Medusa Steel Coaster, formerly known as simply Medusa, is a

steel roller coaster A steel roller coaster is a type of roller coaster classified by its steel Railway track, track, which consists of long steel tubes that are run in pairs, supported by larger steel columns or beams. Trains running along the track typically rely ...

located at

Six Flags México Six Flags México is an amusement park located in the Tlalpan forest and borough, on the southern edge of Mexico City, Mexico. It is owned and operated by Six Flags, and is the most visited theme park in Latin America with 2.8 million annual vis ...

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. Manufactured by

Rocky Mountain Construction Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) is a roller coaster manufacturing and construction company based in Hayden, Idaho, United States. It is best known for its I-Box track and Topper Track for wooden roller coasters. Founded by Fred Grubb and Suan ...

(RMC) and designed by

Alan Schilke Alan Schilke (, ) is an American engineer and roller coaster designer based in Hayden, Idaho, United States. He first made his mark on the industry by designing the 4th Dimension roller coaster, X2 (roller coaster), X2, while working with Arrow ...

, the ride opened to the public on 14 June 2014. It was originally a wooden coaster constructed by

Custom Coasters International Custom Coasters International (CCI) was one of the premier wooden roller coaster manufacturers in the world and produced 34 wooden coasters in eleven years — more than any other company in recent times. It was located in West Chester, Ohio. Hi ...

that debuted in June 2000. The wooden track was completely removed and replaced with RMC's

I-Box track Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) is a roller coaster manufacturing and construction company based in Hayden, Idaho, United States. It is best known for its I-Box track and Topper Track for wooden roller coasters. Founded by Fred Grubb and Suann ...

technology, a steel conversion that resulted in a new track layout with increased speed and the addition of three inversions. Medusa was generally well-received, ranking several times in the top 50 among steel roller coasters in the annual

Golden Ticket Awards ''Amusement Today'' is a monthly periodical that features articles, news, pictures and reviews about all things relating to the amusement park industry, including parks, List of amusement rides, rides, and ride manufacturers. The trade newspape ...

from ''

Amusement Today ''Amusement Today'' is a monthly periodical that features articles, news, pictures and reviews about all things relating to the amusement park industry, including parks, rides, and ride manufacturers. The trade newspaper, which is based in Arl ...

''.

History

On 5 May 1999, Premier Parks (later renamed

Six Flags Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an American amusement park company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It was formed on July 2, 2024, following a merger between longtime rivals Cedar Fair and the former Six Flags ...

) announced the acquisition of Reino Aventura in Mexico. On 8 December 1999, it was announced Reino Aventura would be rebranded Six Flags México in time for the 2000 season. As part of this process Premier Parks would add 13 new rides, including a wooden roller coaster named ''Medusa''. On June 2, 2000, ''Medusa'' officially opened to the public along with the refurbished and rebranded park. In late 2009,

Six Flags Over Texas "Six flags over Texas" is the slogan used to describe the six sovereign countries that have had control over some or all of the current territory of the U.S. state of Texas: Spain (1519–1685; 1690–1821), France (1685–1690), Mexico (1821� ...

closed their ''Texas Giant'' wooden roller coaster for a $10 million renovation which took more than a year to complete.

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

-firm

replaced the wooden track with a new steel

, retaining a wooden support structure. The refurbishment was ultimately a success with "resoundingly positive reviews from riders". The park's parent company,

, immediately began looking for other rides in its chain which would benefit from a similar overhaul. For the 2012 season parts of the ''Medusas track was covered with Rocky Mountain Construction

Topper Track Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) is a roller coaster manufacturing and construction company based in Hayden, Idaho, United States. It is best known for its I-Box track and Topper Track for wooden roller coasters. Founded by Fred Grubb and Suann ...

. On 1 July 2013, Six Flags México announced that ''Medusa'' would be closing on 18 August 2013, leading to speculation that the ride may be next to receive a transformation from wood to I-Box steel track by Rocky Mountain Construction. Following the ride's closure, work began on removing the wooden roller coaster track. On 29 August 2013, Six Flags officially announced that Rocky Mountain Construction would be converting the wooden roller coaster to a steel track, in a similar style to that done on the ''

New Texas Giant New Texas Giant is a steel roller coaster located at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington, Texas. It originally opened as Texas Giant, which was the tallest wooden roller coaster, wooden coaster in the world when it debuted in 1990. Manufactured b ...

'' and ''

Iron Rattler Iron Rattler is a steel roller coaster located at Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio. The ride originally opened in 1992 as Rattler, the tallest wooden roller coaster in the world. It was converted to steel in 2013 by Rocky Mountain Construc ...

''. The refurbished attraction opened on 14 June 2014. On 1 September 2016, it was announced that Medusa Steel Coaster would receive the ''New Revolution'' virtual reality upgrade in 2017. Many other Six Flags coasters received this in 2016.

Characteristics

''Medusa Steel Coaster'' is located in the Pueblo Vaquero area of Six Flags México. It is Rocky Mountain Construction's third installation of I-Box track, and the second to feature an inversion. It operates with two

trains A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

manufactured by

. Each train is made up of six cars which seat riders in two rows of two. Riders are restrained by a lap bar. The table below compares the original ''Medusa'', with the updated ''Medusa Steel Coaster'' ride.

Ride experience

Once the train departs from the

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

, riders would travel to the left leading to the

chain lift hill A lift hill, or chain hill, is an upward-sloping section of track on a roller coaster on which the roller coaster train is mechanically lifted to an elevated point or peak in the track. Upon reaching the peak, the train is then propelled from ...

. Once climbing the hill, the train would make a right down the first inversion

zero-g roll Roller coasters are widely known for their drops, inversions, airtime, and other intense ride elements that contribute to the ride. They are also made up of a variety of features and components responsible for the mechanical operation and safety ...

heading down the first hill at an angle of 54°. After the main drop the riders would experience going through several drops,

helices A helix (; ) is a shape like a cylindrical coil spring or the thread of a machine screw. It is a type of smoothness (mathematics), smooth space curve with tangent lines at a constant angle to a fixed axis. Helices are important in biology, as ...

, many airtime moments and two more zero-g rolls, until the train returns to the station.

Reception

''Medusa Steel Coaster'' has generally been well-received by enthusiasts.

Eugenio Derbez Eugenio González Derbez (; born September 2, 1961) is a Mexican actor and comedian. He has appeared in many films and television series, including '' The Book of Life'', ''The Angry Birds Movie 2'', and '' CODA''. In the 2010s, he appeared in ...

Danna Paola Danna Paola Rivera Munguía (born June 23, 1995), known mononymously as Danna and formerly as Danna Paola, is a Mexican singer and actress. She gained popularity as a child actress and singer, starring in dozens of television projects throughout ...

Drake Bell Jared Drake Bell (born June 27, 1986) is an American actor and musician. Born in Newport Beach, California, he began his career as a child actor in the 1990s, appearing on ''Home Improvement (TV series), Home Improvement'' (1994) and in severa ...

, and several other celebrities of Mexico all took part of the opening celebration on 14 June 2014 and gave positive reviews of the steel roller coaster. Prior to the conversion to steel, ''Medusa'' never ranked in the ''

among wooden coasters. After the renovation in 2014, Medusa Steel Coaster was not ranked the first year either, nor was it mentioned in the top candidates for best new ride. However in 2015, it debuted in a tie at the 49th position, and climbed as high as 37 in 2017.

References

External links

Official website
* *
Medusa Steel Coaster
at

{{Custom Coasters International roller coasters Roller coasters in Mexico Roller coasters operated by Six Flags Six Flags México 2014 establishments in Mexico Hybrid roller coasters