Olympia Looping is a steel roller coaster probably located in somewhere Europe right now.
The ride is a travelling coaster, meaning it tours various amusement parks, funfairs,
and other events throughout the continent of Europe.
But what makes Olympia Looping special is that it’s the world’s largest travelling
roller coaster, requiring roughly 50 shipping containers to transport across countries.
These containers hold all of the rides’ track, supports and trains; including arguably
the most notable part of the roller coaster, its record breaking 5 vertical loops.
In fact, Olympia Looping’s entire history can be traced back to the debut of the modern
day looping roller coaster.
In 1976, Schwarzkopf, the roller coaster manufacturer that would go on to build Olympia Looping,
introduced the world’s first vertical loop on a modern steel roller coaster with the
Great American Revolution at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
Loops had been attempted prior to this on the Centrifugal Railways of the past,
but to little success.
The perfect circle shape of the loop caused it to be too intense for riders, leading to its demise.
Fortunately, Schwarzkopf’s design didn’t meet the same fate.
The success of the modern looping roller coaster saw its interest rise, sparking other companies
to do the same.
In the same year as the debut of the Great American Revolution, Arrow Dynamics, another
roller coaster manufacturer, engineered their own version of the vertical loop with the
development of Corkscrew at Cedar Point.
From this point on, Schwarzkopf and Arrow were locked in competition.
Both pushed the idea of looping rides; making them taller, faster, and with more inversions.
In 1977, both companies debuted their own shuttle coaster to the industry, a form of
ride which saw guests complete a vertical loop both forwards and backwards.
But it was 1978 when the first major step towards the construction of Olympia Looping occurred.
That year, Schwarzkopf worked with Oscar Bruch and Fritz Kinzler to bring the first portable
looping coaster, Looping Star, to the fairgrounds of Europe.
Like Olympia Looping, Looping Star could be moved from park to park, being disassembled
and reassembled with ease.
A year after this, Schwarzkopf built Mind Bender at Six Flags Over Georgia - the first
roller coaster to feature two separate vertical loops.
Though, after the success of the first portable looping coaster, Oscar was looking for something bigger.
This led to the debut of Doppel Looping in 1981, the world’s first travelling roller
coaster to feature two vertical loops.
The portable looping coaster was a hit, which only caused other businessmen to get involved.
Schwarzkopf worked with Rudolf Barth, a famous German showman, to debut Dreier Looping in 1984.
Dreier Looping travelled the German fair circuit as the first roller coaster ever with three vertical loops.
But this only sparked competition.
Bruch saw Dreier Looping and wanted a new roller coaster to compete.
He requested Schwazkopf produce another record breaking roller coaster, this time with 4 vertical loops.
And, in 1986, Thriller premiered at German fairgrounds.
However, during the fabrication phase of Thriller, Schwarzkopf went bankrupt.
Fierce competition from Arrow Dynamics and other amusement manufacturers eventually led
to the company’s demise.
Though fortunately for Rudolf Barth, that didn’t mark the end of the competition.
Rudolf had already contacted Schwarzkopf about constructing another record breaking ride
only a year after the debut of his Dreier looping, back in 1985.
Barth wanted a roller coaster with no less than 5 inversions, which would not only be
the most inversions on a travelling coaster, but also the most inversions on a roller coaster in Germany.
To accomplish this, Werner Stengel and Anton Schwarzkopf of Schwarzkopf designed a coaster
similar to Dreier Looping, but with five vertical loops as opposed to three.
During the design phase, the record breaking ride was known as Fünfer Looping, five looping.
This continued the naming scheme started with Doppel Looping, double looping, and Dreier
Looping, triple looping, the years prior.
Though, the ride wouldn’t go on to be named Fünfer Looping, but Olympia looping instead.
During the design process the five loops were positioned and coloured in a way that represented
the logo of the olympic games, giving the ride its loose theme and name.
But as Schwarzkopf was bankrupt, who went on to actually build the ride for Rudolf Barth?
