Nitro (Six Flags Great Adventure)

Nitro
Six Flags Great Adventure
Park section	Adventure Seaport
Coordinates	40°08′8.30″N 74°26′39.74″W / 40.1356389°N 74.4443722°W / 40.1356389; -74.4443722Coordinates: 40°08′8.30″N 74°26′39.74″W / 40.1356389°N 74.4443722°W / 40.1356389; -74.4443722
Status	Operating
Opening date	April 7, 2001
Cost	$20,000,000
General statistics
Type	Steel
Manufacturer	Bolliger & Mabillard
Model	Hyper Coaster
Track layout	L-shaped Out and Back
Lift/launch system	Chain lift hill
Height	230 ft (70 m)
Drop	215 ft (66 m)
Length	5,394 ft (1,644 m)
Speed	80 mph (130 km/h)
Inversions	0
Duration	2:20
Max vertical angle	68°
Capacity	2808 riders per hour
G-force	4.3
Height restriction	54 in (137 cm)
Trains	3 trains with 9 cars. Riders are arranged 4 across in a single row for a total of 36 riders per train.
Flash Pass Available
Nitro at RCDB Pictures of Nitro at RCDB

Nitro is a steel roller coaster designed by Bolliger & Mabillard at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, United States. It opened on April 7, 2001, as the fastest roller coaster in New Jersey and the tallest on the East Coast of the United States. It has been ranked number three in the Golden Ticket Awards Best Steel Roller Coaster every year from 2007 to 2012. It was ranked number four in 2013.

Ride experience

Queue and station

Nitro's entrance sign with lift hill in background

Nitro's queue area consists of an indoor and outdoor area followed by a long path before climbing the stairs into the station. Views from the line show the backside to Batman: The Ride and the Six Flags Great Adventure mechanical and storage area.

Nitro's station music is the remix of the Mortal Kombat theme, which can be heard during the queue and station.

Layout

After leaving the station, the train makes a left U-turn and begins to ascend the 230-foot-tall (70 m) lift hill. After reaching the top, the train drops 215 feet (66 m) at a 68-degree angle, reaching its top speed of 80 miles per hour (130 km/h), then climbs up a 189-foot-tall (58 m) hill and dives down to the left, next coasting over a 161-foot (49 m) airtime hill. After that, Nitro enters its unique element, the Hammerhead turn, a tight U-turn to the right. Traveling over another camelback hill, Nitro enters its S-curve and into the 540-degree helix. After the mid course brake run, Nitro travels over three camelback hills, followed by a final brake run, and returns to the station.^[1][2][3] As the third B&M hypercoaster built, the ride is comparable amongst other first-gen B&M hyper hypercoasters like Silver Star at Europa-Park, Goliath at La Ronde, Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America, and Apollo's Chariot at Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

Trains

Nitro's test seat

Nitro operates with three open-air steel and fiberglass trains with individual lap bar restraints. Each train has nine cars with riders arranged four across in a single row for a total of 36 riders per train.^[1]

Nitro's trains can be loaded and checked quickly, resulting in very high capacity with all 3 trains running. There are three main reasons for this:

1. There is no "backup restraint" that must be checked (Nitro used to have a backup restraint, see below for more details). Most roller coasters have some sort of seat belt (either on the rider's lap or holding the main restraint down) that serves as a safety device in case the main restraint unlocks.
2. Nothing needs to move out of the way before the train dispatches and after the train advances into the station. This is not the case on most of B&M's other coaster models. For example, on their flying roller coaster, the floor descends and the seats flip into flying position before the train begins to move. On floorless roller coasters and inverted roller coasters, a sort of gate in front of the trains must swing open in addition to the floor moving.
3. The trains can be deployed much more successively than most roller coasters. Usually, as soon as one train has crested the lift hill, the train behind it can be dispatched onto the lift.

Track

The steel track is 5,394 feet (1,644 m) in length and the height of the lift is approximately 230 feet (70 m). It was manufactured by Clermont Steel Fabricators located in Batavia, Ohio.^[4] The track colors are pink and yellow, with blue supports.^[3]

Nitro currently has the second steepest drop of a lifted (as opposed to launched) roller coaster in the park, behind El Toro's 76 degree first drop. The coaster previously featured signs erected on the lift hill stairs which compared points on the hill to other tall structures, such as Niagara Falls; these signs were later removed.

Other notes

Nitro's on-ride camera was previously located at the bottom of the second drop, but in 2006 it was moved to the bottom of the first drop. While it was briefly moved back to the bottom of the second drop, as of 2012 it has been moved yet again to the bottom of the first.

Nitro previously had a backup safety restraint, which featured a black knob that extended out of the seat. The lap bar latched onto the knob to serve as a safety feature without the need for a safety belt. These were later removed because they were deemed unnecessary, as they easily disconnected and greatly interfered with loading times.

Rankings

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nitro.

• Official Nitro page