Image via Complex Original
When it comes to roller coasters, we love all the loops, and length is most definitely a factor, but speed is easily at the top our checklist (What'd you expect, we drive cars for a living). Oh, and all that safety harnasses and track inspection stuff is important too.
Judging a theme park ride by this criteria has exteme significance. We don't sit in 3-hour lines just so we can half-assedly keep our arms up in sky and unenthusiastically shout "woo...." We need excitement. We need danger. We need that open-air-completely-exposed-maybe-we-could-die thrill that you can't get anywhere else.
Throughout the '90s, 100 mph was seen as a glass ceiling. Luckily, most of us were pouting on the side eating cotton candy, because we were still too short to safely take a ride. Since then, a number of roller coasters have been designed (with even more in the works) that make 100 mph sound like a school zone. For all of our steel stomachs out there, we presnt our countdown of The Fastest Roller Coasters in the World.
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10. Leviathan
Location: Vaughan, Ontario, Canada
Park: Canada's Wonderland
Top Speed: 92 mph
Elisha Cuthbert notwithstanding, Leviathan is Canada's greatest thrill ride. In fact, it's the country's fastest roller coaster with a top speed of just more than 90 mph. Patrons are dropped at an incredibly steep 80-degree angle, so leave your asthmatic grandparents at the gate.
9. Millennium Force
Location: Sandusky, Ohio
Park: Cedar Point
Top Speed: 93 mph
Millennium Force has one of the most insanely steep drops you'll ever experience on a roller coaster. The cable lift takes riders for a stunning view of Cedar Point amusement park on one side and Lake Erie on the other, but it's the eventual fall that drops your stomach through your butt steals the show. We wouldn't typically recommend visiting Ohio, but we'll make an exception for this ride.
8. Steel Dragon 2000
Location: Nagashima, Kuwana, Mie, Japan
Park: Nagashima Spa Land
Top Speed: 95 mph
At more than 8,000 feet in length, Steel Dragon 2000 is the longest track in the world, and it's pretty fast too. The coaster, which is built on land privy to earthquakes, requires an incredible amount of reinforcement and steel. With more than $50M invested in the ride, it'd be a shame to see this thing crumble upon the earth's vibrating crust.
7. Tower of Terror II
Location: Coomera, Queensland, Australia
Park: Dreamworld
Top Speed: 100 mph
The ride only lasts about 30 seconds, but it's intense. Like ... Ray-Lewis-delivering-a-half-time-speech-after-huffing-a-brown-paper-bag-full-of-antler-spray intense. You're launched 100 miles per hour backwards, until you climb a nearly 400-foot-tall tower, and then it's a violent drop back down to earth. Built in 1997, this is one of the list's older roller coasters, but it's more classic than has-been.
6. Superman: Escape from Krypton
Location: Valencia, California
Park: Six Flags Magic Mountain
Top Speed: 100 mph
Throughout the late '90s, Superman: Escape From Krypton (then named Superman: The Escape) was the fastest AND tallest roller coaster in the world, before a precipitous decline in the ranks beginning in 2001. The ride was rebranded in 2011, with a backwards-launching car option for those of you who dream of red lining a Ferrari in reverse.
5. Ring Racer
Location: Nürburg, Germany
Park: Nürburgring
Top Speed: 106 mph
Ring Racer runs along the Nürburgring racecourse, so riders mirror the experience of Formula 1 drivers, minus the whole constant threat of a car wreck thing. At a cost of nearly $17M, Ring Racer is an ambitious project that's had more than its fair share of setbacks. In 2009, a number of explosions in the pneumatic system caused injuries to patrons, and the ride hasn't come close to reaching the 135 mph. maximum speed touted in its original design.
4. Dodonpa
Location: Fujiyoshida, Japan
Park: Fuji-Q Highland
Top Speed: 107 mph
Dodonpa isn't the fastest coaster in the world, but it accelerates unlike any other. In fact, this ride goes from 0 to its top speed of nearly 107 mph in less than TWO SECONDS. The ride lasts less than a minute, so you're experience will be a blur, but that explosive acceleration out of the tunnel makes the painfully long wait in line worthwhile.
3. Top Thrill Dragster
Location: Sandusky, Ohio
Park: Cedar Point
Top Speed: 120 mph
As the name would imply, Top Thrill Dragster recreates the drag racing experience with countdown lights, roaring engine sound effects, and a ride that accelerates to 120 mph in less than four seconds. As a full circuit coaster that measures more than 400 feet in height, Top Thrill Dragster is susceptible to weather conditions and the occasional stall atop its crest. But, as one of the fastest AND tallest coasters in the world, it's worth the risk, even on a rainy day.
2. Kingda Ka
Location: Jackson, New Jersey
Park: Six Flags Great Adventure
Top Speed: 128 mph
At a height of more than 450 feet, Kingda Ka is the tallest roller coaster in the world, but it lost its title as the world's fastest roller coaster when (spoiler alert) Formula Rossa opened in 2010. The ride begins with a hydraulic launch that takes the idle coaster from 0 to 128 mph in less than four seconds. Then, the coaster climbs the main tower before spiraling more than 400 feet back down to earth. Sure, it's no longer the fastest coaster in the world, but Kinda Ka is definitely worth the price of admission at Six Flags.
1. Formula Rossa
Location: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Park: Ferrari World Abu Dhabi
Top speed: 150 mph
Formula Rossa is a launched coaster that reaches its 150 mph maximum speed in five seconds. The Air Force Academy might frown on your checkered criminal history and ACT score, but who needs years of training when you have this hydraulic powered, fighter pilot substitute. Safety goggles are required during the ride because, well, destroying arrant bugs with one's face can be a messy endeavor. And, Formula Rossa's 4.8Gs can make even the most ironclad stomachs hit the eject button on a tray of amusement park nachos. That said, this ride is probably the coolest way to crap your pants in public.