Texas Giant. Rattler. Mean Streak. Some of the biggest wooden roller coasters ever built have been turned into new steel hybrid creations by Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC). They’ve gone from being either OK or downright bad rides to being ranked among the best roller coasters in the world. Rocky Mountain Construction’s first wood-to-steel hybrid transformation project was New Texas Giant in 2011. Their latest project in the US is Iron Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa, scheduled to open in 2020 (Iron Gwazi is now open, read our review here).
While it stinks to see the total number of wooden roller coaster continue to dwindle, I think even the biggest wooden roller coaster fans would rather see a wood coaster turned into a hybrid rather than torn down altogether. That got us to thinking, what rides would have made amazing hybrid coasters? We tried to keep this list to mostly modern wooden coasters, ones that might have realistically gotten a chance to be saved had the structures stood a little longer or if RMC had started transforming coasters earlier.
Here are the top ten wooden roller coasters we wish had been given the RMC treatment rather than being destroyed.
10. Hurricane
Location: Myrtle Beach Pavilion
Original Height: 101 ft
Closed: 2006
Does the park still exist: No
New name: Tempest
Probably the closest out-and-back hybrid transformation Rocky Mountain Construction has done is turning Robin Hood into Untamed at Walibi Holland. The stats for each wood coaster are similar: 105 ft and 3,400 feet long for Robin Hood and 101 feet, 3,800 feet long for Hurricane. Maybe an Untamed caliber world-renown ride would’ve been the key to keeping the Pavilion from closing.
9. Psyclone / Texas Cyclone
Location: Six Flags Magic Mountain / Six Flags AstroWorld
Original Height: 95 feet / 93 feet
Closed: 2006 / 2005
Does the park still exist: Yes / No
New Name: Twisted Twister
What might an RMC conversion of Psyclone or Texas Cyclone look like? The best example is the transformation of Georgia Cyclone into Twisted Cyclone, as all three coasters are inspired by the Coney Island Cyclone and have very similar layouts. It would’ve been neat to see RMC do different design variations for each coaster.
8. The Villain
Location: Geauga Lake
Original Height: 108 feet
Closed: 2007
Does the park still exist: No
New name: Villain’s Revenge
This is another coaster I could see being similar to Untamed.
7. Dania Beach Hurricane
Location: Boomers (Dania, Florida)
Closed: 2011
Height: 100 feet
Length: 3,200 feet
Does the part still exist: No
New Name: Dania Beach Blaster
I see this RMC conversion as being pretty similar to Medusa Steel Coaster at Six Flags Mexico, which is 98 feet tall with 3,000 length of track. Imagine a twisted barrel roll drop and numerous airtime moments. Interestingly, both the original Medusa wood coaster and Dania Beach Hurricane opened in the year 2000.
6. Mr. Twister
Location: Elitch Gardens
Height: 96 feet
Closed: 1994
Does the park still exist: No, the original park does not. The park moved locations between 1994 and 1995. The new Elitch Gardens is home to the Twister II wood coaster.
New Name: Twister 3
Here’s one YouTuber’s concept of what an RMC Mr Twister might look like:
5. Thunder Road
Location: Carowinds
Height: 93 feet
Length: 3,819
Closed: 2015
Does the park still exist: Yes
New Name: Iron Road
While this concept shown in NoLimits is pretty straight forward it still looks like it’d be a ton of fun.
4. Hercules
Location: Dorney Park
Height: 95 feet (but drop was 151 feet)
Length: 4,000 feet
Closed: 2003
Does the park still exist: Yes
New Name: Antaeus
The RMC hybrid that probably best uses the terrain is Iron Rattler at Six Flags Fiesta Texas. Picture a mix between Iron Rattler and Twisted Timbers.
3. Ozark Wildcat
Location: Celebration City
Height: 80 feet
Length: 2,613
Closed: 2008
Does the park still exist: No
New Name: Wildcat Reborn
I would expect RMC Ozark Wildcat to compare to Joker at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, where they took a similar mid-size, compact, twisted wooden coaster into a crazy, thrill packed hybrid coaster.
2. Rolling Thunder
Location: Six Flags Great Adventure
Height: 96 feet
Length: 3,200 feet
Closed: 2013
Does the park still exist: Yes
New name: Twisted Thunder
Here’s a great example of an incredible ride RMC Rolling Thunder could have been:
1. Son of Beast
Location: Kings Island
Height: 218 feet
Length: 7,032 feet
Closed: 2009 (removed 2012)
Does the park still exist: Yes
New Name: Beast Slayer
Number one on our list is easy – the largest wooden roller coaster ever torn down. While visually impressive, the layout of the original Son of Beast was underwhelming and really not that interesting, consisting mostly of large turns.
Imagine the possibilities if Rocky Mountain had been able to work their magic!
It’s fun to think about what could have been.
Are there any other wooden roller coaster coasters you think we missed? Let us know in the comments below.
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