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Yukon Striker: Canada's record-setting roller coaster opening soon
Forrest Brown, CNN • Updated 1st March 2019
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(CNN) — Can you imagine hanging over a straight drop -- and staring down 245 feet into the gaping maw of an underwater tunnel?
Starting this spring, you won't have to imagine.
That's when you can travel to Canada's Wonderland, a theme park outside of Toronto, for the Yukon Striker roller coaster. The park says it will be "the longest, fastest and tallest dive roller coaster in the world."
And just what is a dive roller coaster? According to coaster designers Bolliger & Mabillard, a dive coaster has a "straight vertical drop with riders facing down (that) creates a different ride experience."
As the name "Yukon Striker" implies, the theme of the coaster will be late 1800s gold rush Canada, when adventurers poured into the northwestern Yukon territory in search of fast wealth.
Speaking of fast, here are a few stats supplied by the park that will take your breath away:
-- 80 mph (130 km/h): That would be your maximum speed.
-- 80 mph (130 km/h): That would be your maximum speed.
-- 3,625 feet, 1,105 meters: That's how far you'll travel (about the length of 12 football fields).
-- 3 minutes, 25 seconds: That's how long it will take to cover the distance.
-- 4: That's the number of inversions (coaster speak for being turned upside down and then returned right side up) you'll be put through.
And because all of this isn't going to be special enough, the Striker will have floorless seating for "enhanced visibility," a three-second dangle before you're released into the straight drop and a 360-degree loop, which the park says has never been on a dive coaster.
Should this coaster prove too daunting, the park will have 16 others from which to choose.
