Giga roller coaster

Giga

Millennium Force, the first giga coaster
Description	A complete-circuit roller coaster that is 300 to 399 feet tall.
First	Millennium Force - 2000
Oldest	Millennium Force - 2000
Newest	Orion - 2020
Manufacturers	Bolliger & Mabillard - Intamin - Morgan

A giga roller coaster is a complete circuit roller coaster that is built for height, speed, and airtime. These coasters are between 300 and 399 feet in height.

History

Red Force at Ferrari Land

The first roller coaster taller than 300 feet was Tower of Terror at Dreamworld in Australia. Opened in January 1997, it is 390 feet tall but is not a giga roller coaster as it is a shuttle roller coaster, which means the track does not form a circuit. Three years later, the first giga roller coaster was introduced. Millennium Force, located at Cedar Point in Ohio, United States opened on May 13, 2000 and is 310 feet tall. The same year, Steel Dragon 2000 opened on August 1. It is 8 feet taller than Millennium Force and is also the longest roller coaster, with a track length of 8,133.2 feet. It was during the announcement of Millennium Force on July 22, 1999 that the term "giga coaster" was coined.

Ten years passed before the third giga coaster, Intimidator 305, opened. Meanwhile in 2003, Top Thrill Dragster opened at a height of 420 feet. It was the first strata roller coaster (i.e. the first complete-circuit roller coaster over 400 feet tall).

The first giga coaster from Bolliger & Mabillard was Leviathan at Canada's Wonderland, opened in 2012. Their second giga coaster, Fury 325, opened at Carowinds in 2015.

Red Force became the tallest giga coaster and the first to have a launch as opposed to a lift hill when it opened in 2017. It has a single top hat element.

There are now seven giga roller coasters in operation. The most recently opened is Orion, which premiered at Kings Island in Mason, Ohio on July 12, 2020.

List of giga roller coasters

Name	Park	Country	Opened	Manufacturer	Height	Drop
Millennium Force	Cedar Point	USA	May 13, 2000	Intamin	310 feet	300 feet
Steel Dragon 2000	Nagashima Spa Land	Japan	August 1, 2000	Morgan	318 feet	307 feet
Intimidator 305	Kings Dominion	USA	April 2, 2010	Intamin	305 feet	300 feet
Leviathan	Canada's Wonderland	Canada	May 6, 2012	Bolliger & Mabillard	306 feet	306 feet
Fury 325	Carowinds	USA	March 28, 2015	Bolliger & Mabillard	325 feet	320 feet
Red Force	Ferrari Land	Spain	April 7, 2017	Intamin	367.3 feet	Unknown
Orion	Kings Island	USA	July 12, 2020	Bolliger & Mabillard	287 feet	300 feet