Balder, Liseberg's (Goteborg, Sweden) new for 2003 Intamin twister is the new #1
wooden roller coaster in the world. Balder was even preferred to "Favorite Steel",
which did not lose the comparison to any other wood coaster, by a wide margin.
Tremors edged past 2002 #1 Shivering Timbers on the basis of their mutual rider
comparison for second, Boulder Dash finished fourth, and Raven edged out Phoenix
for fifth.
The few voters who had ridden Japan's Aska thought enough of it for it to rank
seventh (with an asterisk to call attention to how few voters had ridden it) and
Visionland's Rampage came back from hiatus with a solid eighth place.
Celebration City's new for 2003 Ozark Wildcat impressed the voters enough to
debut at number nine.
Other new rides in this year's poll included late 2002's New Mexico Rattler
in 27th, Enchanted Village's Timberhawk debuting at #124, and Nicco Park (India) Cyclone
which joined the other wood coaster in India as the only two on the ballot that no
voters had ridden.
Former two-time #1 the Great Escape Comet rounds out the top ten. Tonnerre de Zeus,
the only three-time #1, is now the lowest ranked of the former #1's in 17th,
two spots behind two-time #1 Megafobia.
Colossos, GhostRider, and The Legend finished just outside the top 10 in an
unbreakable tie for 11th place.
#6 Phoenix, #10 Comet (NY), and #14 Vancouver's "Coaster" were again the top
wood coasters in the "Over 40" division. Coney Island's 1927 Cyclone came in at #21.
These designs have been able to withstand the tests of time. Coaster, which (unlike
the two classic rides above it) is still located at its original site, is still
threatened with possible relocation or worse in the near future.
It is quite amazing to note the number of rides originally designed and
built in the 1920's, 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, 1960's and one from as long ago
as 1917 still in the top 60. Equally amazing is that 34 of the top 50 rides
did not yet exist in 1994.
Silverwood and Holiday World both have arguments for being the park with
the best wooden coaster duo. Tremors edged Raven in ranking and
won the head to head comparison but The Legend finished several spots ahead of
Timber Terror and won that mutual rider comparison.
Among the top five head-to-head: Balder tied Tremors 1-1-1, was preferred
3-1-1 over Shivering Timbers, 3-2-1 over Boulder Dash, and 4-2 over Raven.
Tremors was preferred 18-17-1 over ST, tied BD 17-17-3, 24-18-1 over Raven.
ST was preferred 40-30-5 over BD and 58-37-2 over Raven. BD was preferred to Raven 43-35-2.
At the other end of the poll, California's Grizzly finished with a perfect 0-171-0
record, just one spot behind the late Hercules (Hercules won the mutual rider comparison
between the two of them 32-17...its only win) in last place.
The spreadsheet with the ~15,000 head-to-head comparisons between the 178 coasters
(including fav steel) that had riders take the poll this year will be available
by December 10th from the website http://www.geocities.com/wcoasterpoll. All 265 ballots
(anonymized) will also be available by December 10th. This delay will hopefully prevent
bandwidth problems for the website.
The "Favorite Steel" coaster continued to do well, as it would have placed
second this year if it were included in the final results. Losing the mutual rider
comparison only to Balder 12-4-2.
The following results are presented in a tabular format showing 1994
through 2003 placements, giving a better feel for trends and consistencies
in the poll. When viewing this chart, one should expect a coaster's rank
to drop slightly from year to year due to additional coasters debuting in
the poll. Special attention should be paid to the RIDERS column as the
fewer the number of riders, the greater the margin of error.
