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Steepest Coaster

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Kyle

Roller Poster
I understand that Oblivion was the first ‘vertical drop’ coaster, but I can’t seem to find anywhere that says what the steepest coaster before Oblivion was. Is it because no one really cared about the steepness of the drop statistic?
 
It probably wasn't as interesting a record beforehand to be honest. However, when Big One opened at Blackpool in 1994, it had the steepest drop, with a 65° angle. That was then joined by Fujiyama (Fuji-Q) in 1996. Tower of Terror at Dreamworld then technically took the record in 1997, but I guess since it wasn't a full circuit coaster, some didn't count it.

The thing that made Oblivion so special though was how it could achieve that drop angle so quickly. With Big One, Fujiyama and others before it, their drop angle had been achieved because of their height allowing them to get to such an angle. In many ways, height and steepest drop were synonymous until Oblivion, hence why people didn't care.

The Dive Machine changed that though, and with technology advancing, "steepest drop" all of a sudden became a lot more interesting.
 
Although they are called "Dive Coasters" they are technically not a vertical drop. Oblivion's drop is listed at 87.5 on RCDB.

Credit is given to Tower of Terror as to being the first coaster with a 90 drop after the lift hill.

Tower of Terror - Gold Reef City (Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa)

Looking for statistics on the fastest, tallest or longest roller coasters? Find it all and much more with the interactive Roller Coaster Database.
rcdb.com

Pure speculation here but I would say that the reason steepness wasn't a thing before the 2000's is that the computer technology to develop beyond 90 degree drops wasn't advanced enough yet. As technology advanced, so did the number of drop coasters being built. The same could be said with 90 degree banking on wood coasters. the first I believe was Hades in 2005. But it took 8 years after that to get to a "quality" wood inversion.
 
JoshC. said:
However, when Big One opened at Blackpool in 1994, it had the steepest drop, with a 65° angle.
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Speaking only from personal experience and not from statistical knowledge, I’d say it sure seemed that Magic Mountain’s Colossus (opened 1978) had a drop well steeper than 65 degrees. ?‍♂️. Anyone know Colossus’ first drop’s angle of descent?
 
Pretty sure this was the steepest at one point (somewhere around 80*) https://rcdb.com/1730.htm
Also, all the Ultra Twisters have a near vertical drop.... So anything built after 1985 with a drop less steep than 85*, never was the steepest...
 
Its usually a neat little trick on euro fighters but going too far, like the saxophone element, doesn't appeal to me that much. If it needs a trim brake to get away with the drop its likely just to be a poster stat instead of a great ride or the best part of it. Time Traveller is a very rare exception where it actually works - doesn't even need a tunnel.
 
Nicky Borrill said:
Am I alone in hating the beyond vertical trend? To me, the steepest drop is 90 degrees, and nothing beats heading straight down... Anything ‘beyond 90’ feels like a rubbish inversion or an inverted drop.
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I agree - but only to the extent that it is a ‘dominant’ feature of the ride. 90 degrees is ‘the steepest’ in my opinion, like yours. Beyond vertical can be good though when it’s slight.
 
cmix said:
I don't agree that anything beyond 90° Is rubbish.
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I didn’t word that very well, I meant rubbish as an inversion, as in they often feel more like an inversion than a traditional drop, but not as good as a decent inversion.

To be fair, 95° doesn’t sound too bad, but the 112° of Mumbo, or even Saw’s 100° drop are a little too ‘inverted’ to feel like a proper drop to me.

Having said all of that, Takabisha (or clone) is still well up there on my bucket list!!!
 
It's a weird one because if 90 isn't the 'steepest' then what is? 179.9? Or is it like the inversion chart where it's halfway at 135? It's all just marketing anyway so doesn't really matter.
 
Nicky Borrill said:
I didn’t word that very well, I meant rubbish as an inversion, as in they often feel more like an inversion than a traditional drop, but not as good as a decent inversion.

To be fair, 95° doesn’t sound too bad, but the 112° of Mumbo, or even Saw’s 100° drop are a little too ‘inverted’ to feel like a proper drop to me.

Having said all of that, Takabisha (or clone) is still well up there on my bucket list!!!
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Yeah, I get where you're coming from.

95° isn't enough to feel like an inversion, but enough to noticeably throw you forward out of your seat. Definitely more intense than a vertical drop, but still a drop nonetheless. It would be interesting to figure out what angle stops feeling like a drop, and starts feeling like an inversion.
 
I’d say that it’s the change in angle that makes it feel less like a drop. A continuous decent at any angle feels like a drop. A change in that angle makes it feel like you are being ‘pushed up’ by the track.

So if you are on a beyond vertical drop, from the moment you start becoming less vertical, it stops you feeling like you are falling like a traditional drop and feels like you are coming out of a loop.
 
Stands to reason then that steepest drop of any coaster is one with a 360° vertical loop, because no matter how you define 'steepest', a 360° circle has got it covered, albeit very briefly. Ok, so that means there are literally hundreds of 'steepest coasters in the world'.
In which case, which was the first - and still currently unbeaten (& unbeatable) - steepest coaster in the world?
Take a bow, Revolution at Magic Mountain! ?
 
While it would feel uncomfortable and no doubt trimmed up the wazoo, there could be an outside loop first drop and then it goes vertical.

Hopefully manufactures who get ideas off forums don't read this.
 
Howie said:
Stands to reason then that steepest drop of any coaster is one with a 360° vertical loop, because no matter how you define 'steepest', a 360° circle has got it covered, albeit very briefly. Ok, so that means there are literally hundreds of 'steepest coasters in the world'.
In which case, which was the first - and still currently unbeaten (& unbeatable) - steepest coaster in the world?
Take a bow, Revolution at Magic Mountain! ?
Click to expand...
That would be steepest ascent, though, as the track curves upwards the whole time. And in that case, coasters with double loops have Revolution beat, as they keep curving upwards for longer. Are there any coasters with three subsequent loops there?

As for the steepest dive, that would be the pretzel loops of the B&M flyers, as if you start counting the track's downward curvature from a horizontal position, it doesn't reach a curvature of zero until midway through the drop after the pretzel loop - a full 400 degrees or so.
 
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