caused the park
several headaches. Cobra is what ElToroRyan would call a problematic roller coaster.
Cobra was supposed to open in 2007, but issue with Pax caused the coaster to be delayed 3 years until
2010. And in its debut year, Cobra was unpleasantly rough. It was so rough that
Conny-Land took the seemingly unprecedented step of retracking their steel coaster in full
after just one operating season. It was similar to what we saw at Playland’s
Castaway Cove with GaleForce. When Cobra was retracked,
the new track was not fabricated by Pax. Instead, it was made by Stakotra,
the company who fabricates track for Intamin. This new track dramatically smoothed out the coaster.
And then in 2020, the original Pax train was replaced by a new train from Sunkid Heege.
Conny-Land may have gone with a different manufacturer given their issues with Pax
and because Pax no longer manufactures roller coasters.
Cobra was the company’s second-to-last coaster. Conny-Land’s Cobra was the first and only Loop
520 model ever built. But Pax had previously built a few similar Cobra-1 shuttle coasters.
These rides had varying track styles. The original one that operates in Saudi
Arabia at Cobra Amusement Park has track that looks similar to an Arrow looper.
The newer ones built in Russia had track that looked similar to an RMC Raptor’s track.
Conny-Land’s Cobra had similar elements to the original cobra coasters, but the track was more
reminiscent of Intamin. And that’s probably the reason Stakotra was contracted to replace it.
There are three additional operational issues with Cobra you should be cognizant of.
One, Cobra cannot operate in the rain. I suspect that may be related to the
exposed brake on the scorpion tail element. Two, Cobra would not open with the park in 2021.
On Cobra’s page on the website, it was noted the coaster would not open until the afternoon.
I’m not sure if this will be continued going forwards or if it happened in past years as well.
Three, Cobra had a lot of downtime. I believe the ride operator doubled as a
mechanic because he would go beneath the track every few trains for 5-10 minutes.
I couldn’t see if he was performing inspectors or adjusting anything,
but the frequency of these checks were pretty surprising. Maybe Cobra was having a bad day,
but I suspect this could be a maintenance intensive coaster given how it opened
late every day in 2020. Has anyone else run into reliability issues with this coaster?
While Cobra doesn’t have the most vibrant colored track, I do like the overall appearance of this
coaster. The snake themed trains look amazing and this coaster’s placement is perfect. Cobra
has a linear layout. The captivating scorpion’s tail is positioned as you enter the parking lot
and the bunny hills over the midway add a lot of kinetic energy to the park. Then the freaky
beyond vertical lift rises high above the station as you walk towards the attraction.
And that station looks great too as it’s temple themed.
Getting to your seat on Cobra is a bit interesting. There are two sets of stairs
in front of the temple that lead to the station- one on the left and one on the
right. There is no signage stating one staircase is different than the other. So guests would
queue on both and merge at the station. Typically, Cobra was just a 1-2 train wait,
but when the line did extend outside the station, the dual staircases caused some confusion.
As mentioned earlier, Cobra has both forwards and backwards facing seats and the train configuration
is weird. The train seats 16 riders across 5 cars. The front car seats just two riders facing
forwards. The three middle cars have seats facing each other like a Gerstlauer spinning coaster.
And then the 5th car seats the final 2 riders facing forwards. And this back car is much
closer to the car ahead of it since the coupler between cars is oddly shorter than all the others.
The train looks very weird for sure. And the trains are fairly comfortable. Leg
room was a bit tight if you rode in one of the three middle cars,
but there was plenty of room in the front and back cars. As for the restraints, Cobra uses
vests. The restraint has a lap bar component that usually rested a few inches above my lap
and then there are these tight vests with very little give. They weren’t uncomfortable on my
shoulders like some vest restraints, but they can impact how much airtime you feel during the
ride’s weaker moments. The ride’s best moments can transcend these restraints thankfully.
My favorite seat was the very back so I could get the longest initial drop,
but I strongly recommend trying the front as well so you can ascend the furthest up the
scorpion tail on the opposite end of the ride. I preferred to ride Cobra forwards. This was because
the visual ascending the spike and scorpion tail was far more terrifying in that position.
