Few roller coasters have had as wild a life as Top Thrill Dragster. But then again, few roller coasters dare to tackle the same speed, acceleration, height, and adrenaline that the world’s first stratacoaster did. Even through rough patches, there was no question that Top Thrill Dragster was an engineering marvel, and though both taller and faster rides had indeed surpassed its statistics, none could match its boldness in breaking through the 400 foot height barrier with Intamin’s signature abandon.
For eighteen white-knuckle years, Top Thrill Dragster launched riders from 0 to 120 miles per hour, propelled by a wire, pulled by a winch, and powered by pressured hydraulic fluid and a prayer. The accident in 2021 could well have marked the end of Cedar Point’s troublesome landmark. But Dragster hadn’t crossed its finish line; it was just at a pit stop.
On January 9, 2023 – four months after their cryptic statement teasing the “a new and reimagined ride experience” – Cedar Point tweeted a video promising “A new formula for thrills – coming 2024.” Seemingly a reference to Formula One racing, the promotion set the coaster world on fire suggesting that Top Thrill Dragster – or some version of it – would indeed return… And just like that, imaginations revved up…
What if…?
With the official acknowledgement that Top Thrill Dragster wasn’t so much retired as in the process of a rebirth, anything seemed possible, including the impossible.
Coaster enthusiasts raced to mock-up solutions for the ride, imagining arcing swing launches, extended layouts with speed-racing second halves, massive twisting towers, and even dreams of stealing back the coaster crown by extending the ride’s top hat to surpass 500 feet. Surely the equivalent of coaster enthusiast fan fiction, such dreams were fun… so long as you didn’t let them recalibrate your expectations.
Back on earth, most insiders agreed that any rethink of Dragster would be likely to center on a new launch system, ridding the ride of the troublesome hydraulic launch with its moving parts, costly maintenance, and shredded cables. The business of launching roller coasters had changed significantly since Intamin’s Accelerator model originated, with friction-less LSMs serving as a new staple. Even so, fans debated: given Cedar Fair’s icy relationship with the ride’s manufacturer, would Intamin even be invited to submit a proposal for the ride? And if not Intamin, then… who?
On June 27, 2023, @CedarPoint tweeted out a white roller coaster structural component, signaling a “first delivery” with a checkered flag emoji. The mystery track segment coincided with major work on the coaster itself.
Throughout the summer, Top Thrill Dragster’s iconic sunburst yellow supports and cherry red track disappeared beneath a new paint job: gunmetal gray and white. Rumors swirled that the “new” Dragster would shed its racing stripes and be re-stylized as a cosmic, space-themed launch into the stars. (The name “Polaris” was floated by insiders and even teased by a toying marketing team.)
Cedar Point itself seemed to put those rumors to rest in July when “CP Racing” photo spots appeared along the Dragster midway, adorning construction walls with invitations to “JOIN THE TEAM – 2024” and “GET REVVVED UP,” all centered on an announcement due August 1, 2023.
Unfortunately for Cedar Point, the answer came on July 31, 2023 – one day before the park’s planned announcement. Confirming some fans’ theories, the news broke via an accidental early site update from Italian ride manufacturer Zamperla.
Though Zamperla had been on the short list of fans’ potential manufacturers for the reborn ride, many considered it a long-shot. After all, despite being credited for nearly 400 roller coasters, a vast majority of Zamperla’s portfolio is made of kiddie and family coasters. (The company’s real bread and butter is the flat ride business, including the omnipresent Disk’O and the increasingly widespread NebulaZ.) Zamperla has just a few major roller coasters in its history, with the best known probably being Thunderbolt In Luna Park at New York’s Coney Island (a park which Zamperla itself operates).
Unlikely as the manufacturer may have been to tackle one of the highest profile re-launches of one of the most legendary roller coasters on Earth, under Zamperla’s watch, the remains of Top Thrill Dragster would indeed evolve…
Top Thrill 2
In 2024, Cedar Point will officially hit the racetrack once more with TOP THRILL 2. (Yes, that’s the ride’s official full name, proving that some things never change at Cedar Fair.) Name aside, Zamperla’s solution for the revived Dragster is clearly rooted in necessity.
As expected, the ride will strip out Intamin’s problematic hydraulic launch system as well as the ride’s trains (the cause of the 2019 accident) in favor of LSMs – linear synchronous motors lining the launch track and using electromagnetism to propel new, Zamperla-produced rolling stock. Of course, the (relatively) gradual acceleration provided by magnetism is a major change from the nearly instantaneous potential-to-kinetic energy conversion of unspooling of a hydraulically-powered launch cable, which means that – disappointingly, but unsurprisingly – a 0 to 120 mph launch is simply unattainable.
