Intamin is a manufacturer and supplier of amusement rides, roller coasters and transportation
products based in Wollerau, Switzerland.
Today, the company is well known for its ability to continuously innovate, allowing them to
meet the needs of their clientele.
Because of this, Intamin has become notorious for working with parks to create rides with
specific features; massively increasing the size of the manufacturer’s attraction portfolio.
This currently ranges from thrilling roller coasters, to water rides and even from drop
towers to observation towers.
As a result, the manufacturer has become one of the largest within the amusement industry
- making it extremely likely that even your own local theme park features an Intamin product
of some description.
However, the Swiss business wasn’t always the broad producer of rides they are today.
Intamin was founded back in 1967 by Robert Spieldiener Reinhold Spieldiener, and Alfons Saiko.
These three men all shared the same passion, amusement rides.
In its early years, the company was a broker for various amusement manufacturers, helping
to sell their rides overseas.
This can be seen directly in the name Intamin,
a shortened form of INTernational AMusement INstallations.
Initially, the distributor had a partnership with one of the largest manufacturers within
the industry at the time, Schwarzkopf.
In fact, Intamin produced the steel for various Schwarzkopf rides, including Revolution at
Six Flags Magic Mountain and SooperDooperLooper at Hersheypark.
However, it wasn’t until 1979 when they would go on to debut their first roller coaster.
Wilderness Run, a small family coaster, opened to guests at Cedar Point as the company’s
original coaster.
It wasn’t anything special, even for the time, but it did mark a huge step towards
the Intamin we know today.
In the same year, they also began the construction of observation towers by supplying the world’s
tallest of its kind, measuring 600ft / 182m high.
The small manufacturer continued to expand their portfolio at a rapid rate in the following years.
1980 saw the debut of an iconic Intamin attraction: the river rapids ride.
The company initially produced Thunder River, at Six Flags Astroworld - the world’s first
ever rapids attraction.
Since then, the business has gone on to install approximately 70 rapids rides across more
than 20 countries around the globe.
The popularity of this model alone places Intamin within many of the world’s leading
theme parks.
However, like many manufacturers, not all of the company's models are hugely successful.
In 1981 they introduced American Eagle at Six Flags Great America, their first wooden
roller coaster.
Only 7 were built worldwide, most before the turn of the century.
To address this, Intamin discontinued the ride in 2001 in favour of a newer and more
impressive version.
Although, in the time in between, they continued to introduce models at a blinding pace.
This included the debut of their iconic drop tower in 1982.
The exact design of Intamin drop towers has evolved over the decades, however, they first
began life as freefall towers.
These took guests vertically upwards in caged carts, before rapidly descending a curved drop.
Initially popular, the models presence dwindled across parks as Intamin introduced their 2nd
iteration of drop tower, the giant drop, in 1995.
Unlike previously, these resemble the classic drop towers seen around the world today.
4 guests per gondola would ascend to the top of a circular tower before plummeting back
towards the ground.
Not only were giant drop towers taller than their predecessors, but they could also tilt
guests forwards throughout the ride.
Intamin upgraded the model one last time around the turn of the millennium by introducing
the gyro drop tower; a huge vertical structure supporting a spinning circular car.
Riders would sit around the edge of the single gondola, giving them a rotating view of the park.
Due to their high capacity and intense design, a large number of giant and gyro drop towers
can be found across the world today.
Interestingly though, Intamin weren’t actually the ones making their original drop tower design.
Instead, they sold and marketed the product which was designed and built by Giovanola,
another amusement rides manufacturer.
This venture marked the start of the initially strong relationship between the two companies,
which would eventually lead to Intamin buying majority shares in Giovanola.
The two businesses continued their new relationship in 1984 with the debut of the Swiss Bob model,
first seen at Six Flags Great Adventure.
Intamin’s own bobsled coaster, fabricated by Giovanola, was similar to the designs seen
from other manufacturers at the time.
And like these other companies, their bobsled model quickly lost popularity in the years
following its premiere.
Nevertheless, the pair continued to debut new and unique roller coasters.
1985 saw the construction of Z-Force at Six Flags Great America, a new model known as
a Space Diver.
The compact ride saw guests navigate tight drops, diving underneath other track pieces
in a looping pattern.
At the time, this type of design was quite revolutionary.
Even despite this, Z-Force forever stood as the only one of its kind.
Fortunately however, the coaster did introduce something exciting into the amusement industry.
Leading up to its construction, two Giovanola employees, Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabillard
designed and fabricated an all new box shaped track.
From this point on, Giovanola would use this as their flagship track design for roller coasters.
While after several years, the two employees responsible for the track left Giovanola to
form their own company: Bolliger and Mabillard - now one of the largest roller coaster manufacturers
within the industry today.
