(Sandusky) – Steel Vengeance, the world’s first “hyper-hybrid” roller coaster, received its first challengers Wednesday morning – invited members of the media – to share their inaugural ride experience with their readers, viewers and listeners.
Steel Vengeance is a roller coaster unlike any other. Riders board one of three trains and climb 205 feet above FrontierTown. Once they crest the lift hill, they stare straight down a 90-degree initial drop and a 200-foot dive to the ground. Multiple airtime hills follow, including the world’s fastest airtime hill ever created on a hybrid roller coaster, and a 116-foot-tall outer-banked hill placing riders on an outward tilt while moving forward.
Steel Vengeance also features the world’s first “Twisted Snake Dive,” snaking the train through a half-barrel roll, holding it upside-down for a brief moment and then twisting it back into the direction of travel, not completing a full roll. Multiple airtime hills, twists, dives and overbanked turns follow in this 2-minute, 30-second journey.
An entirely new classification of roller coaster has been defined in Steel Vengeance – the “hyper-hybrid.” It combines the hybrid construction of smooth steel track set atop a wooden structure, but also reaches a height of over 200 feet – the defining feature of a “hyper-coaster.” It marks the fourth classification of roller coaster introduced by Cedar Point as the park’s ever-higher roller coasters have needed new categories to define them. In total, Steel Vengeance shatters 10 world records, including tallest, fastest and longest hybrid roller coaster.
(Photo by Cheryl Z/WTAM 1100)