Links have been added from many top rides to the ride's page at RCDB.com
Total Number of Ballots = 265 Average Number of Wood Coasters Ridden = 50.4 RANK COASTER NAME PARK LOC RIDERS W L T WinPct TiBk ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Balder Liseberg SE 20 166 0 1 0.9970 2 Tremors Silverwood ID 46 168 1 2 0.9883 18 3 Shivering Timbers Michigan's Adventure MI 108 169 2 0 0.9883 17 4 Boulder Dash Lake Compounce CT 109 168 2 1 0.9854 5 Raven Holiday World IN 140 165 6 0 0.9649 56 6 Phoenix Knoebel's PA 142 165 6 0 0.9649 41 * Aska Nara Dreamland JP 3 161 6 0 0.9641 8 Rampage Visionland AL 55 163 8 0 0.9532 9 Ozark Wildcat Celebration City MO 15 135 7 1 0.9476 10 Comet Great Escape NY 80 162 9 0 0.9474 11tColossos Heide Park DE 49 160 11 0 0.9357 14 11tGhostRider Knott's Berry Farm CA 118 160 11 0 0.9357 17 11tThe Legend Holiday World IN 133 160 11 0 0.9357 12 14 Coaster Playland BC 47 158 12 1 0.9269 15 Megafobia Oakwood UK 54 158 13 0 0.9240 16 Cornball Express Indiana Beach IN 99 150 13 4 0.9102 17 Tonnerre de Zeus Parc Asterix FR 60 153 16 2 0.9006 18 Timber Terror Silverwood ID 50 152 18 1 0.8918 19 Grand National Blackpool UK 66 151 19 1 0.8860 20 Georgia Cyclone SFoG GA 95 148 22 1 0.8684 21 Cyclone Astroland NY 93 147 23 1 0.8626 22 Thundercoaster Tusenfryd NO 16 137 17 12 0.8614 23 Lightning Racer - L Hersheypark PA 129 145 24 2 0.8538 24 Texas Giant SFoT TX 87 143 25 3 0.8450 25 Lightning Racer - T Hersheypark PA 130 143 26 2 0.8421 26 Viper SFGAm IL 135 142 26 3 0.8392 6 27 New Mexico Rattler Cliff's NM 19 140 24 7 0.8392 5 28 Loup Garou SF Belgium BE 50 141 26 4 0.8363 29 Serpiente de Fuego La Feria MX 13 138 25 6 0.8343 30 Screechin' Eagle(S) LeSourdsville Lake OH 57 142 28 1 0.8333 31 Dania Bch Hurricane Dania Beach FL 45 139 27 5 0.8275 32 Mega Zeph SF New Orleans LA 38 140 29 2 0.8246 33 Twister Knoebel's PA 138 136 31 4 0.8070 25 34 Cyclops Big Chief WI 59 136 31 4 0.8070 23 35 Excalibur Funtown USA ME 51 137 32 2 0.8070 9 36 Comet (SBNO) Lincoln Park MA 8 127 29 12 0.7917 37 Stampida Port Aventura ES 26 128 34 7 0.7781 38 Wild One SF America MD 120 131 38 2 0.7719 39 Giant Dipper Santa Cruz Bch Bdwk CA 76 130 39 2 0.7661 40 Silver Comet Martin's Fantasy Is. NY 51 128 38 4 0.7647 41 Thunder Run Kentucky Kingdom KY 127 130 40 1 0.7632 42 The Boss Six Flags St Louis MO 87 125 40 6 0.7485 43 The Villain Worlds of Adventure OH 156 126 42 3 0.7456 44 Gwazi-Tiger Busch Gardens-Tampa FL 120 126 43 2 0.7427 45 White Cyclone Nagashima Spaland JP 5 120 39 9 0.7411 46 Cyclone Lakeside CO 49 126 44 1 0.7398 47 Zeus Big Chief WI 58 123 43 5 0.7339 48 Thunderbolt Kennywood PA 138 124 45 2 0.7310 15 49 Robin Hood Six Flags Holland