Coasters 2b.

This is the Blue Streak. I always thought that the local High School named their teams after the coaster, but found out while reading to write this that it was the other way around. The Blue Streak turns 45 in 2009. This is the coaster that started it all for me. A facebook friend from High School reminded me yesterday of one fateful ride where our lap bar didn't catch correctly and we thought we would fly out of the seat and die. This is still rated #48 on the great coasters in the world list because excellent engineering mean that Blue Streak has a huge amount of air time on its 9 hopper hills. Like an excellent aged burgundy, it is the true classic in the park.

Sorry for the tiny picture of the Magnum 200-XL. I didn't take a good one myself and had to snipe one off the web. The Magnum was built in 1989 - just shy of 15 years after steal coasters became de riguer. The designers of this coaster decided to go back to the old-school out-and-back hopper design, and prove that stealies were in it to win it, and could do a wood coaster design better than any ol' tree. In it's first year, it literally blew every former coaster mark to become the first dubbed 'hyper' coaster in the world. It was the first one to top 200 ft, and is considered the coaster that started the 'highest, fastest' record wars. about 2 million people ride it every year, and have since it opened. It's pretzel turn-around simply rocks, and if it weren't at Cedar Point it would be still be a super-star (still rated #7 in the world in 2008 by Golden Ticket voters..) it's a great re-rider because of short lines - everyone is already in line at Dragster, Maverick, and Millennium Force.

Last post tomorrow. ~M.E.