- "A ride this fast is positively Hyper."
- ―Slogan[src]
Nitro is a steel hyper roller coaster located in Adventure Seaport at Six Flags Great Adventure. It was manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard and opened on April 7, 2001.
From its opening in 2001 until after the 2010 season, Nitro was originally part of the park's Movietown section. It was then reincorporated into the new Adventure Seaport area in 2011.
History[]
Nitro was manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard and opened on April 7, 2001. In 2011, the ride began to be sponsored by Snickers. It is now sponsored by Twix, and recently it has been using the Left Twix / Right Twix advertisement.
Before the ride was announced, in 2000, rumors spread that the park's newest coaster would be called "Superman: Krypton Coaster." However, the ride ended up being named Nitro. The Superman branding would later come to Great Adventure in 2003 as: Superman: Ultimate Flight.
Ride experience[]
Queue[]
The logo for Nitro.
Nitro's queue area consists of an indoor and outdoor area followed by a long path before climbing the stairs into the station. Views from the line show the backside to Batman: The Ride and the Six Flags Great Adventure mechanical and storage area.
Nitro's station music is the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation remix of "Techno Syndrome" by The Immortals, which can be heard during the queue and station. As of 2021, however, the ride has started to play a montage of electronic music, including "Derezzed" by Daft Punk, possibly due to the Mortal Kombat movie released that year. "Techno Syndrome" remains in the playlist, though.
Ride[]
After leaving the station, the train makes a left U-turn and begins to ascend the 230-ft tall lift hill. After reaching the top, the train drops 215 feet at a 68-degree angle, reaching its top speed of 80 mph, then climbs up a 189-ft tall hill and dives down to the left, next coasting over a 161-ft airtime hill. After that, Nitro enters its unique element, which is the the Hammerhead turn, a tight U-turn to the right. Traveling over another camelback hill, Nitro enters its S-curve and into the 540-degree helix. After the mid course brake run, Nitro travels over three camelback hills, followed by a final brake run, and returns to the station. As the third B&M hyper coaster built, the ride is comparable amongst other first-gen B&M hyper hypercoasters like Silver Star at Europa-Park, Goliath at La Ronde, Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America, and Apollo's Chariot at Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
Trains[]
Entrance archway
Nitro operates with three open-air steel and fiberglass trains with individual lap bar restraints. Each train has nine cars with riders arranged four across in a single row for a total of 36 riders per train.
Nitro's trains can be loaded and checked quickly, resulting in very high capacity with all 3 trains running. There are three main reasons for this:
- There is no "backup restraint" that must be checked (Nitro used to have a backup restraint, see below for more details). Most roller coasters have some sort of seat belt (either on the rider's lap or holding the main restraint down) that serves as a safety device in case the main restraint unlocks.
- Nothing needs to move out of the way before the train dispatches and after the train advances into the station. This is not the case on most of B&M's other coaster models. For example, on their flying roller coaster, the floor descends and the seats flip into flying position before the train begins to move. On floorless roller coasters and inverted roller coasters, a sort of gate in front of the trains must swing open in addition to the floor moving.
- The trains can be deployed much more successively than most roller coasters. Usually, as soon as one train has crested the lift hill, the train behind it can be dispatched onto the lift.
Track[]
The steel track is 5,394 feet (1,644 m) in length and the height of the lift is approximately 230 feet (70 m). It was manufactured by Clermont Steel Fabricators located in Batavia, Ohio. The track colors are pink and yellow, with blue supports.
Nitro currently has the second steepest drop of a lifted (as opposed to launched) roller coaster in the park, behind El Toro's 76 degree first drop. The coaster previously featured signs erected on the lift hill stairs which compared points on the hill to other tall structures, such as Niagara Falls; these signs were later removed.
Use in media[]
Nitro was featured three times in a video series by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where Stephen Colbert rides Nitro while learning lessons from professionals.
- Stephen Gets A "Moby Dick" Lesson On A Rollercoaster
- Explaining Net Neutrality Is Easier On A Giant Roller Coaster
- Stephen Learns Macroeconomics On A Roller Coaster
Awards[]
| Golden Ticket Awards: Top Steel Roller Coasters | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | 2003 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
| Ranking | 6 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 10 |
Gallery[]
Videos[]
Images[]
External links[]
- Nitro | Six Flags Great Adventure
Nitro (Six Flags Great Adventure) at Wikipedia- Nitro at the Roller Coaster DataBase
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