NL 51 124 45 2 0.7310 12 50 Gwazi-Lion Busch Gardens-Tampa FL 120 122 44 5 0.7281 51 The Beast Kings Island OH 159 122 48 1 0.7164 23 52 Roar Marine World CA 61 122 48 1 0.7164 22 53 Cheetah Wild Adventures GA 51 120 48 3 0.7105 54 The Legend Arnolds Park IA 31 117 49 5 0.6988 55 Roar SF America MD 113 118 53 0 0.6901 56 Medusa Six Flags Mexico MX 6 107 46 15 0.6815 57 Blue Streak Conneaut Lake Park PA 76 115 54 2 0.6784 58 Wildcat Hersheypark PA 145 114 56 1 0.6696 59 The Grizzly Kings Dominion VA 134 110 58 3 0.6520 60 Blue Streak Cedar Point OH 199 110 60 1 0.6462 32 61 Great White Wild Wheels Pier NJ 69 109 59 3 0.6462 29 62 Timber Wolf Worlds of Fun MO 67 107 60 4 0.6374 63 Rutschebanen Bakken DK 19 96 57 16 0.6154 64 Jack Rabbit Kennywood PA 144 103 65 3 0.6111 65 Zingo Bell's OK 35 100 65 6 0.6023 66 Yankee Cannonball Canobie Lake Park NH 57 101 67 3 0.5994 * Elf Hirakata Park JP 3 97 65 5 0.5958 68 Rutschebanen Tivoli Gardens DK 22 95 66 8 0.5858 69 Wild Mouse Blackpool UK 66 98 69 4 0.5848 70 Giant Dipper Belmont Park CA 82 98 70 3 0.5819 71 Riverside Cyclone SF New England MA 117 97 71 3 0.5760 17 72 Swamp Fox Family Kingdom SC 45 94 68 9 0.5760 13 73 Big Dipper Blackpool UK 66 95 70 6 0.5731 * Regina Tobu Zoo JP 3 89 69 9 0.5599 75 Grt Am Scrm Mach SFoG GA 99 92 73 6 0.5556 76 Screamin' Eagle Six Flags St Louis MO 96 92 74 5 0.5526 77 Thunderhawk Dorney Park PA 145 93 77 1 0.5468 78 Le Monstre La Ronde QU 39 91 77 3 0.5409 79 Big Dipper Worlds of Adventure OH 159 90 77 4 0.5380 80 Cannonball Lake Winnepesaukah GA 52 88 77 6 0.5322 20 81 Hoosier Hurricane Indiana Beach IN 115 90 79 2 0.5322 44 82 Racer Kennywood PA 147 89 78 4 0.5322 41 83 Hurler Carowinds NC 72 89 81 1 0.5234 84 Outlaw Adventureland IA 47 85 78 5 0.5208 85 Arkansas Twister Magic Springs AR 24 87 80 4 0.5205 86 Texas Cyclone SF Astroworld TX 67 83 78 8 0.5148 87 Roller Coaster Western Wash. Fair WA 31 85 80 6 0.5146 88 Hurricane Myrtle Bch Pavilion SC 38 78 77 13 0.5030 89 Roller Coaster Blackpool UK 65 82 85 4 0.4912 90 King Solomons Mines Pleasureland UK 43 77 89 5 0.4649 91 Hurler Kings Dominion VA 131 77 90 4 0.4620 92 Racer Kings Island OH 159 74 93 4 0.4444 47 93 Rebel Yell Kings Dominion VA 137 75 94 2 0.4444 44 94 Thunderbolt SF New England MA 116 74 94 3 0.4415 95 Vuoristorata Linnamaki Park FI 17 66 86 16 0.4405 96 Twisted Twins-StellaKentucky Kingdom KY 117 70 95 6 0.4269 97 Tomahawk Port Aventura ES 24 65 91 13 0.4231 98 Tornado Adventureland IA 49 69 96 6 0.4211 99 Twisted Twins-Lola Kentucky Kingdom KY 112 68 99 4 0.4094 100 Skyliner Lakemont PA 96 68 100 3 0.4064 101 Lost Coaster of SM Indiana Beach IN 72 55 85 10 0.4000 102 Comet Hersheypark PA 145 