SheiKra
SheiKra (pronounced shee-krah) is a vertical drop roller coaster in Tampa, Florida. It is situated in the Stanleyville section of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. It comes from renounced coaster designers Bolliger and Malibillard (B&M) as one of their 'Dive Machine' coasters.
Layout
It has a 200-foot vertical drop, an Immelman inversion, a carousel turn, a second (less steep) 138-foot drop into a tunnel, and a splash into a lake. It is 3,188 feet long.
Seating
The cars are unusual in the respect that they are eight people across, rather than two/four. Even though the track on this kind of roller coaster is wider than normal, the end seats still hang off the track.
Origin of name
The "sheikra" is an African hawk that dives straight down to catch its prey.
History
The history of the rides design goes as far back as the mid 1990's. Shortly after Kumba was built, the park planned their next coasters, they wanted to go with the same company that designed Kumba (B&M). Three concepts were shown, the first being Montu, the second concept being a dueling wooden coaster (later built as Gwazi, though the coaster was made by Great Coasters International, not B&M), and last but not least, SheiKra.
SheiKra was originally going to be themed as Victoria Falls and would be situated near Montu. Also, the layout would have been chopped in half, it would only consist of a vertical drop, a turn, and a water splash.
Other Facts
SheiKra was the first vertical-drop roller coaster in the United States, and the first roller coaster of its kind to include an Immelman inversion and a true 90 degree vertical drop. The other two coasters of its type are Oblivion at Alton Towers theme park in the UK and G5/Flying Submarine at Janfusun Fancyworld amusement park in Taiwan.