Viper is a

steel roller coaster A steel roller coaster is a roller coaster that is defined by having a track made of steel. Steel coasters have earned immense popularity in the past 50 years throughout the world. Incorporating tubular steel track and polyurethane-coated whee ...

located at

Six Flags Darien Lake Six Flags Darien Lake is a 1,200-acre (4.86 km2) amusement park and resort located in Corfu, New York, off of Interstate 90 between Buffalo and Rochester. Six Flags Darien Lake features a theme park, water park, campground and lodging. It i ...

amusement park in

Darien, New York Darien is a town in Genesee County, New York, United States. The population was 3,158 at the 2010 census. Darien lies in the southwestern part of Genesee County, southwest of Batavia. History During the early historic period, the area was o ...

, United States. Built by the newly-formed

Arrow Huss Arrow Dynamics was an American manufacturing and engineering company that specialized in designing and building amusement park rides, especially roller coasters. Based in Clearfield, Utah, the company was the successor to Arrow Development (194 ...

, the ride opened in 1982 as the first roller coaster in the world to feature five inversions, surpassing

Carolina Cyclone Carolina Cyclone is an Arrow Dynamics roller coaster located at Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina. The coaster is located in the Carolina Boardwalk area of the park. Built in 1980 by world-renowned (and now defunct) coaster manufacturer Arrow ...

Carowinds Carowinds is a amusement park located adjacent to Interstate 77 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The park straddles the North Carolina-South Carolina state line, with a portion of the park located in Fort Mill, South Carolina. However, it has an of ...

which featured four. Viper retained the inversions record until

Vortex In fluid dynamics, a vortex ( : vortices or vortexes) is a region in a fluid in which the flow revolves around an axis line, which may be straight or curved. Vortices form in stirred fluids, and may be observed in smoke rings, whirlpools in th ...

opened at

Kings Island Kings Island is a amusement park located northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, United States. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the park first opened in 1972 by the Taft Broadcasting Company. It was part of a larger effort to move and expan ...

in 1987.

History

On November 17, 1981, Darien Lake announced that they would be building a new roller coaster for the 1982 season. It would be built by Arrow Huss and be the park's first major roller coaster. This one would also be the first roller coaster to take guests upside down five times. The new coaster was set to be named ''Thunderbolt Express'', but this was changed to ''Viper''. Viper officially opened to guests on May 29, 1982. The track was originally all black, but it was repainted to a green track with black supports when

Six Flags Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an American amusement park corporation, headquartered in Arlington, Texas. It has properties in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Six Flags owns the most theme parks and waterparks combined of any amu ...

took over Darien Lake in 1999. In 2010, Darien Lake repainted the Viper all black again. The trains were once color coded blue, red and yellow. In 2013, the trains were given green vinyl wraps. One train had an orange stripe and another had a blue stripe. The third train was disassembled and used for spare parts for the two other trains. Currently, Viper only runs with one train with the two trains switching out every year.

Ride experience

Inversions

Layout

After exiting the station house, the track makes a wide U-Turn to the lift hill, which then brings the car up above the ground. Technically speaking, the "first drop" of The Viper is about , which gives the train enough momentum to round a bend to the right, before dropping off the first real hill of roughly . At the bottom of the first drop, the train reaches its maximum speed of , which is followed by a vertical loop. Next, the train enters a batwing element (also known as ''boomerang'' on Arrow Dynamics coasters), which is a heart-shaped series of two inversions, consisting of a reverse sidewinder followed by a sidewinder. By the time the train exits those, the track has turned 180° and is now headed back towards the station. After a left turn the train encounters the mid-ride brakes. Next, the track makes a 180° turn to the right and enters two consecutive corkscrews. Then its off into a 540° helix where the track goes through a 110' tunnel, then finally returns to the station. Points of interest: The entrance queue goes under portions of the track, allowing an underneath point of view for observers. During the event FrightFest, there is an attraction where an old mini golf course used to stand underneath the track as well, now only accessible during FrightFest. Also, there is an

on-ride camera An on-ride camera is a camera mounted alongside the track of a roller coaster, log flume or other thrill ride that automatically photographs all of the riders on each passing vehicle. They are often mounted at the most intense or fastest part of th ...

that takes pictures of the guests and photos can be purchased at a shack near the ride's exit. In the past, this camera was mounted beside the end of the second corkscrew. For the 2017 season, the camera was positioned at the top of the entrance to the tunnel.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Viper (Darien Lake), The Six Flags Darien Lake Roller coasters in New York (state) Roller coasters introduced in 1982 Roller coasters operated by Six Flags 1982 establishments in New York (state)