El Toro (Six Flags Great Adventure)

Roller coaster in the United States
Watch the on-ride POV
El Toro
Six Flags Great Adventure
Location Jackson, New Jersey, USA
Coordinates 40°08′20″N 74°26′05″W / 40.138805°N 74.434608°W / 40.138805; -74.434608
Status Operating since June 12, 2006
Rider height 48 inch maximum
Replaced Viper
Statistics
Manufacturer Intamin
Product Wooden Coaster (Prefabricated Track)
Designer / calculations Ing.-Büro Stengel GmbH
Type Wooden
Track layout Out and Back
Riders per train 36
Hourly capacity 1500
Propulsion Cable lift hill
Height 181 feet
Drop 176 feet
Top speed 70 mph
Length 4400 feet
Inversions 0
Drop angle 76°
Duration 1:42
HELP

El Toro (Spanish for "The Bull") is a prefabricated wooden roller coaster located at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, USA. The attraction was designed by Intamin and opened on June 12, 2006.[1] It had the steepest drop of any wooden roller coaster in the world, at 76 degrees, until this record was broken by T Express at Everland in 2008.

The ride is the only prefabricated wooden coaster by Intamin in the United States.

History

On September 28, 2005, Six Flags Great Adventure announced that El Toro would be added to the park. It would replace Viper, an infamous looping coaster that closed in 2004 after years of maintenance issues and plummeting guest satisfaction. Viper's station would be reused.[2][3] The final piece was topped off in December 2005.[4]

El Toro opened on June 12, 2006.[5]

A single rider line was added to El Toro in 2022.[6]

Design

Elements

Unlike "traditional" wooden roller coasters, El Toro was prefabricated in a factory. Instead of trackers cutting, shaping and laying down the track, each piece of track was cut by using a laser. This means it was manufactured to a higher degree of precision than can be achieved by hand. The track snaps together easily and is made out of layers of wood that are tightly bonded together instead of nailed together by hand like a traditional wooden roller coaster. This makes the ride much smoother and speeds up construction (thus costing less as less man-hours are needed to construct the ride.

Trains

2 trains with 6 cars per train. Riders are arranged 2 across in 3 rows for a total of 36 riders per train.

Incident

On June 29, 2021, a train partially derailed and stalled. Nobody was injured, but El Toro was closed pending a report on the incident from Intamin.[7] The ride reopened for the 2022 season.[8]

In August 2022, the ride was closed because of guests' complaints of roughness. After it was declared "Structurally compromised," the park got to work on making it a better experience. The coaster re-opened in June 2023.[9]

Images

References

  1. "Monstrous 'El Toro' Wooden Roller Coaster Unleashed". Ultimate Rollercoaster.
  2. "Six Flags Great Adventure To Build Monstrous Wooden Coaster". Ultimate Rollercoaster.
  3. "El Toro". GreatAdventureHistory.
  4. "Six Flags Great Adventure Tops Off New Roller Coaster". Ultimate Rollercoaster.
  5. "New roller coaster debuts".
  6. "Six Flags Great Adventure Announces the Return of Medusa + Tons of 2022 Changes". NewsPlusNotes. 2022-03-06. Retrieved 2022-03-07.
  7. Tanenbaum, Michael (2021-07-01). "El Toro roller coaster shut down at Six Flags Great Adventure after partial derailment". Philly Voice. Retrieved 2021-08-3. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  8. "Six Flags Great Adventure heropent houten achtbaan El Toro".
  9. "Good news, bad news for Six Flags roller coaster fans". Theme Park Insider. Retrieved 2024-03-03.

External links

  • El Toro on the Roller Coaster DataBase.
Tallest wooden roller coaster drop
June 2009 - May 2014
Preceded by
Son of Beast
Tallest wooden roller coaster drop
June 2009 - May 2014
Succeeded by
Goliath
Fastest wooden roller coaster
2012 – May 2014
Preceded by
Colossos
Fastest wooden roller coaster
2012 – May 2014
Succeeded by
Goliath
Steepest wooden roller coaster
2006 – 2008
Preceded by
Balder
Steepest wooden roller coaster
2006 – 2008
Succeeded by
T Express


Articles on Six Flags Great Adventure