The manufacturing of the attraction was handed over to Bayerische Huttenstahl (BHS), a company
that had worked with Schwarzkopf in the past.
BHS also went on to contribute towards other unfinished Schwarzkopf projects too, including
Lisebergbanan at Liseberg and Jetline at Grona Lund.
On top of this, after its liquidation, Anton Schwarzkopf founded a small design company.
This firm worked alongside BHS to supply components for the ride, such as the trains, track design
and lift mechanism.
Interestingly, it was during the design process that the companies involved within the construction
of the ride corrected an issue found on previous Schwarzkopf travelling roller coasters.
It was discovered that rides like Dreier Looping and thriller featured far more right turns
than left turns, leading to excessive wear to one side of the train’s chassis.
To resolve this issue, Olympia’s layout was designed to incorporate more variations
in turns, reducing the uneven wear.
Four years after the rides conception, and thanks to the hard work of many, Olympia Looping
officially debuted at Oktoberfest in Munich Germany, on the 17th of September 1989.
Fortunately, it was a great success then, and continues to be a success now.
Since it’s debut, the ride has toured countless fairgrounds, amusement parks and other events;
being host to millions of riders in total.
Today, it usually makes annual visits to several places, such as it’s birthplace, Oktoberfest,
the world’s largest beer festival and travelling funfair; Wiener Prater, an amusement park
in Vienna, and Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland, one of London’s largest christmas events.
But what makes Olympia Looping so successful?
Arguably, it’s the ride experience.
Guests begin their journey by boarding one of the attraction’s 5 trains.
The trains usually consist of 5 or 7 cars, depending on location and capacity requirements.
Each car seats guests in 2 rows of 2, leading to a maximum of 28 riders per train.
Once boarded, guests pull down their lap bar and shoulder restraints and begin their ride.
The trains immediately begin climbing up the curved tire lift, ascending 32.5m 107ft high.
Without much warning, guests crest the top of the twisted drop, and quickly plummet down the first decent.
The cars dive 30m 99ft towards the ground, at the maximum vertical angle of 60 degrees.
It’s here that riders reach the top speed of approximately 84kmh 52mph, and enter the
first of the five inversions.
Guests plough through vertical loop number one, measuring 25m 82ft tall at its highest point.
They then whip to the left, complete a downward 180 degree turn, and enter the next two inversions.
Riders fly through vertical loops number 2 and 3, which both stand 19m 62ft tall.
After, the trains ascend a left hand climb and pass into a block brake.
Guests then head back towards the ground, complete a long drop to the right, and enter
the final two inversions.
The trains speed through the 4th and 5th vertical loops, both of which stand 14m 46ft tall at
the front of the ride.
Riders then climb up into a second block brake, before completing a 540 degree downward right hand helix.
The ride comes to an end with a banked turn to the left, an upward banked turn to the
right, and a small dip - all of which leads visitors into the final brake run.
During the entire 70 second ride experience, guests navigate a total of 1250m 4101ft of track.
Once it’s been transported to a new location, all of this track takes roughly a week to
assemble with 10 workers.
When fully constructed, Olympia Looping can be a real money maker.
As of 2019, a single ride on the 5 looping roller coaster cost £9 at Winter Wonderland,
and 10 Euros at Oktoberfest.
With all 5 trains running, a maximum of 3000 guests can ride in a single hour, equating
to 27000 pounds every 60 minutes.
Despite the reasonably high price per ride, millions are willing to pay it each year.
Most want to experience the world’s largest travelling roller coaster and its impressive vertical loops.
While others appreciate the ride for its forceful layout, which at its most intense subjects
guests to 5.2gs of force.
Nevertheless, it’s impressive that after over 30 years of operation Olympia Looping
remains both intact, and beautifully smooth.
Have you ridden this portable roller coaster, and if so, where was it located at the time?
Regardless, thank you for watching, and we’ll see you all next time.
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