Nagashima Spa Land Shares Details of Impressive New Rocky Mountain Hybrid Coaster

© Nagashima Spaland

It has been known for a while that Japan's Nagashima Spa Land was going to transform their White Cyclone wooden roller coaster into a Rocky Mountain Construction hybrid ride, but recently the park gave full details of the project.

White Cyclone was a substantial wooden roller coaster, opened in 1994 and created by Intamin.  It stood 139 feet tall and featured 5,577 feet of track, which is all being replaced by steel Ibox track, like we've seen on many wooden roller coasters in North America.

When completed, the new ride will open in 2019 and be called Hakugei, which translates to White Whale according to news articles.

© Nagashima Spaland

The announcement came with the ride's official layout, which can be seen above.  The ride's height will be extended considerably to reach 180 feet tall, with a steep 80 degree first drop and a top speed of almost 67 miles per hour.  The new track length will be 5,020 feet, which is impressive considering the new layout will remove a giant helix that was featured mid-ride.

The graphic above isn't too large, but you can still make out some details - like a double up after the first drop, an extreme outward banked turn, a double down, zero-g stall, heartline roll and plenty of air-time and extreme banking maneuvers.

Based off of layouts and video released during the announcement, AmusementInsider has created this excellent preview of the ride.  This is not official, but looks very accurate based off of the renderings.  Even if the final ride has major differences, which I doubt, this looks like it will be another excellent Rocky Mountain creation!