Rita (roller coaster)

For the hurricane, see Hurricane Rita.

Rita
As Rita: (2010-present)
Alton Towers
Location	Alton Towers
Park section	Dark Forest
Coordinates	52.985022°N 1.890515°W / 52.985022; -1.890515
Status	Operating
Opening date	1 April 2005
Cost	£8,000,000
General statistics
Type	Steel – Launched
Manufacturer	Intamin
Designer	Werner Stengel
Model	Accelerator Coaster
Track layout	Steel twister
Lift/launch system	Hydraulic Launch
Height	68.9 ft (21.0 m)
Drop	52 ft (16 m)
Length	2,099.8 ft (640.0 m)
Speed	61.1 mph (98.3 km/h)
Inversions	0
Duration	0:49
Max vertical angle	53°
Capacity	1,040 riders per hour
Acceleration	0 − 61.1 mph in 2.5 seconds 10.92 ms−2 or 1.11 g
G-force	4.7
Height restriction	55 in (140 cm)
Rita at RCDB

Rita (formerly known as Rita: Queen of Speed) is an Intamin accelerator coaster located in the Dark Forest area of Alton Towers in Staffordshire Moorlands, England. Open since 2005, it accelerates to 61.1 mph in 2.5 seconds. The ride is loosely based on drag racing, though this partly changed with the retheming of "Ug Land" into the "Dark Forest" in 2010. It now stands as an abandoned drag racer that is used as the escape cart to escape the Dark Forest. Riders must be over 1.4 m (55 in) tall to ride. In 2006 a similar coaster opened at Thorpe Park, called Stealth.

The ride was temporarily renamed "Camilla - Queen of Speed" on 9 April 2005 to celebrate the marriage of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker Bowles. This simply involved banner signage to notify guests of the name change.

Ride experience

Rita was Alton Towers' new attraction for the 2005 season. The ride starts with the train racing forward from the station area, accelerating from 0–61.1 mp/h in 2.5 seconds, and negotiates high speed corners and air-time hills (The layout is a figure-of-8) before then reaching the brake run parallel with the station. The track is painted red but the higher parts of the track are painted green due to a rule which states that no rollercoaster should be visible above the tree line. The ride has since been partly rethemed to support the theme of nearby Thirteen which opened in March 2010. The ride control cabin and entrance have been refurbished to look 'engulfed' by the branches of the Dark Forest area. As well as the control cabin and Rita tyres being rethemed to suit the Dark Forest, the cars have been rethemed with a darker grey tint to the bottom of the cars with forest stains over the flames to make it fit. It still has the blue and purple cars with flames but with a tint of grey to make Rita look damaged by the supernatural forest.

The voiceover heard before the ride launches is also changed to incorporate a more spooky theme. As opposed to an American-accented motor racing commentary-style voice counting down to the start of a drag race, it is now a sinister, foreboding voice ordering passengers to "Keep your head back! Hold on tight! You MUST escape! Go! Go! Go!".

History

In September 2004 UG Land was stripped of almost all of its attractions including The UG Bugs, The Bone Shaker and Lava Lump preparing for a major new ride. The only rides that remained were the Corkscrew and the UG Swinger.

On 1 April 2005 Rita Queen of Speed opened to the public and 'UG Land and the Thunder Rock Rally' was formed. However over the next few years Rita was completely out of place in the prehistoric theme. Like the theme a lot of the attractions were old and their days were numbered.

• 
  Rita as Rita Queen of Speed: 2005-2009
• 
  Rita launching with Corkscrew 1980-2008 in background.
• 
  Rita Queen of Speed from the queue line

In September 2008, Alton Towers took the decision to close the Corkscrew, after 28 years of service the ride had reached the end of its natural shelf life and on 9 November 2008 The Corkscrew made its final run around the track. Along with the departure of the Corkscrew, UG Land swiftly followed.

In 2009, Alton Towers planned a new record breaking roller coaster to fill the Corkscrew's site and in 2010 the ride opened along with the Dark Forest and it was called Th13teen. Rita Queen of Speed was now just Rita and had a new entrance and repainted cars.

• 
  Th13teen entrance with Rita above.
• 
  Rita 2009- present in Dark Forest

Incidents

On the morning of Tuesday 24 July 2012, the ride's launch cable snapped during morning testing while attached to an empty train. This also happened in 2005. No injuries were reported, but the incident was similar to the 2009 failure of the Xcelerator rollercoaster's launch cable in the United States.

The ride re-opened on Thursday 26 July 2012.

External links

• Rita at the Roller Coaster DataBase