One of Kings Dominion’s greatest attractions, this ride is certainly unlike any other. Kings Dominion is located just outside of Virginia’s capital, Richmond. Located on the eastern most side of the park is a man-made “volcano” with track twisting and turning all around it and through the top. This is Volcano: The Blast Coaster. Known as Volcano for short, this ride was completed in 1998 and built by ride manufacturer Intamin. This ride was designed by legendary roller coaster designer and engineer, Werner Stengel. Stengel is also responsible for erecting roller coaster beasts such as Top Thrill Dragster and Millennium Force, both of which were covered in previous blogs.
The ride was built around this man-made mountain which was already previously there. Prior to Volcano, the mountain was used for a different attraction called Smurf Mountain. The mountain was then repurposed and transformed into Volcano. Additionally, Volcano just so happens to be the first inverted coaster to contain a Linear Induction Motor (LIM). LIMs are used to produce linear motion. LIMs use a levitation effect as a result of magnetic forces to propel objects in straight-line paths. LIMs are highly practical for roller coasters because, in general, they are very low maintenance and relatively easy to install.
Volcano’s layout is intended to imitate the likely path an eruption would take. The LIM is used on the “blast” portion of the coaster, in which riders are accelerated to a speed of 70 miles per hour and launched upward out of the top of the volcano, reaching a maximum height of 155 feet. At the top, riders experience a roll-out feature in which the train performs a quarter-roll and corkscrews until the riders are right side up. This inversion is unique to Volcano, as well as the tallest inversion in the park. The rest of the ride consists of three heartline rolls as the train revolves around the mountain before returning the station at the base of the volcano. Heartline rolls are inversions that keep the track as straight as possible while rotating rides 360 degrees around a pivot point, the pivot point being the track.
To say this ride is one of a kind would certainly be an understatement, but apart from its visual appeal, the thrill of the ride only really lies in the launch and inversions. For the inversion rating, I would give it is a 10 out of 10, uniqueness is a 10 out of 10 as well. As for a thrill rating, I would give it a 7 out of 10; it simply doesn’t have enough apart from the launch and inversions. For the last criteria, I’d give its design a 7 out of 10 as well; there’s so much more that could have been done apart from simply having the track revolve around the mountain. This gives the ride an appropriate final rating of 8.5 out of 10.
As someone who is a pretty big fan of roller coasters, I have actually never heard of this ride or amusement park. I am most interested in how it somehow tracks how lava would flow after a volcanic eruption, and how it tries to take its ridders through that journey. Kind of as you state, I am short the initial “eruption” would be the most entertaining because the riders are shot completely upward out of the “volcano,” and this is the point where the speed of the attraction hits its peak. Overall, I would someday love to test this ride out.