The ride begins with the most unnerving lift hill in the world. You depart backwards out
of the station and engage the catch car. On most coasters, this is a smooth process. But on Cobra,
your train will abruptly jerk forwards and backwards.
And then you ascend that freaky beyond vertical lift. I didn’t realize it was beyond vertical
until I got to Conny-Land. And the lift mechanism is quite unique. You have these two vertical
cables that haul the catch car along the track. Cobra has a maximum height of 138 feet
or 42 meters, but the train doesn’t ascend the entirety of the spike.
Once the front has gotten beyond vertical, the train is suddenly released with no warning.
And you really need to be in the back for this drop. One, the beyond vertical
orientation of the lift causes your body to helplessly lean forwards for the ascent.
Two, the drop itself is considerably longer.
The back seats get a few seconds of floater airtime paired with a fantastic freefall
sensation. The seats towards the front only get these sensations for a brief moment.
Cobra’s drop felt like a more forceful and more intense version of the first drop
on a Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang. You then charge through the station,
which is surprisingly shaky. I’m wondering if this section may still be the original Pax track.
Cobra then glides over back-to-back bunny hills. I was optimistic these would provide some crazy
airtime like a lot of other Pax coasters like Fantasiana’s Wild Train. But alas, these
hills just offered very weak floater airtime. These are the elements on the ride that struggle
to overcome the tight vests. If you have a tight vest, it can be tricky to even feel this airtime.
But if you have a looser vest, the airtime- while weak in strength- is decently sustained.
Then comes the circular vertical loop. And this element is a powerhouse. It pulls some
powerful positive Gs and I greyed out on every ride. It’s one of the most forceful
loops in the world without a doubt between its profiling and speed at which you take it.
The pullout from this loop isn’t the smoothest though. It’ll rattle the train in back,
but really shake you towards the front. Thankfully the restraints prevent all headbanging
at least. Beyond the aforementioned station and this moment, Cobra tracks fairly well.
This loop is followed by Cobra’s one-of-a-kind scorpion tale, which is an upside down,
inclined spike. This is the one element that is better up front. The visual careening towards the
end of the spike is one of the scariest of any coaster. It really does feel like you’ll shoot
off the edge. But there is a brake that slows you down and you owe your life to that brake.
This element is one of the best in the world for hangtime. It delivers several seconds of
hangtime for everyone, but even more so for the front since they ascend the entirety of the tail.
Those up front get a ridiculous 5-6 straight seconds of hangtime.
You then complete the course in reverse. But due to the brake, you have less speed.
This isn’t a problem for the loop. It’s still very forceful. The front gets the positive G in the
valleys, along with some rattling, while the back gets their forces while pulled through the loop.
However, the bunny hills on the return run do nothing. The train barely makes it over
them. So unfortunately, Cobra ends with a whimper after an otherwise fast-paced and intense ride.
So what would I rate Cobra? I would give this coaster an 8 out of 10.
This is one of the best shuttle coasters out there even if it is rough around the edges.
The two spikes are downright terrifying. The beyond vertical lift is a bizarre feeling
and the resultant drop is one of the best of any coaster.
It feels more like the descent on a drop tower than a traditional roller coaster. Then the
scorpion tail on the other end produces some of the best hangtime of any coaster. And then you
have a super forceful vertical loop you experience twice- once forwards and once backwards.
Really this coaster’s only weaknesses from a ride perspective
are the bunny hills that are weaker than they appear and the shaky trackwork at points.
The other issue is this ride’s downtime that impacted how many times I was able to ride it.
So those are my thoughts on Cobra, the weird shuttle coaster at Conny-Land in Switzerland.
Have you been on this coaster? What do you think of this Pax creation? I would love to
hear what you think about this ride down in the comments. If you enjoyed this review, I’d
appreciate it if you gave this video a like and you considered subscribing since there will be a
lot more roller coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!