Heartline roll

A heartline roll inversion on Colossus at Thorpe Park
A heartline roll on a pipeline roller coaster, where the car is located between the rails

A heartline roll, also known as a barrel roll, is a roller coaster inversion in which the rider performs a 360 degree roll on one axis. Unlike the in-line twist, the elevation of the track changes throughout the inversion to keep the train travelling at the same level.

The heartline roll was introduced by TOGO on their Ultratwister model, the first of which opened in 1985. In 1996, Intamin opened their first two roller coasters with heartline rolls, with one of them being Cop Car Chase at Movie Park Germany. It has since been used by several companies including Zamperla, Gerstlauer, and Bolliger & Mabillard. Maverick at Cedar Point was originally designed with a heartline roll, but it was removed before the coaster opened because it put excessive stress on the trains, and may have been too intense for riders. It was then replaced with an s-curve.

While usually existing on their own, multiple heartline rolls can be strung together. Double heartline rolls are featured on Typhoon, a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter installation, and Outlaw Run, a Rocky Mountain Construction wooden roller coaster. Intamin have included triple and quadruple heartline rolls on their 8-Inversion and 10-Inversion coasters respectively.

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Thrill elements