67 102 2 0.3977 * Scenic Railway Luna Park-Melbourne AU 3 56 91 20 0.3952 104 Roller Coaster Lagoon UT 24 65 101 5 0.3947 105 Judge Roy Scream SFoT TX 87 65 103 3 0.3889 10 106 Cannonball Waterville USA AL 27 59 97 15 0.3889 9 107 Tornado Stricker's Grove OH 36 63 102 6 0.3860 108 Roller Coaster Joyland KS 28 59 101 11 0.3772 109 Zippin' Pippin Libertyland TN 23 62 105 4 0.3743 7 110 Starliner Miracle Strip FL 29 59 102 10 0.3743 6 111 Tree Topper Upper Clements Park NS 6 52 99 17 0.3601 112 Wilde Beast Canada's Wonderland ON 64 59 108 4 0.3567 113 Cyclone Pleasureland UK 46 60 111 0 0.3509 114 Thunder Road Carowinds NC 75 55 108 8 0.3450 115tWildcat Lake Compounce CT 107 54 113 4 0.3275 29 115tLeap the Dips Lakemont PA 92 54 113 4 0.3275 29 117 Jack Rabbit Seabreeze NY 48 54 113 3 0.3265 118 Magnus Colossus Terra Mitica ES 11 41 104 23 0.3125 119 Wild Wild West Warner Bros. Movie W ES 19 46 110 12 0.3095 120 Roller Coaster Great Yarmouth UK 19 46 116 8 0.2941 * Hullamvasut Vidam Park HU 4 38 104 18 0.2938 122 High Roller Valleyfair! MN 56 46 118 5 0.2870 123 American Eagle SFGAm IL 138 46 119 6 0.2865 124 Timberhawk Enchanted Village WA 22 37 98 7 0.2852 125 Wolverine Wildcat Michigan's Adventure MI 107 46 123 2 0.2749 126 M.Can.Mine Buster Canada's Wonderland ON 66 43 123 5 0.2661 16 127 Flyer Comet (SBNO) Whalom Park MA 39 44 124 3 0.2661 4 128 Cyclone Williams Grove PA 59 43 125 3 0.2602 129 Wildcat Frontier City OK 38 37 121 13 0.2544 6 130 Big Dipper Camden Park WV 36 39 123 9 0.2544 9 131 Sky Princess Dutch Wonderland PA 60 41 125 5 0.2544 8 132 Dragon Coaster Playland NY 62 42 126 3 0.2544 12 133 Runaway Coaster Rotunda UK 36 41 127 3 0.2485 134 Rollo Coaster Idlewild PA 66 40 127 4 0.2456 135 Hochschaubahn Prater Park AT 6 21 106 32 0.2327 136 Thunder Eagle(SBNO) Race World TN 18 33 125 12 0.2294 137 Sierra Tonante Mirabilandia Park IT 9 20 110 30 0.2188 138 Twister II Elitch Gardens CO 44 33 130 8 0.2164 139 Colossus S.F. Magic Mountain CA 123 33 134 4 0.2047 16 140 Scenic Railway Dreamland UK 45 33 134 4 0.2047 15 141 Wild Wild West Warner Bros. Movie W DE 29 23 129 17 0.1864 142 Rattler Fiesta Texas TX 60 26 134 11 0.1842 143 Red Streaker (S) Willow Mill PA 6 21 131 13 0.1667 144 Pegasus Big Chief WI 57 24 143 4 0.1520 145 Comet Waldameer PA 57 23 144 4 0.1462 146 Jack Rabbit Clementon Lake NJ 29 23 144 3 0.1441 147 Rolling Thunder SFGAd NJ 128 23 145 3 0.1433 148 Son of Beast Kings Island OH 142 19 144 8 0.1345 149 Predator Darien Lake NY 93 22 148 1 0.1316 18 150 Zipper Dipper Blackpool UK 60 21 147 3 0.1316 14 151 Scooby Doo Kings Dominion VA 118 22 148 1 0.1316 11 152 Bush Beast Australia's Wonderl. AU 6 13 138 16 0.1257 153 Scooby