< The Latest 2025-01-20T22:43:22+0000
The Pasadena Star-News | Mon 01/20 02:43pm PST | Brady MacDonald
The race is on to open the first tilt roller coaster in the United States with amusement parks in Ohio and Texas vying for the chance to be the first to tip American riders vertically on a see-sawing “broken track” and let them loose on a looping high-speed adventure.
Ohio’s Cedar Point and the new Cotaland amusement park in Austin, Texas both plan to open Vekoma tilt coasters in 2025.
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Siren’s Curse at Cedar Point will reach a top speed of 58 mph over 3,000 feet of track, according to Roller Coaster Database.
The 160-foot-tall Vekoma Cliffhanger Tilt Coaster will tip riders 90 degrees straight down using the tilt track before releasing them into a pair of corkscrew inversions and 13 airtime moments.
Circuit Breaker at Cotaland will feature four inversions — a rollover camelback, a twisting Immelmann turn and a pair of barrel rolls.
The Cotaland ride will be a slightly different Vekoma Pitfall Tilt Coaster model, according to RCDB.
Regardless of which ride opens first, Cedar Point is billing Siren’s Curse as the tallest, longest and fastest tilt coaster in North America.
Cedar Point has developed a backstory for the coaster based on the legend of the Lake Erie sirens who lure sailors to their demise with seductive songs.
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On-board audio will play the sinister siren’s song as riders ascend the lift hill along with the creaking sounds of the “broken track” as it slowly tilts into a 90-degree vertical position with the train locked in place.
Cotaland’s Circuit Breaker is also expected to feature on-board audio.
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Siren’s Curse would bring Cedar Point’s coaster tally to 18 if it can get Top Thrill 2 running again as promised in 2025. That would still be far behind Six Flags Magic Mountain’s 20 coasters with another on the way in 2026.
The still-under construction Circuit Breaker will be among Cotaland’s six coasters when the park officially opens in 2025. Cotaland has been operating three already-completed coasters during concerts and special events, according to RCDB.
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The tilt coaster isn’t a new idea. It’s just taken a few decades to take off. Vekoma opened its first tilt coaster in 2002 at Taiwan’s Discovery World, according to RCDB.
China’s Jinma Rides has installed a few versions of its tilt coaster at smaller parks throughout the country.
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Until now, the tilt coaster has been overshadowed by the more popular dive coaster — which offers the same cliffhanging experience without the track-tilting mechanical complications.
Both Cedar Point (Valravn) and Cotaland (Palindrome) have dive coasters in their ride lineups. Locally, Knott’s Berry Farm is home to the Hangtime dive coaster.
Vekoma’s tilt coaster will have a bit of revival in 2025 with three of the rides set to open.
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The new Six Flags Qiddiya City will include a Vekoma tilt coaster when the Saudi Arabia amusement park debuts in 2025.
The 208-foot-tall Iron Rattler will reach a top speed of 73 mph over 4,000 feet of twisting and looping track. The world’s tallest tilt coaster will also be longer and faster than Siren’s Curse.
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Who will win the race to open America’s first tilt coaster?
Cotaland has a big head start on Cedar Point, but don’t be surprised if Siren’s Curse opens before Circuit Breaker.
Cedar Point only needs to open a new coaster while Cotaland has to open an entire amusement park that has been plagued by delays.
Cotaland takes its name from the Circuit of the Americas — or COTA — the Formula One race track that opened in 2012 in Austin, Texas. The 21-acre amusement park under construction next to the race track was originally set to open in 2022, but has been pushed back to 2025.
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Cedar Point plans to open Siren’s Curse in “early summer,” but the ride won’t be ready for the park’s 2025 opening day on May 3. The new coaster is expected to begin testing in May.
Cotaland isn’t expected to open until late 2025 under the best of circumstances, according to Screamscape.
Plenty of Americans have experienced a tilt track thanks to the 2014 Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts. But very few ride enthusiasts would call the Universal Orlando dark ride a “tilt coaster.”
The Vekoma tilt coaster coming to Cedar Point was once intended for Six Flags Mexico, but plans changed with the merger of Six Flags and Cedar Fair.
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The tilt track revival feels like a throwback to the 1990s coaster wars when parks were constantly trying to one-up each other with the latest coaster gimmick. Winners were repeated at sister parks and losers were relegated to the scrap heap of history.
The same thing could happen with the latest iterations of Vekoma’s tilt coaster. If Siren’s Curse turns out to be a hit, you can be certain copycats will start showing up across the newly expanded Six Flags chain.
If Siren’s Curse turns out to be a dud, Americans will have to travel to Sandusky, Ohio ,or Austin, Texas, to get their tilt coaster thrills.