USA TODAY International Edition
The Wonder Woman coaster lassoes thrills
After spending some 70 years in the shadows of such superheroes Superman and Batman, Wonder Woman rocked the box office with her 2017 blockbuster film. If movies can welcome Princess Diana of Themyscira to its upper echelons, why not theme parks?
Rounding a corner at Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio, a statue of the Amazon stands regally in front of her marquee thrill ride, Wonder Woman: Golden Lasso Coaster. Golden Lasso may be comparatively small, but like its namesake heroine, it packs a mighty punch.
And the Six Flags ride lays claim to two distinctions that no other park can make: It’s the first roller coaster to be named after Wonder Woman, and it’s the world’s first single-rail IBox coaster.
A second Wonder Woman coaster will open at Six Flags Mexico later this year, and a second single-rail IBox coaster will open at California’s Great America in Santa Clara this spring.
Nearly all roller coasters ride on two sets of rails.
Wonder Woman, however, rests on a twisting, 151⁄2-inch-wide steel monorail, which the ride’s manufacturer, Rocky Mountain Construction, refers to as “Raptor Track.”
Unlike the tubular pipe tracks found on most steel roller coasters, the new Six Flags ride features RMC’s patented IBox track.
The I-beam rail is flat on top and has channels on either side (like the letter “I”) into which the trains’ up-stop wheels fit. Wonder Woman marks the first coaster that marries a single-rail configuration with an IBox track.
What is it like to ride Wonder Woman: Golden Lasso Coaster? I had the honor of being the first guest to put the new thrill machine through its paces.
The trains are one of a kind. Because the rail is so narrow, each car seats only one person. There are eight cars per train for a total of eight passengers. The ride has three trains, and instead of stopping, they slowly move through the station, making for efficient loading and unloading.
Because the track is under the train, there isn’t anything encumbering passengers to the left or the right except for the low-slung, open cars.
“It’s basically a seat on a rocket sled,” says Jeffrey Siebert, president of Six Flags Fiesta Texas. “You are blasted all over.”
Climbing the lift hill, it quickly becomes apparent that this is a breakthrough coaster.
The track isn’t where it is supposed to be.
Looking down at the thin rail, the coaster just looks and feels weird in a wonderful way, which raises the question: Why design a coaster like this?
“The single rail allows us to put a whole bunch of dynamic elements into a compact ride with out-of-control pacing,” Siebert says.
Sure enough, the train rounds a bend at its 113-foot peak and dives a 100-foot, 90-degree drop that feels faster than the clocked 52-mph speed.
Then Wonder Woman slams up and into what the park calls a raven inversion that sends passengers racing uphill and floating out of their seats only to be turned upside down and dropped to the ground.
From there, it is a blur of airtime hills, twists, and turns.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a midcourse drop plunges riders to the ground and hovering above their seats as they ascend back up.
Because of the single rail, the transitions among each of the elements feel especially zippy.
To borrow from one of Wonder Woman’s Justice League pals, the ride is over in a flash. It lasts just about one minute.
“You can see why we call it Golden Lasso Coaster,” notes Siebert.
“It’s truly like riding at the end of Wonder Woman’s lasso when it’s whipping around in different directions.”
Because there is no need to gauge and align the left and right rails, the ride experience of a single-rail coaster can be extra smooth, and I found Golden Lasso to be delightfully so.
But it was not noticeably smoother than other high-performance coasters. It’s not that the new coaster is rough; it’s just that it doesn’t quite provide the rock-solid, whisper-quiet monorail ride that the concept might promise.
Front seat or back seat? That’s a tough choice.
The front seat offers a completely unimpeded view, with nothing to distract riders from their solo flights. The back car, however, really pours on the forces and yields a more thrilling experience.