King Cobra (roller coaster)
| King Cobra | |
|---|---|
| File:King Cobra (Kings Island) Logo.jpg King Cobra Logo | |
| Kings Island | |
| Location | Kings Island |
| Park section | Action Zone |
| Status | Removed |
| Opening date | 1984 |
| Closing date | 2001 |
| Cost | 3,000,000 USD |
| General statistics | |
| Type | Steel – Stand-up |
| Manufacturer | TOGO |
| Designer | James Rogan |
| Model | Stand Up |
| Track layout | Steel |
| Lift/launch system | Chain lift hill |
| Inversions | 1 |
| Duration | 2:00 |
| Max vertical angle | 53° |
| Capacity | 1600 Riders Per hour riders per hour |
| G-force | 6.7 |
| King Cobra at RCDB | |
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The King Cobra (1984–2001) was a prototype TOGO Stand-up roller coaster located at Kings Island in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was the world's first coaster designed specifically to be stand-up. It was taken apart and put up for sale in 2002, due to a few reasons. The ride manufacture TOGO went out of business and parts were expensive to import from Japan. The ride was losing its popularity, and Paramount was removing something every time they built a new attraction. The ride was completely scrapped in 2006. Various scrapped cars were sent to Kings Island's "graveyard", located at the old Wild Animal Habitat feeding house area next to Son of Beast. At the end of the 2008 season they were sent to Kings Dominion to be used as parts donors on Shockwave.
Ride experience
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After being loaded into the 24 passenger stand-up trains, the riders were taken up a 95-foot (29 m) hill, before turning 180 degrees to the right and encountering the first drop. The riders were first welcomed by the vertical loop, which was taken quickly and smoothly. Shortly after the train climbed up the first camelback hill allowing for some floater airtime and then dropped into a 540 degree helix, which had riders standing almost completely sideways. Upon exiting the helix the second camelback hill was encountered and followed by the unique "trick track" section of the ride, where the track was straight, but banked to the left before turning to the right. Before hitting the brake run, the track went over two bunny hills allowing brief moments of airtime before the ride came to a complete stop. The train then turned to the right and was brought back to the station.
Clones and similar attractions
King Cobra has 3 other roller coasters that are similar in design. Each of these coasters still operate to this date.
- SkyRider at Canada's Wonderland is a duplicate of King Cobra, and was built in 1985, the year after the original was opened.
- Shockwave at King's Dominion has a similar layout until the second camelback hill, where instead of a trick track and a turn to the right, the ride immediately turns to the left and goes over one bunny hill before entering the brake run.
- Star Jet at Washuzan Highland is also similar until the second camelback hill. The trick track is replaced by a bunny hill, which then leads to the right turn and the second bunny hill before the brake run. Star Jet also opened as a sit-down roller coaster, but at some point one train was replaced by a stand-up train and another was turned backwards.
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