Goudurix is a steel roller coaster located in

Parc Astérix Parc Astérix is a theme park in France based on the comic book series ''Asterix'' by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny. With around 2.3 million visitors yearly, Parc Astérix is France's second largest theme park, behind only Disneyland Paris wit ...

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. The

Vekoma Vekoma Rides Manufacturing is a Dutch amusement ride manufacturer. Vekoma is syllabic abbreviation of Veld Koning Machinefabriek (Veld Koning Machine Factory) which was established in 1926 by Hendrik op het Veld. History The company originally m ...

-built ride jointly held the European record for the greatest number of inversions upon its opening in 1989. The record was lost in 1995 to

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. It is one of only two coasters in the world to feature a butterfly element (the other being Blue Hawk at

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). In 2007, following the release of the animated movie

Asterix and the Vikings ''Asterix and the Vikings'' (released in French as ''Astérix et les Vikings'' and Danish as ''Asterix og Vikingerne'') is a 2006 Danish animated adventure film based on the French comic book series ''Asterix'', written by Stefan Fjeldmark and ...

, Viking theming was added to the station and nearby rides, in the form of a wooden Viking longboat. Goudurix is located in the back-west of the park (southeast geographically, since park entrance faces south), near the Tonnerre 2 Zeus. The ride was repainted to a yellow and red track with grey supports color scheme from its previous white and yellow track with blue supports. It is one of the park's main attractions, along with the Tonnerre 2 Zeus, OzIris and Trace du Hourra rollercoasters. Previously known for its extraordinarily rough ride which was exacerbated by improperly-designed headrests and unnecessarily hard over-the-shoulder restraints, Goudurix was ranked as the worst steel roller coaster in the world in the 2012 Mitch Hawker Steel Coaster Poll. In response to this, it has seen numerous modifications, including new cars/trains and a complete re-tracking to improve the smoothness of the ride.

Ride elements

Goudurix has seven inversions in total: *Batwing (2 inversions 1 element) *Butterfly (2 inversions 1 element) *Vertical Loop *Double Corkscrew

History

Goudurix has seen many changes of its track, electrical systems and theme since its creation. *1988 : Goudurix built by Vekoma with known problems (such as violent turns) *2000 : Trains are changed and a few different wheels are tested in order to improve the ride comfort *2007 : Total recovery of electrical device *2007 : Theming added to the station *2009 : The whole track is entirely repainted in red and yellow (instead of white and blue) *2010 : A part of the trains are changed, making them heavier *2011 : Test with new wheels to reduce vibrations *2013 : Retracking

References

Roller coasters in France Roller coasters introduced in 1989 Bandes dessinées in amusement parks {{amusement-ride-stub