Steel Coasters

Top 10 Steel Coasters

Hang on and take a tour of the wildest rides in the U.S.

-- by Robert Coker,
author of Roller Coasters - A Thrill Seeker's Guide to the Ultimate Scream Machines.
-- Top 10 List From a Survey Conducted by Amusement Today

1. Millennium Force - Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio
They had to invent a new term for this one: the Giga-coaster. Why? Because Millennium Force was the first roller coaster to break the 300-foot height barrier. Hold on; it gets worse. The Force's first 300-foot drop is a horrifying 80 degrees at its steepest, just 10 degrees shy of a completely vertical plunge. At the base of that insane power-dive, you're traveling at a skin-rippling 93 miles per hour. Enough said.

2. Superman Ride of Steel - Six Flags New England, Agawam, Mass.
This heroic hypercoaster - meaning it's over 200 feet tall - is a cornucopia of airtime-crammed hills and rambunctious twists and turns. You can find similar "Superman Ride of Steel" hypers at Six Flags Darien Lake (the number six coaster on our list) and at Six Flags America, in Largo, Maryland, but this version has the largest first drop (221 feet) and the most tempestuous layout of the trio. A work of art.

3. Magnum XL-200 - Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio
Like Millennium Force, Magnum was the first of its kind, too. With a lift hill that rises all the way to 205 feet, this fine machine spawned the "hypercoaster" designation when it bowed in 1989. Dozens of hypercoasters have been erected since, but Magnum remains one of the most cherished. Dazzling views of Lake Erie from the initial peaks and an airtime blitzkrieg finale make this precedent-setting coaster unforgettable.

4. Steel Force - Dorney Park, Allentown, Pa.
Another exquisite hypercoaster, Steel Force roars down its first 205-foot descent right into a tunnel, deliciously magnifying the sensation of speed. Its second summit pushes you all the way back up to 161 feet. And like every proper out-and-back hypercoaster, Steel Force finishes you off with a rocket-sled run over a rump-raising array of snappy hills.

5. Montu - Busch Gardens Tampa, Tampa, Fla.
Dressed up as an Egyptian hawk-headed deity, Montu is an inverted coaster, with trains hanging below the rails and riders' legs dangling free, ski-lift style. As complex in layout as a coaster can get, Montu starts off with a mouth-watering128-foot fall. And that's the precursor to a frenzied flight through all sorts of head-over-heels loops and twists, dives in and out of subterranean trenches, and some very close encounters with the scenery. What a wonderfully demented brain-scrambler.

6. Superman Ride of Steel - Six Flags Darien Lake, Darien, N.Y.
Like its slightly larger brother in New England, this smooth-as-glass hypercoaster gets busy with a 200-plus-foot charge down a 68-degree slope and runs like the wind over several skyscraping hills, covering more than a mile of track. At its midpoint, this Superman, New York State's first hypercoaster, sprints around a tremendous banked helix.

7. Apollo's Chariot - Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Va.
The Apollo's Chariot hypercoaster is an airtime onslaught with a difference: riders sit in elevated, slightly reclined bucket seats with nothing in front or to the sides - all the better to eyeball the ground from way up above it. Its first 210-foot drop is a triumph, and there are plenty more that follow. This barnburner's vertical falls add up to a total of 825 feet which, at the time of its debut, surpassed every other roller coaster in existence.

8. Raptor - Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio
This wig-flipper is another inverted coaster, and though it's not quite as tall or as fast as Montu, Raptor was the world's largest such scream machine when it opened in 1994. It also introduced a double-looping element called the Cobra Roll that twists trains upside-down twice in extremely rapid succession.

9. Incredible Hulk - Islands of Adventure, Orlando, Fla.
The Incredible Hulk motors into action like no other coaster in the world. The fun begins with a sedate climb up a tunneled incline. But in a heartbeat, the train suddenly accelerates to 40 miles per hour and heaves riders right into a looping "zero-G roll" more than 100 feet above Mother Earth. If that doesn't take your breath away, the remaining six upside-down loops will more than do the trick. "Incredible," most definitely.

10. Alpengeist - Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Va.
Rounding out our Top Ten is this monster of an inverted coaster. Alpengeist's lift hill nearly earns it hypercoaster status by soaring to 195 feet. And from that dizzying elevation, this coaster's victims plummet 170 feet down a stylishly banked plunge to reach a top speed of 67 miles per hour. With positive G-forces as high as 3.7, riders are tossed head over heels six times before it's all over.