Apparently, even with LSMs lining the entire stretch of launch track, Zamperla expects its new dragster-shaped trains to only be able to reach 74 miles per hour. Even that will likely take eight or nine Mississippi seconds versus the previous ride accelerating to nearly twice the speed in half the time. Clearly, that speed won’t give the train enough momentum to crest the top hat (and indeed, if the park’s renderings are accurate, it probably won’t even make it a quarter of the way up, meaning it won’t quite recreate the much-desired feel of a 400-foot rollback).
Riders on Top Thrill 2 will then fall backwards, realigning with the LSM straightaway, passing backwards through the launch and reaching its next speed peak: 102 miles per hour. That’ll be enough to rocket it backwards past the station and up the ride’s newest feature: a 420-foot tall vertical spike, providing views straight down.
After several seconds of weightlessness, the trains will plunge down the spike, passing through the launch a third time to finally reach the 120 miles per hour needed to clear the top hat, spiraling back down and crossing the finishing line as before.
It’s easy to see why some enthusiasts were instantly enamored with Top Thrill 2. In one fell swoop, the reimagined ride manages to provide the longer ride experience fans have long wished Dragster offered, while also adding a “rollback,” a backwards launch, and a vertical spike – all “necessary evils” of the new LSM launch system, but ultimately good things in terms of making Top Thrill 2 more worth the wait. (Notably, the new layout will also have a switch track to transfer trains onto the ride circuit, since single-train operation like many shuttle coasters would be impractical.)
Of course, it’s also easy to see why some enthusiasts were immensely disappointed by the announcement. It’s not just because a year of fan-made Planet Coaster variations introduced ideas not included in the ride’s final form (and frankly, that Intamin might’ve included had they been selected to contribute) – it’s because Top Thrill 2 inherently emphasizes a different aspect of the experience than the original.
Though Top Thrill Dragster’s top speed and height were often held up as its hallmarks (and both will remain in Top Thrill 2), fundamentally, it was the acceleration that made the ride was it was. That instantaneous intensity was unlike anything else. Sure, tears will be whipped from your eyes when Top Thrill 2 hits the same 120 mile per hour top speed… but it’ll be after 36 seconds of swinging, stalling, and gradual acceleration.
Will the backwards launch and vertical spike make up for it? In practice, probably. Thrillseekers will no doubt disembark Top Thrill 2 with adrenaline coursing and praising it as a spectacular ride. But calibrate your expectations: it’ll probably be different kind of triumph than the “hallelujah chorus,” “best ride ever,” shaking legs that a 0 – 120 mile per hour 4 second launch can create. Top Thrill 2 may be a more complete roller coaster experience, but it’ll also be a less concise one.
And in the interim – after Top Thrill 2’s announcement but before those first rides prove its unique successes – it’s understandably difficult for fans to reconcile what will be with what could’ve been… We don’t even know if Intamin participated in the redesigned ride’s theoretical RFP process… but if Intamin had been selected as the ride’s re-doer, might be see arcing launch track like Toutatis? A spiral spike like Wicked Twister? Banking track like Pantheon? Vertical LSMs like Volcano?
And to that end, could a more practiced manufacturer like Intamin have gotten more than 74 miles per hour out of that first LSM launch? We just can’t know, and unfortunately, “the grass is always greener.” But until Top Thrill 2 launches in 2024, there’s no question that conversation about this converted coaster will only accelerate…
Final Lap
For nearly two decades, Top Thrill Dragster pushed the limits of what a roller coaster can do. 18 million riders were propelled from 0 to 120 miles per hour, shattering the 400-foot height record day after day after day. The silhouette on the peninsula. The trains. The sounds from around the park. The sights from the top. “Baby, I’m ready to go!” In every way, Top Thrill Dragster was a legend.
And now, via Top Thrill 2, the 400-foot ride – one of just two stratocoasters on Earth – seems to have been granted a second lease on life. Consider it a poetic inversion to the fate of fellow ultra-extreme Coaster Wars behemoth, record-breaker, and Lost Legend: Son of Beast, which was similarly given the green light to re-open after a rider injury, but was kept closed in plain sight for years… until it was finally demolished.
Somehow, it seems that Kinzel’s Coaster Wars equivalent of the A-Bomb won’t meet the same fate… but as to whether Top Thrill 2 will have a story as wild as its fabled predecessor? Our best advice for now is simple: “Arms down, head back, and hold on…”
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