Viper (Darien Lake)

The Viper
The Viper's 121-foot lift hill.
Location	Darien Lake
Coordinates	42°55′42″N 78°22′54″W
Status	Operating
Opened	May 1982
Type	Steel
Manufacturer	Arrow Dynamics
Designer	Arrow Dynamics
Model	Steel multi-inversion
Height	121 ft (37 m)
Drop	75 ft (23 m)
Length	3,100 ft (940 m)
Max speed	50 mph (80 km/h)
Inversions	5
Capacity	2100 riders per hour
Height restriction	4 ft 0 in (122 cm)
The Viper at RCDB
Pictures of The Viper at RCDB
Amusement Parks Portal

The Viper is a steel looping roller coaster located at Darien Lake Amusement Park near Buffalo, New York. This was the first large ride at the park and the first roller coaster of its type anywhere in the world to have five inversions. The ride was built through a joint venture of the now defunct Arrow Dynamics and Huss. It opened in 1982, and still operates to this day. The coaster has two trains, color-coded red and blue, with seven cars each; riders are two across with two rows in each car. The track was originally all black, but it was repainted to a green track with black supports when Six Flags took Darien Lake over. In 2010, Darien Lake painted the Viper all black again.

The Viper used to run a yellow train. However, they took it off and have not used it in years.

Viper at Darien Lake was the first coaster in the world with five inversions, succeeding the previous record, The Demon at Six Flags Great America. The ride had the most inversions of any coaster in the world until 1987 when Arrow Dynamics built Vortex at Kings Island.

Ride layout

Exiting the station house, the track makes a wide U-Turn to the lift hill, which brings the car up 120 ft. above the ground. Technically speaking, the "first drop" of The Viper is about 10 feet, which gives the train enough momentum to round a bend to the right, before dropping off the first real hill of roughly 70 feet. After the drop takes the train through the vertical loop, it enters consecutive batwing rolls. By the time the train exits those, the track has turned 180° and is now headed back towards the station. After a left turn the train encounters the mid-ride brakes. Next, the track makes a 180° turn to the right and enters consecutive corkscrews, spinning twice. Then its off to a large circle where, while making a 540° loop, the track goes through a 110' tunnel, then finally returns to the station.

Ride elements

• Vertical Loop
• Batwing double inversion
• Double Corkscrew
• Tunnel: 110 feet long.

Another point of interest: the entrance queue goes under portions of the track, allowing an underneath point of view for observers and also after the double corkscrew there's a camera that takes the riders' picture and the photo can be bought at a shack near the ride's exit.

Preceded by The Demon

First coaster with 5 inversions May 1982–April 1987

Succeeded by Vortex