Located in Jackson New Jersey at Six Flags Great Adventure is one of the best wooden coasters to ever be created. Completed in June of 2006, El Toro has been bringing thousands of roller coaster fanatics to this amusement park. The ride was designed by Intamin and built by Rocky Mountain Construction. At the time of its completion, it had the steepest drop for a wooden coaster. The drop is 176 feet at an angle of 76 degrees. There are several steel coasters that would make this drop angle seem unimpressive, but as far as wooden coasters go, it is the second steepest drop in the world, only surpassed by T Express in 2008. It also boasts an incredible max speed of 70 miles per hour, the fourth fastest of its kind. Additionally, it is the first wooden coaster to feature a cable lift rather than a chain.
El Toro replaced Viper which was shut down in 2004, two years prior to El Toro’s opening. In order to save money, Viper’s station was repurposed for El Toro. The whole inside of the station was gutted, and a new platform was constructed for El Toro. El Toro means “The Bull” in Spanish. The ride is situated in the Mexican themed section of the park, where many of the concession stands are selling quesadillas and burritos, and there are other Mexican themed rides like El Diablo, a simple loop that spins its riders in a gut-wrenching loop for the entire ride. El Diablo means “The Devil” in Spanish, so to say this ride’s name is accurate would simply be an understatement. Anyway, El Toro features trains with bull horns on the front to simulate the train as being a bull. Like the way a bull jerks its rider around in a rodeo, El Toro certainly simulates that to a great extent.
The ride begins with a 20 second climb to the first hill. Once reaching the top, the ride does a full 180 degree turn and hurls its riders down one of the steepest wooden roller coaster drops ever created. Once reaching a maximum speed of 70 miles per hour at the bottom of the hill, riders coast through the scaffolding of the ride, creating a headchopper-effect. This is a common effect created by roller coasters, when the train comes relatively close to a bar overhead, making it seem as though the riders could get hit by it. This is used a lot on rides to add to the mental effect. It then coasts onward to back to back camelback hills followed by a 180-degree banked turn to the right and then immediately to the left, creating some powerful G-forces. The ride then coasts through another small hill that passes by the station followed by an ejector airtime hill with a -2 G-force. This means at the peak of the hill, riders feel two times lighter! The ride finally calms to several twists and turns before hitting its final break run.
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This is another one of those rides where if I could give it an 11 out of 10 I would. I have been on this ride more than I can count on all my fingers and toes, and when I say it gives you that same exhilarating every time, I mean it. For its speed, the ride gets a 10 out of 10; I mean, it’s the fourth fastest wooden rollercoaster ever built. For drop quality, the ride gets a 10 out of 10 here as well; dropping 176 feet at a 76-degree angle, immediately followed by a headchopper-effect will never fail to get the adrenaline flowing through the veins. For its final quality I decided to change things up a bit. I will be answering the all too important question: Is it worth the wait? If this was the only good ride in the park, I would wait on a line that stretches to the park exits, but that isn’t the case. In all honesty, this is one of the best rides ever made, and I would probably be willing to wait 3 hours if it was the shortest wait in the park (which is highly unlikely because of the amount of quality rides at this park). If this blog doesn’t convince you to get to Six Flags Great Adventure ASAP, I don’t know what will.