Matugani

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Matugani

Lost Island Theme Park
Location	Waterloo, Iowa, USA
Coordinates	42°26′19″N 92°18′34″W / 42.438594°N 92.309317°W / 42.438594; -92.309317
Section	Yuta Earth Tribe
Status	Operating since May 20, 2023
Rider height	52 inch minimum

Liseberg
Name	Kanonen
Location	Gothenburg, Västra Götaland, Sweden
Coordinates	57°41′36″N 11°59′43″E / 57.693279°N 11.995316°E / 57.693279; 11.995316
Operated	April 23, 2005 to December 30, 2016
Cost	50,000,000SEK ($6,775,000USD)
Replaced by	Valkyria

Statistics

Manufacturer

Intamin

Product

Accelerator Coaster

Designer / calculations

Ing.-Büro Stengel GmbH

Type

Steel - Launched

Riders per train

16

Hourly capacity

930

Propulsion

Hydraulic launch

Height

79 feet

Top speed

46.6 mph

Length

1444 feet

Inversions

2

Drop angle

90°

Duration

0:50

Matugani is a steel launched roller coaster at Lost Island Theme Park in Waterloo, Iowa, USA. It was formerly located at Liseberg in Gothenburg, Västra Götaland, Sweden, and named Kanonen from 2005 to 2016. The ride was manufactured by Intamin and on-site construction was handled by RCS GmbH when the ride was located at Liseberg.

History

In 2002, Liseberg's only inverting roller coaster HangOver (a Vekoma Invertigo installation) was removed to make room for the park's new ride Balder, which opened in 2003. The park contacted many manufacturers to build them a new looping coaster, with the winning bid coming from Swiss company Intamin. Lars-Erik Hedin, technical director of Liseberg cited "good experiences" with Balder, also made by Intamin, as one of the reasons the product was chosen.^[1]

In 2004, Liseberg announced that they would be building a launched roller coaster. It would be named Kanonen and feature inversions.^[2] Kanonen opened on April 23, 2005 at Liseberg.

In September 2016, Liseberg announced that Kanonen would be removed in order to make way for Valkyria, a Bolliger & Mabillard Dive Coaster.^[3]

Kanonen closed on December 30, 2016 at Liseberg. According to Interlink, the ride was sold to an unknown theme park. In July 2018, it was confirmed by the European Coaster Club's First Drop magazine that Lost Island Theme Park in Iowa had purchased the ride. However, Lost Island later confirmed that despite their acquisition of Kanonen, they had no plans to rebuild the ride. Later, Kanonen's layout was shown in their concept art renderings for Lost Island's future Theme Park, indicating that they were building it contrary to previous statements.

In 2021, the coaster was reconstructed in Waterloo, Iowa, United States, at the new Lost Island Theme Park. The ride is painted bright lime green. In January 2022, the new name for the coaster was revealed to be Matugani, which features snake-themed trains. The theme park opened in summer 2022; however, the ride was not ready.^[4] It opened at the start of the park's second season on May 20, 2023.^[5]

Design

Elements
Hydraulic launch from 0-46.6 mph in 2.0 seconds Top hat (outside) Vertical loop In-line twist

The ride sat on a compact footprint while at Liseberg and was built on top of its maintenance buildings.

Layout

The train accelerates to 46.6 mph straight out of the station, and into a 78.7 feet high top hat element which is immediately followed by an airtime hill and a 65.6 feet high vertical loop, and a highly banked turnaround. The train then passes through a barrel roll (which threaded the loop) before entering the brake run.

Trains

2 trains with 4 cars per train. In each car, riders are arranged 2 across in 2 rows, for a total of 16 riders per train.

Rollbacks

As with many launched roller coasters, Matugani suffers from rollbacks when the train does not gain enough momentum on the launch track in order to make it over the top-hat and rolled down backward. Magnetic brakes along the launch track slow the train down safely when this happens. Rollbacks usually only happen if it is windy or the track is wet, but other factors can affect the launching system.

On June 8, 2009, the right conditions meant that a train with 14 riders got balanced at the top of the top hat.^[6]