Intamin
Intamin is among the largest rollercoaster manufacturers today, but they also sell big water rides and free fall towers. They are the inventors of the popular Rapids Ride as well. Intamin has a reputation of building quality rides that are very durable, but they're also often a bit pricier than the alternatives from other companies.
Intamin has manufactured the tallest rollercoasters on the earth. In 2000 Cedar Point in USA opened Millenium Force, which was the world's tallest coaster at the time. And then in 2003 Intamin sold Cedar Point the 128 meters tall Top Thrill Dragster rocket coaster, which was the tallest ride until 2005, when a larger scale rocket opened in SF Great America. Intamin also holds the inversion world record - with British Thorpe Park's 10 times looping rollercoaster "Colossus".
Accelerator
The Accelerator (aka Rocket Coaster) is a best-selling Intamin ride. It's speciality is the hydraulic launch system, which is used to provide instant acceleration to extreme speeds. These coasters are very versatile when it comes to track designing, they can be anything from 24 m compact rides (Kanonen) to 140 m mega coasters (Kingda Ka).
The new ride type was introduced in 2002 in USA. In 2005 the first installations were made in Europe, and more are rumoured to be added in future.
Known Accelerator installations:
| Name | Country | Park | Year | Ride Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kanonen | Sweden | Liseberg | 2005 | Rollercoaster, looping |
| SpeedMonster | Norway | Tusenfryd | 2006 | Rollercoaster, looping |
Half Pipe
Half Pipe is a new style of a rollercoaster by Intamin. The car, consisting of a board and two spinning gondolas seating 8 persons each, is launched up a 30m track with Linear Induction Motors/LIMs. Passengers face outwards on the large gondolas which are allowed to spin freely. This means that if you have long enough legs - it's possible to kick the gondola some extra speed. Really!
The prototype opened in Särkänniemi in 2003. When writing this two other units had been sold - one to SF Elitch Gardens in Colorado and the other to Japan.
Known Half Pipe installations:
| Name | Country | Park | Year | Ride Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Half Pipe | Finland | Särkänniemi | 2003 | Rollercoaster |
Mine Train
These twisting steel rollercoasters are great fun for everyone. Not too rough for the small children and big enough for the bigger visitors. They aren't very popular though - the only one in Europe is Bakken's Ulven.
Known Mine Train installations:
| Name | Country | Park | Year | Ride Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ulven | Denmark | Bakken | 1997 | Rollercoaster |
Multi Drop
Strangely, after Gröna Lund's free fall was modified, there were no regular Intamin Giant Drops in Scandinavia anymore. However, Intamin calls the free fall towers with different vechicles Multi Drop rides, so that's what Fritt Fall Tilt is now.
Known Multi Drop installations:
| Name | Country | Park | Year | Ride Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fritt Fall Tilt | Sweden | Gröna Lund | 1998 | Tower |
Rapids Ride
This one of the most popular big rides was first invented by Intamin. During the late 90's the ride spread around the amusement parks and Summerlands all over. The boats are easily distinctable with large rubber air bags and 3*3 round designed plastic seats. The rapids rides are also done by at least Hafema, Vekoma and Hopkins.
Known Rapids Ride installations:
| Name | Country | Park | Year | Ride Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bæver-Rafting | Denmark | BonBon-Land | 1998 | Water ride, rapids |
| Hurjakuru | Finland | Linnanmäki | 1998 | Water ride, rapids |
| Koskiseikkailu | Finland | Särkänniemi | 1999 | Water ride, rapids |
| Kållerado | Sweden | Liseberg | 1997 | Water ride, rapids |
SLC
Intamin has their own lineup Suspended Looping Coasters too. They were first introduced in 1998, with the Impulse Coaster Linear Gale in Japan and the full circuit Volcano in USA. A majority of the Inverted coasters the company has currently sold are some short LIM-launched shuttle coasters.
Just three regular full circuit rides have been sold (in 2004), these are the Volcano Coaster, Tornado in Spain and Tornado in Finland. All were designed by the German coaster guru Werner Stengel. Smooth track, nice layouts and the freedom of an inverted train are things which make these great coasters.
Known SLC installations:
| Name | Country | Park | Year | Ride Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tornado | Finland | Särkänniemi | 2001 | Rollercoaster, looping |
The SLC-roller coaster at Särkänniemi.
Space Shuttle
Intamin has just delivered one ride of this model to Scandinavia. The ride is a looping starship so it swings the ship so it makes some loopings. Was a very popular ride at Liseberg.
Was rebuilt for the 2002 season by Liseberg so it became the ride Kulingen.
Known Space Shuttle installations:
| Name | Country | Park | Year | Ride Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aerovarvet | Sweden | Liseberg | 1989 | Thrill ride |
Stand Up
Intamin has just delivered one Stand Up-coaster to Scandinavia. It was operating at Skara Sommarland for 7 years.
It´s now operating as Cobra at La Ronde in Canada.
Known Stand Up installations:
| Name | Country | Park | Year | Ride Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| StandUp | Sweden | Skara Sommarland | 1988 | Rollercoaster, looping |
Wooden Coaster
The wooden coasters made by Intamin use a modern Plug&Play system to attach the pieces of track together in large segments, just like steel coasters are constructed. This makes the track very smooth. Heide Park in Northern Germany has a very large Intamin woodie, called Colossus, and then the second one is Balder of course.
The wooden coasters use trains originally developed for Intamin's tall steel coasters. The trains are very comfortable and the restraint raises down to your lap, and not over your shoulders. The same trains are used in some non-Intamin coasters too, for example in the RCAA woodie Wild Wild West in Spain.
Known Wooden coaster installations:
| Name | Country | Park | Year | Ride Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balder | Sweden | Liseberg | 2003 | Rollercoaster, wood |