''Speed Monster'' is a
launched roller coaster located at the Norwegian theme park,
Tusenfryd
Tusenfryd (lit. "Thousand Joys", also Common Daisy) is an amusement park at Vinterbro, Norway. The park is located 20 kilometers south of Oslo. Two of the longest motorway corridors in Norway, E6 and E18, meet nearby ''Tusenfryd'' and the park ...
. Built by
Swiss manufacturer
Intamin, the ride opened in 2006 and features a rare element known as a "
Norwegian Loop".
History
The ride was announced on July 7, 2005 and was revealed to be Tusenfryd's biggest investment in its history, at a cost of 60 million
kroner (about
€
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...
7.5 million). It was also announced that the ride would feature a hydraulic launch and three
inversions.
Due to the park's unique topography, the ride is partially located upon a 20 metre high rock slope and weaves its way through trees. The harsh climate and rocky location made construction difficult, with areas of soft earth requiring deeper foundations.
Construction was completed in December 2005 in icy conditions.
Soon after completion, heavy snowfall left drifts of 1 metre in the area, which would have held up construction had the ride not been complete.
Since its opening, ''Speed Monster'' has been sponsored by
Mazda
, commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan.
In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one m ...
, tying in with the race car theming present throughout the ride.
Ride experience
Each of the two racing car themed
train
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 ...
s consists of three cars, each with four seats for a capacity of 12 riders per train. Upon leaving the station, riders are accelerated from 0 to 55.9 miles per hour in 2.2 seconds before negotiating the long course. ''Speed Monster'' is the world's first roller coaster to feature a "
Norwegian Loop", an element which inverts riders twice and wraps around Tusenfryd's unusual entrance
escalators.
References
{{reflist, 2
External links
Official TusenFryd website
Roller coasters in Norway
Roller coasters introduced in 2006