Rides on Cotaland's New Coasters to Wait until at Least Late 2024

© Cotaland

Cotaland is a brand new amusement park under development at the Circuit of the Americas, a large raceway in Texas.  The park has been slowly coming to life for some time now, and has made some pretty big and impressive announcements of attractions slated to open with the park.  Right now Cotaland offers some children's attractions and a couple family rides for visitors to enjoy on race days.

Originally it was believed that the full amusement park would be opening sometime in 2023, but sadly the park has confirmed that the soonest we can get rides on their new thrillers will be "late 2024."  The park is currently slated to have 27 rides, up from 25 when it was first announced.  When completed the park is expected to cover around 20 acres.

 

The delay in opening means that the park's Vekoma Tilt Coaster, seen above in concept and named Circuit Breaker, will have to be highly anticipated for a bit longer.  The same goes for a unique Gerstlauer Infinity Shuttle coaster named Palindrome, and the high flying and first of its kind SkyBlazer ride.  Just remember, they say good things come to those who wait!
 

Vekoma Releases Details of Cotaland's New Tilt Coaster "Circuit Breaker"

© Vekoma / COTA

Vekoma Rides Manufacturing is very pleased to release some additional renderings and details on the much anticipated new Tilt Coaster opening next year at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas.  The racing facility is building several thrill rides to create a new amusement park named Cotaland next to the track and the Vekoma coaster, called Circuit Breaker, is easily one of the standouts.  The drawing above shows the ride's anticipated location, pretty cool eh?

Circuit Breaker will stand around 131 feet tall (if you're in the back of the train) and is the first Tilt Coaster to open in the United States.  The train heads up the lift, does a 180, then slows as it enters the tilt track.  The track tilts the train downward till it is vertical to the ground with riders staring straight down - then lets the train fall down the first drop.

© Vekoma / COTA

© Vekoma / COTA

The rest of the layout, seen in these renderings, is seriously twisted stuff.  Vekoma has been designing some amazing layouts in Europe the past 5 years, and it's great to see one of them in North America finally.  I'm not sure what the names are for these elements, so I won't even try.  That said, the combination of upward and downward twisted zero g rolls in the first element looks amazing!  There are also pops of air-time, banked curves and more packed into the appx. 2,200 feet of track.

© Vekoma / COTA

Trains will hit a top speed of 57 miles per hour when they descend the first drop, and speaking of the train there will be two of them, each seating a total of 20 riders at a time.  For an animated preview of Circuit Breaker in action, check out this video!

Vekoma Tilt Coaster - Circuit Breaker - Coming to Cotaland

© ACE News / Cotaland

Earlier this week a local news station out of Texas did a report on the developments at Cotaland, which has already announced the plan to expand with a lot of rides including Palindrome, a Gerstlauer coaster.  The park is planning on having their kiddie rides open this Summer, while the bigger rides will come online more in 2023.  Palindrome was announced to open "late" 2022, so I'm not sure if that's still the plan or if that coaster will also open in 2023.

Regardless, in the article it is mentioned that Cotaland will open Circuit Breaker, a brand new tilt coaster designed by Vekoma.  The first of these opened many moons ago in 2002 in Taiwan, and suddenly there appears to be a resurgence of them.  Well maybe resurgence is too much but another one is also planned as Energialandia's next coaster as well.  Vekoma has also hinted that two additional Tilt coasters are in the works, so that's 4 new ones in total.

© Ace News / Cotaland

Soon after the article came out ACE News released the concept art for Cotaland's Circuit Breaker, seen here.  The ride looks bonkers in a great way.  Vekoma has been designing some amazing looking coasters in Europe and Asia in the past few years, and Circuit Breaker looks much more in line with those awesome rides than those the company produced in, say, the 1990s.

After the super-dramatic tilt mechanism points the train toward the ground and releases them, riders on Circuit Breaker will enter a twisted and kind of inverting first element, then into a downward banked zero g roll.  After more inversions and plenty of twisted track the trains will stop at the station.  No doubt that we'll all want another ride!  We're looking forward to seeing this coaster come to life.

First Of Its Kind SkyBlazer Coming to Cotaland in 2022

© US Thrill Rides/Skyline Attractions

A new and modern version of the world famous Skycoaster will make its debut at Cotaland this year, named the SkyBlazer.  The ride is being offered by US Thrill Rides, but Skyline Attractions has partnered with them on the design, engineering and delivery of the ride.  As with the classic Skycoaster, the SkyBlazer allows riders to experience the feelings of sky diving but offers a higher capacity attraction.

At Cotaland, the SkyBlazer will have a ring of 18 seats with passengers secured with a roller coaster-like restraint.  After boarding the ring will slowly be lifted up to the top of the tower, then released to freefall briefly before swinging freely from the 200 foot tall main arch.  After several swings the ride will utilize a pendulum damper to bring the ring to a stop.  The towers of the SkyBlazer at Cotaland will utilize colored lights to make the ride's structure a spectacle as well.

© US Thrill Rides/Skyline Attractions

According to US Thrill Rides the SkyBlazer can be built in sizes ranging from 200 feet to 350 feet tall, and the center ring can seat from 6 to 24 riders at a time.  The SkyBlazer looks like a lot of fun, obviously still an up-charge attraction for most parks, however, due to capacity.  I hope the ride is a success and we see more of these pop up!

New Gerstlauer Infinity Shuttle Coaster to Open at Cotaland in Late 2022

© Gerstlauer

Gerstlauer Rides and Ride Entertainment have announced a brand new custom designed Infinity shuttle coaster that will open toward the end 2022.  Named Palindrome, the unique coaster will be located at Cotaland in Austin, Texas.  Cotaland is located at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) and currently is a kiddie park with several small attractions and rides.  In 2022 the park is planning a great expansion to offer many more rides, with Palindrome being the star of them.

© Gerstlauer

Palindrome will start with a vertical lift hill of 95 feet, followed by a near vertical twisting first drop.  The individual trains will seat 12 riders at a time as they hit a maximum speed of 51 miles per hour.  Trains will then soar though a zero-g stall which takes place over an active road.  A "flipped wave turn" is taken next, with a high-speed inline twist inversion right after.  Trains then soar up a "vertical hop-stall" tower, which sends the trains backward through the entire course.

© Gerstlauer

A turn table eventually points the trains back at the station to complete the ride.  The coaster will have 1,230 feet of track but due to the backward run a total of 2,080 feet will be covered.  Palindrome will also utilize the park's terrain to offer a total of 111 feet of elevation change despite the lift only being 95 feet tall.

 

© Gerstlauer

Gerstlauer is especially excited for the ride's vertical hop-stall tower, which features a bump in it that trains pass over on their way up.  As they plunge down backward the bump will give riders some air-time while they float downward, an exciting prospect for passengers.

 

A full set of video renderings of Palindrome are available from Ride Entertainment at this link.