A Blast From The Past - Wildfire at Silver Dollar City
The first of the two B & M coasters to open in 2001, Wildfire opened to the public on April 4th at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. The coaster was designed by Bolliger and Mabillard, and themed and constructed by Silver Dollar City’s corporate development & maintenance, and construction teams, at a cost of $14,000,000.
Wildfire is located West of the Lumbercamp in the western section of the park and is the tallest and fastest ride at Silver Dollar City.
Wildfire theming is based on the story of an old Ozark inventor, Dr. Horatio Harris, who way back in the 1880s had an obsession to create a powered flying contraption to fly across the Ozark Mountains. The fuel the good Doctor developed for his flying machine was called Wildfire!
The queue is a walk through Dr Harris' laboratory with his designs covering the walls and a bubbling mixture of the fuel dangerously close to the invention warehouse
Featuring five inversions: an Immelmann loop, a loop, a cobra roll,a corkscrew and a 15 story vertical drop with the train traveling at speeds up to 66 miles per hour the ride offers high speed thrills!
The eight car trains feature four across seating that reclines slightly more than other B & M sit-down trains. They were newly designed to take on Wildfire's huge inversions and drops, while giving riders a surprise feeling different than any other roller coaster up to that time.
Once the train leaves the station, it takes a 180 degree right turn and climbs up the chain lift hill to 120 feet. At the top, the train turns 90 degrees to the left before negotiating the first drop of 155 feet. This is followed by the series of loops. Then the train heads up the banked curve into a corkscrew and a 230 degree turn into the final brake run.
Wildfire was built into the mountainside and it's surrounded by woods. Riders soar over the Ozarks with a great view of Table Rock Lake (just before that 15 story drop,) The 3,073 foot long, 2 minute, 16 second ride is spread out over 3 acres of land.
Wildfire was and still is a great addition for Silver Dollar City. It's a great ride with a great location. It's fast, it's smooth, it's re-ridable it's lots of fun and it's one of our favorite Beemers!
The eight car trains feature four across seating that reclines slightly more than other B & M sit-down trains. They were newly designed to take on Wildfire's huge inversions and drops, while giving riders a surprise feeling different than any other roller coaster up to that time.
Once the train leaves the station, it takes a 180 degree right turn and climbs up the chain lift hill to 120 feet. At the top, the train turns 90 degrees to the left before negotiating the first drop of 155 feet. This is followed by the series of loops. Then the train heads up the banked curve into a corkscrew and a 230 degree turn into the final brake run.
Wildfire was built into the mountainside and it's surrounded by woods. Riders soar over the Ozarks with a great view of Table Rock Lake (just before that 15 story drop,) The 3,073 foot long, 2 minute, 16 second ride is spread out over 3 acres of land.
Wildfire was and still is a great addition for Silver Dollar City. It's a great ride with a great location. It's fast, it's smooth, it's re-ridable it's lots of fun and it's one of our favorite Beemers!
4 comments:
Just a heads up, Wildfire has standard sitdown trains, not floorless.
Thanks for sharing. Those drawings are lovely.
Oops, that's what I get for not proof reading very well. I was orginally going to put in something about a floorless feeling, but it didn't fit very weel & I didn't get it all deleted.
I tell people who haven't seen the ride that it basically has B&M hyper coaster trains but with shoulder harnesses instead of lap bars.
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