After departing Giovanola, Walter and Claude continued to use their design, albeit with
slight modifications, leading to the similarities we can sometimes see today between the three companies.
A fantastic example of this lies within Intamin’s and Giovanola’s 2nd roller model model to
use this type of track, the Stand Up coaster.
These rides see guests navigate a series of twists, turns and inversions all while in
a standing position.
Shockwave at Drayton Manor become the 3rd and final stand-up coaster for the company,
featuring track that heavily resembles the Bolliger and Mabillard track we see today,
despite it being an Intamin ride fabricated by Giovanola.
In the years following, Intamin focused on fulfilling orders and fabricating attractions.
However, by 1993, the business was ready to debut two new models.
The first, their family coaster, was a classic sit down coaster with a focus on gradual twists
and turns.
Though, due to the extremely competitive nature of the family coaster market, the model wasn’t
a success.
Fortunately, the same cannot be said of the 2nd model.
Intamin’s Multi-inversion coaster started its life in the single inversion ride, Indiana
Jones at Disneyland Paris.
Newer roller coasters were quickly built over the following years featuring much larger
layouts and more inversions.
This eventually peaked in 2002 with the debut of Colossus at Thorpe Park, which is now an
iconic Intamin attraction, the 10 Inversion coaster.
At the time of its opening Colossus featured the most inversions of any roller coaster worldwide.
Because of this fact, the ride has now been cloned over 5 times across various parts of
the globe.
A year after the introduction of the new models, Intamin debuted two record breaking rides.
White Cyclone at Nagashima Spa Land became Asia’s tallest, fastest and longest wooden
roller coaster; while Euro-Star, which was introduced into the German Fair circuit, became
the world’s first and largest travelling inverted coaster.
The ride operated until 2011 before it was removed entirely.
Excitingly though, Euro-Star has made a comeback in 2019 and can now be found operating in Russia.
Sadly however, by 1996, Intamin’s relationship with Giovanola had begun to fade, eventually
leading to them selling their majority shares in the company.
Though work still continued on new attractions, which in 1997 resulted in the construction
of another record breaking roller coaster.
At this point in time, the company unveiled the Reverse Freefall coaster, a ride which
used magnets to propel guests to high top speeds, before they ascend a large vertical spike.
They would then quickly plummet back towards the ground, marking the end of their experience.
Dreamworld’s Tower of Terror, and Superman at Six Flags Magic Mountain both opened in
1997 as the only two ever constructed.
Both became the world’s first roller coasters to utilise LSMs, linear synchronous motors;
and the first roller coasters to reach speeds of 100mph (160kmh).
By the end of 1998 Intamin had completely dissolved its relationship with Giovanola.
Instead, it enlisted another company to fabricate its track, Stakotra.
Since then, the Slovakian company has produced all track and train chassis for Intamin.
At roughly the same time, Giovanola became independent and began selling roller coasters
directly to amusement parks.
These two facts meant that in the years following this, Intamin’s track design changed drastically.
As a result, the company's new for 1998 additions featured distinctly different track.
Linear Gale at Tokyo Dome City, and Kings Dominion’s Volcano the Blast coaster both
debuted with new triangular track comprised of a lattice of cross-ties, a design which
Intamin still uses to this day.
Volcano opened to guests as the world’s first full circuit suspended launch coaster,
accelerating riders twice throughout the twisted layout; while Linear Gale became the swiss
manufacturers first Impulse coaster.
This model sees guests launch through the station multiple times, allowing them to accelerate
up and down two parallel spikes.
After its debut the Impulse coaster saw many more installations across the globe.
But, in today’s world, theme parks now look to other manufacturers for compact multi-launch attractions.
By 1999, Intamin had hit their stride.
The company had started to become known for their innovative rides, leading many parks
to consider their attractions.
This was seen directly in Darien’s Lake’s new for 1999 addition, Ride of Steel.
Here Intamin constructed the Mega Coaster, a roller coaster over 200ft (61m) tall with
a distinct focus on height, speed and airtime.
However, this was quickly overshadowed by another new attraction the following year.
In 2000, Cedar Point built Millennium Force, the world’s first roller coaster to break
the 300ft (91m) height barrier.
Because of its tall nature, the ride debuted with a cable lift hill, a new take on old
technology to pull guests to the highest point at a much faster rate.
Despite the difference in height, the two rides share many similarities in terms of
track, train and layout design.
On top of this, Millennium Force quickly gained a fantastic reputation, often being voted
the world’s best roller coaster.
As a result, it has not only become an iconic Intamin attraction, but also an iconic roller
coaster on a global scale.
Make sure to watch part 2 of this mini-series all about Intamin
by clicking the video on screen now, or heading to the link in the description below.