Rage

In southern England, where the River Thames disembogues into the North Sea, lies the beautiful city Southend-on-Sea. Located right at the shore of the ocean, to the left and the right of the longest pier of the world is the amusement park Adventure Island.

The history of the park dates back to the 1920s. What started with a few rides in a public garden area became an amusement park called Peter Pan's Adventure Island with attractions around the fairytale of Peter Pan. Later the fairytale theme had been removed from the park and the park name. At the end of the twentieth century the park invested in modern thrill rides for the thrill-seeker audience. However until 2007 there were only family friendly roller coasters to ride in the park. The new attraction "Rage", an Euro-Fighter of the German manufacturer Gerstlauer Amusement Rides GmbH, is the first roller coaster with inversions in the park and should now also please the visitors seeking for thrills.

The coaster is the sixth ride of the type Euro-Fighter from Gerstlauer to date. The prototype called Vild-Svinet was built at BonBon-Land Park in Holme-Olstrup, southern Denmark, in 2003. Single cars with two rows for four persons each, secured by an over the shoulder harness, are the typical vehicles used for this kind of ride. The most striking feature of the Euro-Fighter, which has been built into all models so far, is the 90 degrees steep lift hill with the instantly following first drop. The drop is a few degrees steeper than 90° and therefore steeper than vertical. At almost every Euro-Fighter coaster, the exact angle of descent was 97°. An exception can be found at Mystery Mine, the ride at the American theme park Dollywood, which has a slightly less steep drop of 95 degrees. After the first drop an intense trip follows, with inversions, tight turns and other elements, before the car is retarded gently by magnetic brakes and pushed back to the station with the help of friction wheels.

Rage is a Euro-Fighter 320+ type coaster; a modified version of the Euro-Fighter 320 Layout, where an additional helix has been added at the end of the ride. The coaster with no theming has been built up in the east part of the park. The lift hill construction serves well as an eye-catcher and can be seen instantly by arriving visitors and people on the pier as well as pedestrians and drivers coming down the access road to the seaside promenade. A path leads underneath the first drop to the queue-line area of the coaster. Three cars with eight persons each on the track and a quick unload/load procedure allow the queue-line to move very quickly. Soon, the station is reached. After a right-hand turn, the car reaches the bottom of the nearly 23 meters high vertical lift. The ascent is fast; after a few seconds, the top of the lift tower is reached. But no time to enjoy the view from the top, as shortly afterwards the car drops down the 97° first drop. Here, the top speed of approximately 70 km/h is reached before the car climbs the 19 meters high loop. After the first inversion, the car speeds through the Inline-Loop which is used for the first time at the Euro-Fighter coaster. An upward helix is coming next, followed directly by a Heartline-Roll. Out of the roll it goes downwards again into a helix. A directional change from the right to the left leads into the final helix. After the helix, the car is being gently slowed down by magnetic brakes in the brake run. The magnets are mounted underneath the car, while the metal fins are mounted on the track. The last two fins can be lowered, so the car doesn't slow down too much and leaves the final brakes at a quicker pace. Finally a right-hand turn leads back to the station where the next eight visitors wait for their ride.

Rage packs a lot of action and fun into only 361 meters of track. The elements of the ride are placed in a perfect way to attract the attention of the visitors. They also provide an interesting, action-packed ride, which is still very smooth, without any bumps and no too intense forces. Thanks to these qualities Rage is a very good roller coaster ride with a high re-ride value and a true enrichment to the attraction line-up of Adventure Island.