Doo Carowinds NC 68 19 147 5 0.1257 154 Anaconda Walibi-Schtroumpf FR 15 13 141 13 0.1168 155 Teddy Bear Stricker's Grove OH 30 17 149 5 0.1140 156 Beastie (SBNO) Australia's Wonderl. AU 7 12 142 13 0.1108 157 Sea Dragon Wyandot Lake OH 44 16 150 5 0.1082 20 158 Beastie Kings Island OH 125 17 151 3 0.1082 8 159 Little Dipper Hillcrest IL 23 13 151 6 0.0941 160 Zach's Zoomer Michigan's Adventure MI 104 13 154 4 0.0877 10 161 Little Dipper Kiddieland IL 30 12 153 6 0.0877 6 162 Kiddie Coaster Playland NY 29 14 156 1 0.0848 163 Ghoster Coaster Canada's Wonderland ON 60 11 155 5 0.0789 164 Pegasus de Efteling NL 49 10 157 4 0.0702 165 Antelope Gulliver's World UK 9 7 152 5 0.0579 166 Psyclone S.F. Magic Mountain CA 118 9 161 1 0.0556 167 Mean Streak Cedar Point OH 200 6 163 2 0.0409 168 Lil' Dipper Camden Park WV 35 5 163 3 0.0380 169 Raging Wolf Bobs Worlds of Adventure OH 157 4 166 1 0.0263 170 Underground Adventureland IA 38 2 165 1 0.0149 171 Hercules Dorney Park PA 141 1 170 0 0.0058 172 The Grizzly Great America CA 75 0 171 0 0.0000 Here is how the coasters with fewer than the required riders would have rated. 90* Jupiter Kijima Korakuen JP 2 53 59 42 0.4805 92* White Canyon Yomiuriland JP 2 61 74 19 0.4578 116* King Kobra Hopi Hari BR 2 43 91 20 0.3442 * Cyclone Nicco Park IN 0 0 0 0 0.0000 * Little Dipper Esselworld IN 0 0 0 0 0.0000The ride forces 'poll within a poll' was again an endorsement of airtime. The more forceful "abrupt" airtime edged the floating variety and both types of airtime eclipsed all others by ratios ranging from almost 2:1 to 17:1. Out of Control Feeling/Directional Changes edged Sensation of Speed for third and both were preferred to Lateral Forces and Positive G's/Loops by ratios ranging from nearly 4:1 to nearly 8:1. Positive G's/Loops are the least welcome sensation to the majority of wood coaster riders that took the poll. 1 Abrupt Airtime_____________________________ 256 5 0 0 1.0000 2 Floating Airtime___________________________ 256 4 1 0 0.8000 3 Out of Control Feeling/Directional Changes_ 256 3 2 0 0.6000 4 Sensation of Speed_________________________ 256 2 3 0 0.4000 5 Lateral Forces_____________________________ 256 1 4 0 0.2000 6 Positive G's/Loops_________________________ 256 0 5 0 0.0000 Abrupt Air Floating A Out of Con Sensation Lateral Fo Positive G 1 Abrupt Air X 126 124 6 162 89 5 175 76 5 221 29 6 229 24 3 2 Floating A 124 126 6 X 181 72 3 191 61 4 223 28 5 238 14 4 3 Out of Con 89 162 5 72 181 3 X 131 118 7 211 39 6 213 38 5 4 Sensation 76 175 5 61 191 4 118 131 7 X 194 58 4 223 28 5 5 Lateral Fo 29 221 6 28 223 5 39 211 6 58 194 4 X 165 89 2 6 Positive G 24 229 3 14 238 4 38 213 5 28 223 5 89 165 2 X