David Ellis
07-05-2009, 09:59 PM
Yesterday I attended the opening of the new steel coaster, Mumbo Jumbo, at Flamingoland Park in Yorkshire, England. This is a very similar ride to Steel Hawg at Indiana Beach. Here is my brief description of my on-ride experience:
Overall I thought it was a bit "quirky" but a pretty fun ride. The
coaster itself is very compact...after leaving the station you turn right into
the steep 98ft tall lifthill. At the top you drop a little, allowing the
train to pick up a nice bit of speed, so that after turning a 180 degree
left turn and towards the "record-breaking" 112 degree first drop you get
nicely taken over the curve and immediately face the ground below (well,
below and back just a bit).
After that you swoop up immediately into another sharp but smooth left turn, and into the very weird middle section. Here is where the car leans outwards and takes a left hand 180 degree turn banked towards the outside, rather than the usual inward banked track. This gives you the feeling that the car is going to be thrown off the track, and very effective it is too.
After that bit you come to the first of the two inversions, which feels a bit like my favourite bit of the Manhattan Express coaster in Las Vegas...you basically do a half in-line twist so the car is travelling upside down, then into a reverse half loop, taking you back underneath yourself the right way up. Great fun. Then a couple more turns and the final inversion, which is an in-line heartline roll on a downward sloping bit of track. A turn to the right follows and after a dip you rise into the smooth magnetic brakes.
OK, you can ignore all that...I am talking Mumbo Jumbo!
Apart from my purist view that you cannot get a steeper drop than 90 degrees (vertical), this new Record Breaking ride is a really good fun ride and hopefully will give the park a deserved boost in visitor numbers. What used to be a small UK park now has quite a line up of coasters, and Mumbo Jumbo seems a perfect addition to its coaster menu.
Press report here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/8133816.stm
David.
Overall I thought it was a bit "quirky" but a pretty fun ride. The
coaster itself is very compact...after leaving the station you turn right into
the steep 98ft tall lifthill. At the top you drop a little, allowing the
train to pick up a nice bit of speed, so that after turning a 180 degree
left turn and towards the "record-breaking" 112 degree first drop you get
nicely taken over the curve and immediately face the ground below (well,
below and back just a bit).
After that you swoop up immediately into another sharp but smooth left turn, and into the very weird middle section. Here is where the car leans outwards and takes a left hand 180 degree turn banked towards the outside, rather than the usual inward banked track. This gives you the feeling that the car is going to be thrown off the track, and very effective it is too.
After that bit you come to the first of the two inversions, which feels a bit like my favourite bit of the Manhattan Express coaster in Las Vegas...you basically do a half in-line twist so the car is travelling upside down, then into a reverse half loop, taking you back underneath yourself the right way up. Great fun. Then a couple more turns and the final inversion, which is an in-line heartline roll on a downward sloping bit of track. A turn to the right follows and after a dip you rise into the smooth magnetic brakes.
OK, you can ignore all that...I am talking Mumbo Jumbo!
Apart from my purist view that you cannot get a steeper drop than 90 degrees (vertical), this new Record Breaking ride is a really good fun ride and hopefully will give the park a deserved boost in visitor numbers. What used to be a small UK park now has quite a line up of coasters, and Mumbo Jumbo seems a perfect addition to its coaster menu.
Press report here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/8133816.stm
David.