Six Flags Great Adventure - Photo Journal

...Gone!

That's a long way down.

Kingda Ka descent, pt. 1

Kingda Ka descent, pt. 2

Flying over the camelback brake run, which honestly doesn't add much to the ride.

Despite being taller, faster, and with the extra hill, I still prefer Dragster over Kingda Ka, but there's no denying they're both quite psychologically intense thrill rides.

I took this same photo at golden hour back in 2008, and in both years it ended up being one of my favorite photographs of the trip. What honestly disappoints me the most about the removal of Rolling Thunder will the be loss of the ivory colored wood to contrast with the natural sienna hue of El Toro's structure.

Many enthusiasts write about wooden coasters from this period like they're enduring a cruel and unusual punishment, which inevitably results in a dialectically opposed contingent that finds them relatively enjoyable compared to the default standard.

I myself was pretty "meh" after my one ride on Rolling Thunder; it was closed a lot of the day, with only the right side opening later in the day (the side I had already ridden during my only prior lap in 2003). I still hate to see a racing wooden coaster wasted, if only because modern companies aren't designing rides like this anymore.

I think this photo succinctly conveys what there is to appreciate about Six Flags theme parks.

El Toro. I will be spending a lot of time walking by this sign and statue.

The station reuses the station from the old "Viper" Togo heartline coaster. This is definitely an improvement.

Waiting for the front row. Lines were rarely more than two cycles long, a few more for this seat.

This looked way better when it was covered in a pink and teal bubblegum wrapper.

First drop, pt. 1

First drop, pt. 2

El Toro is an incredibly dynamic ride.

"High uplift forces" happen here

Look at all those hands in the air. And that empty front row seat, such a tragedy...

El Toro, along with possibly X2, are the only two coasters in the Six Flags chain I would rate as truly first-class coaster experiences.

Admittedly this oversized, overcontrolled turnaround is the one part of the layout I'm not crazy about; I think something more dynamically compelling could have been designed here. Fortunately it happens in the early middle half of the ride, where psychologically it doesn't matter as much if it's a bit of a dead stop.

Why can't more Six Flags parks look like this?

In general I'm not a huge fan of the Intamin prefabricated wood coaster design. The three bench cars are unnecessarily bulky and are prevented from doing a lot of maneuvers the more nimble, trailered designs from other manufacturers can do.

El Toro is the only Intamin prefab to really get the formula right, which is to focus on huge suicidal drops that create massive amounts of whip in the extreme ends of the over-long train, and then change it up in the second half while keeping the whole thing feeling over speed.

Granted the only other Intamin P&P woodie I've been on is T-Express, which has its El Toro-like moments. In the head-to-head comparison between the two coasters in Mitch Hawker's coaster poll (where both rides are treated like Gods), my vote goes to El Toro, no contest.

A lot of people find this low speed hill to be a dead spot, but I really like the way it emphasizes the visual aspect of shredding through the wooden superstructure, and build anticipation for the big moment that's after the next curve...

...Wait for it...

The small hill on the left makes me want to drive back to New Jersey more than the big hill on the upper right. (The hill on the bottom right, though...)

Not only does El Toro's "Rolling Thunder hill" feature one of the most intense moments of airtime on any roller coaster in North America (notice people are either hanging on tight or have their arms whipped straight up as high as they can go), it's placed perfectly in the progression of the ride layout, effectively creating a shock jump cut between the relatively mild, straight-forward middle section and the rapid-fire direction changes of the sidewinder finale.

I could have been a hipster coaster nerd and said vintage rides are better than this one to look cool, but honestly El Toro is just great and I'm not going to qualify that fact any more.