“Whatever that thing is in front of us is, I really hope it can hold all of our weight,” says roller coaster aficionado Robb Alvey as the car he is sitting in reaches the end of the track. And it literally is the end – just a couple of feet ahead of where the train has come to a halt, the rails suddenly stop and there is naught but blue sky.
This is the Gravity Max roller coaster in Taiwan’s Discovery World theme park, a ’tilt coaster’ built by Dutch thrill rides designer Vekoma which features a section of track at the top of the chain lift that slowly tilts from horizontal to vertical before clicking into place and releasing the safety lock to drop the train down. Provided, of course, that the rails line up…
Shot by the professional thrill seekers from Theme Park Review, the following video shows just how terrifying Discovery Land’s roller coaster really is. For anyone who’s afraid of heights (right here!), roller coasters can be nerve-racking enough, but add in the fact that the track your car is connected to isn’t even complete until seconds before you’re thrown into the abyss, and you reach a whole new level of fear.
▼ Um, are you quite sure this thing’s finished?
▼ If that safety latch were to break open… <shudder>
▼ Still no track.
▼ Please line up, please line up, please line up…
We’ll leave you now with Robb’s video in full. Honestly, just watching the footage is enough to make us feel a little queasy, and we’re not entirely sure we’d be able to get on this thing without a little man-handling and maybe a gentle tranquiliser.
After all, as Robb says, there are two kinds of fear to be dealt with when riding the Gravity Max: “The ‘oh shit’ factor is when you come to the top and you realise there’s nothing in front of you; the ‘shit’ factor is when you go down the drop.”
Rather you than us, sir. Rather you than us.
Love roller coasters? Check out our top 10 coasters in Japan!
Source: Kotaro (Japanese)
Video/images via YouTube themeparkreviewTPR
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