Magic Mountain to Add 3 New Rides in Bid to Become Coaster Capital

Six Flags Magic Mountain plans to build three roller coasters next year in a bid to wrest the title of the world’s roller coaster capital from the Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio.

The building project, which others in the industry estimated would cost $20 million to $30 million, would be the biggest ever for the Valencia theme park, owned by Oklahoma City-based Six Flags Inc. It would coincide with Magic Mountain’s 30th anniversary.

Two of the coasters would be new generation steel attractions that would twist and turn riders in new combinations. Early news of the coasters has already created a buzz among roller coaster enthusiasts. The third coaster would be designed for children.

“This is a pretty significant expansion and will bring Magic Mountain worldwide attention,” said Rick Turner, the Southern California spokesman for the American Coaster Enthusiasts club. “The public likes superlatives like being able to say you have the most roller coasters in the world.”

All told, the additions would give Magic Mountain 15 coasters compared with the 14 of Cedar Point. Earlier this year, Cedar Point opened Millennium Force, a 310- foot-tall coaster that hits speeds of 92 mph.

Magic Mountain’s expansion comes at a time when other theme parks in Southern California are laying low, preferring not to embark on big projects in the same year Walt Disney Co. will open California Adventure, a companion theme park to Disneyland in Anaheim.

After aggressively adding coasters and other thrill rides in recent years, Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, for example, doesn’t plan to add any big attractions in 2001.

Disney will spend tens of millions of dollars promoting the California-themed park even after it opens Feb. 8. Other parks figure they will get a bump from expected increased tourism to Southern California.

With no big projects announced at Cedar Point--owned by the same company that operates Knott’s, Sandusky-based Cedar Fair--Six Flags executives decided that 2001 would be a good year to pitch itself as one of the premier thrill ride parks in the nation. Moreover, they believe the new rides will help Magic Mountain get a bigger share of the Disney spillover crowd this summer.

News of the building program surfaced in an insert and renewal form sent to Magic Mountain season pass holders earlier this week.

Calling itself “The Xtreme Park,” Magic Mountain told pass holders that it would build the “X,” which it said would allow riders to speed across the track at up to 76 mph on vehicles that spin 360 degrees.

“No one really knows what this coaster will be like,” said Eric Gieszl, who operates the Ultimate rollercoaster.com Web site.

X is a new type of coaster and will be built by Arrow Dynamics, one of the pioneers in steel track coasters. It provided the ride system for Disneyland’s famous Matterhorn. Gieszl said he has seen Arrow drawings that show riders sitting two by two in the coaster’s train. As the coaster train moves forward, the seats spin, tumbling and flipping the riders.

DejaVu, the second planned coaster, is a new generation of what’s called a boomerang coaster, though this version will suspend riders from a track that runs above their heads, leaving their feet dangling in the air.

Gieszl expects DejaVu to be a shuttle-style coaster where riders are pulled up one side a hill and then dropped through multiple inversions before climbing up a second hill. Magic Mountain picked the DejaVu name because after climbing the second hill, the coaster train drops again, sending the riders through the same course, only backward.

Magic Mountain said DejaVu will hit speeds of 65 mph, almost a third faster than older boomerangs. Gieszl said its towers will likely reach to 160 feet tall, compared with about 125 for older versions.

Six Flags plans to provide more details next week.