Wednesday, May 12, 1999

Coaster fans ready for 'Son of Beast'

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BY KEVIN ALDRIDGE
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        MASON — Like father, like son. That's what roller coaster enthusiasts across the Midwest were saying Tuesday after officials at Paramount's Kings Island unveiled plans to build “Son of Beast,” the world's tallest, fastest and only looping wooden roller coaster.

SON OF BEAST Model of world's only looping wooden roller coaster.

The ride is the 13th roller coaster at Paramount's Kings Island, tying the Mason park with Cedar Point in Sandusky.   The coaster is the next generation in the park's family of coasters. Its “father,” the Beast, recently was ranked by enthusiasts as the nation's No.1 classic wooden coaster.   More on the Son of Beast:   • At 218 feet tall, it will top the Rattler at Six Flags in San Antonio, Texas, which stands at 179 feet.   • It will cost more than $10 million.   • Son of Beast will be 7,032 feet long. The Beast remains the country's longest wooden coaster at 7,392 feet.   • It will have the longest drop of any wooden coaster, 214 feet, and the fastest top speed, 78 mph. The Beast has a 135-foot drop and top speed of 51.2 mph.   • It will sit on 12 acres.

        The announcement was made in conjunction with the 20th birthday celebration of the Beast, the world's longest wooden roller coaster. Son of Beast will open next April.

        The new coaster is “unbelievable,” said Bill Linkenheimer, president of American Coaster Enthusiasts. The group crisscrosses the country to sample coasters.

        “They've done a couple of things with this particular coaster that many people thought for a long time couldn't be done,” he said. “I mean a 200-foot-tall hill and a loop on a wood track? For years, that concept was just unthinkable from a physics standpoint.”

        With its top speed of 78 mph and 7,032 feet of track, Son of Beast promises to send more butts out of seats than its dear old dad.

        Werner Stengel, whose Munich, Germany-based company designed the new coaster, said thrill-seekers' fascination with wooden roller coasters dates to the 1920s, when some of the first ones were designed.

        “People like wooden coasters because they give you a different kind of ride than a steel coaster,” he said.

        Son of Beast will be the park's 13th roller coaster. That ties a world record for the number of coasters at one theme park, park spokeswoman Barbara Colnar said.

        Attracting new visitors was a big reason for the investment, said Tim Fisher, Kings Island executive vice president and general manager.

        “We wanted to have the project of the millennium and I think we got it,” Mr. Fisher said. “With the addition of Son of Beast, we have clearly become the wooden roller coaster capital of the world.”

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