![Poltergeist](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Poltergeist.jpg)
A twister roller coaster is the generic name given to any
roller coaster
A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are o ...
layout which tends to twist or interweave its track within itself several times. It is essentially the opposite of an
Out and Back roller coaster, which is often a much more simplistic layout. Twister roller coasters often have the illusion of having small or tight clearances due to the track usually travelling through several support structures. This is known as a
head chopper effect.
Twister roller coasters were unheard of before the 1920s. John Miller is credited with inventing upstop wheels and secure lap bar restraints, both which led roller coaster designers to create wilder and twistier layouts.
A good example of the difference between an out and back design and twister design is layouts of
Apollo's Chariot and
Raging Bull
''Raging Bull'' is a 1980 American biographical sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, produced by Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler and adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from Jake LaMotta's 1970 memoir '' Raging Bull: My ...
, two
Bolliger & Mabillard
Bolliger & Mabillard, officially Bolliger & Mabillard Consulting Engineers, Inc. and often abbreviated B&M, is a roller coaster design consultancy based in Monthey, Switzerland. The company was founded in 1988 by Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabil ...
designed
hypercoaster
A hypercoaster can mean one of two things:
*Any continuous-circuit roller coaster with a height or drop measuring greater than 200 feet
Or, more narrowly:
*Any complete-circuit roller coaster with a height or drop between 200 and 299 feet ...
roller coasters that debuted in 1999. Apollo's Chariot uses a traditional out and back layout while Raging Bull is a twister.
Types of roller coaster
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