Whether you’re slowly climbing that 300-foot chain lift hill or racing out of the station on the freeway faster than a sports car, roller coasters are very effective at attracting thrill seekers and the brave for a quick adrenaline rush. Usually, the logo of any amusement park is the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the area. Or theme parks might advertise the number of times their roller coaster reverses, or the amount of time the ride puts the rider through high levels of gravity.
Sometimes, however, the key to marketing roller coasters is to design something really weird, so much so that you wonder if you’re looking at a real roller coaster or a Photoshop passion project with clickbait posters. So here’s a list of the Tower of Terror rollercoaster from South Africa, which has no problem making a statement.
Built at Gold Reef City in South Africa in 2001, this roller coaster looks like your standard Dive Coaster model, a roller coaster type that holds you in place for a few seconds before plummeting you down a 90-degree drop. However, what’s unique about Tower of Terror is that the drop takes place in an actual, authentic gold mine shaft. The structure was actually removed and relocated from an old gold mine around five kilometers away before being used as the support for this daunting ride.
Not only that, but instead of using a normal chain lift hill, the mine shaft also houses a single piece of track that goes up on an elevator. To finish off the weirdness, this ride doesn’t even drop straight down; it twists a little during its 90-degree drop to level out at a slight angle, putting its riders through at least 6 G-Forces—so claimed by the park! As a point of reference, Millennium Force at Cedar Point pulls in around 4.5 Gs
