Daidarasaurus

Daidarasaurus
Expoland
Location	Expoland
Coordinates	34°48′16″N 135°32′09″E
Status	Removed
Opening date	1970 (1970)
Closing date	December 9, 2007 (2007-12-09)
General statistics
Type	Steel – Dueling
Manufacturer	Sansei Technologies
Lift/launch system	Two chain lift hills
Height	28 m (92 ft)
Length	2,340 m (7,680 ft)
Speed	72 km/h (45 mph)
Inversions	0
Duration	6:33
Daidarasaurus at RCDB

Daidarasaurus was a steel roller coaster located at Expoland in Suita, Osaka, Japan. According to some sources (i.e. the roller coaster database), Daidarasaurus was the second longest roller coaster in the world, behind Steel Dragon 2000. For reasons explained below, other sources (i.e. the Guinness Book of World Records) did not recognize Daidarasaurus's claim as longest roller coaster in the world from 1999 to 2000. Daidarasaurus has now been demolished as Expoland is now permanently closed.

History

Daidarasaurus opened with the park in 1970, and consisted of 5 separate tracks. These were a smaller, more family scale rollercoaster, 2 racing coasters, and 2 dueling coasters, the tallest out of all of them, as the other three shared the same lower height. In 1999 the two taller dueling tracks were combined at the end of the ride to create one exceptionally long track with two lift hills. This also made it a Quasi Möbius Loop. This effectively doubled the length of the ride. What remains in dispute is whether this actually qualified as one long coaster or back-to-back rides on the same coaster. The three other coasters were removed when this conversion happened, with the majority of their supports remaining until the whole coaster’s demolition.

References

• Expoland to close 21 months after fatal roller coaster disaster accessed June 7, 2009.