Red Force is a steel

launched roller coaster The launched roller coaster is a modern form of roller coaster. A launched coaster initiates a ride with high amounts of acceleration via one or a series of linear induction motors (LIM), linear synchronous motors (LSM), catapults, tires, chains ...

located at Ferrari Land within

PortAventura World PortAventura World is an entertainment resort in Salou and Vila-seca, Tarragona, on the Costa Daurada in Catalonia, Spain. It was built around the PortAventura Park theme park, which attracts around 3.5 million visitors per year, making it the ...

Salou Salou () is a municipality of the ''comarca'' of Tarragonès, in the province of Tarragona, in Catalonia, Spain. The city is approximately 10 km from Tarragona and Reus on the Costa Daurada and 112 km from Barcelona. Founded by the Greek ...

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, Spain. The ride was manufactured by Lichtenstein based Swiss manufacturer

Intamin Intamin Amusement Rides is a design and manufacturing company in Schaan, Liechtenstein. It is best known for creating thrill rides and roller coasters worldwide. The Intamin brand name is a syllabic abbreviation for "international amusement ins ...

and opened on 7 April 2017. With a height of and a maximum speed of , Red Force is the tallest and fastest roller coaster in Europe as of 2022.

Characteristics

Ride experience

Once the train leaves the station, it is accelerated by linear synchronous motors from zero to in 5 seconds. The train then ascends a tall

top hat A top hat (also called a high hat, a cylinder hat, or, informally, a topper) is a tall, flat-crowned hat for men traditionally associated with formal wear in Western dress codes, meaning white tie, morning dress, or frock coat. Traditionally m ...

, twisting 90 degrees to the right. Once the train goes over the top hat, it descends back down, again twisting 90 degrees to the left. This sends the train travelling parallel to the launch track but in the opposite direction. The train then enters a flat brake run and then ascends a small airtime hill before entering the final set of brakes.

Trains

Red Force's

trains In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often know ...

have three cars each. Each car seats four riders, allowing a total of 12 riders per train. The ride can accommodate approximately 1,200 riders per hour.

Track

The steel track of Red Force is approximately long and tall. The track is dark grey and the supports are red.

Launch

Red Force uses linear synchronous motors to accelerate the train from 0 to in 5 seconds. The ride uses

supercapacitors A supercapacitor (SC), also called an ultracapacitor, is a high-capacity capacitor, with a capacitance value much higher than other capacitors but with lower voltage limits. It bridges the gap between electrolytic capacitors and Rechargeable ba ...

to store and dissipate the energy needed to launch the train, reducing the peak load from the power grid necessary to launch the coaster.

References