Family : Jaguar! Offers More Purr

Far from being the “ferocious cat” it has been dubbed, Knott’s Berry Farm’s new Jaguar! roller coaster more closely resembles a feisty house cat than the feral cousin it was named for.

By cutting-edge standards, the 2,700-foot steel-railed coaster is more purr than howl. Hard-core thrill freaks will no doubt find the Boomerang and Montezooma’s Revenge coasters more to their liking. Lacking barrel roles, vertical loops, free falls and other similar devices, Jaguar! just doesn’t deliver the goods for roller-coaster hounds who settle for nothing less than abject terror.

But for others, this cat has enough spring in its pounce--and a style of its own--to bring a shout and a smile.

It’s a long, loping romp that sails along playfully at one moment and pounces the next, sliding into curves and bursting into the straight-aways with giddy abandon.

The Mayan-themed ride is an elegant mass of steel that snakes its way throughout one-sixth of the park’s area on a heady half-mile jaunt that hits speeds up to 35 m.p.h.

The ancient-temple theme is extended throughout a courtyard area, where there are carnival games and a unique fountain in which park guests can use huge water cannons to manipulate pre-Columbian-looking kinetic sculptures.

Riders make their way through the cavernous Temple of the Jaguar, an authentically modeled ziggurat resembling pre-Columbian Mayan shrines and festooned with mysterious statuary, murals and human skulls.

The three-minute ride sets out from the temple, climbing 60 feet, then doubling back to plunge into a sharp corner and an ascent back to the top of the temple, where jets of fire and mist await. From there, it’s a gallop through a busy series of turns and straight stretches.