Looping Star (ルーピングスター) is a

steel roller coaster A steel roller coaster is a type of roller coaster classified by its steel Railway track, track, which consists of long steel tubes that are run in pairs, supported by larger steel columns or beams. Trains running along the track typically rely ...

located at

Nagashima Spa Land is an amusement park and vacation resort in Kuwana, Mie, Japan, about 30 km west of Nagoya. It opened in 1966, and features an amusement park with several roller coasters, thrill rides, kiddie rides, a water park (open only in the summer), a ...

Mie, Japan is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture an ...

. It is a Looping Star model built by Scwarzkopf in 1982, two years after the park’s

Shuttle Loop Shuttle Loop is a type of steel launched shuttle roller coaster designed by Reinhold Spieldiener of Intamin and manufactured by Anton Schwarzkopf. A total of 12 installations were produced between 1977 and 1982. These 12 installations have bee ...

roller coaster was built. The trains on Looping Star use a single lap bar to hold riders in the seat. This restraint is effective since the

centripetal forces Centripetal force (from Latin ''centrum'', "center" and ''petere'', "to seek") is the force that makes a body follow a curved trajectory, path. The direction of the centripetal force is always orthogonality, orthogonal to the motion of the bod ...

from the loop and helices press riders in their seats, and are a common feature on Schwarzkopf’s looping coasters. However, the ride is known to be considerably shaky and rough. The ride originally opened with four trains, but currently operates with only two. The ride has an orange and white paint scheme with blue trains.

Ride experience

As the train climbs the

chain lift hill A lift hill, or chain hill, is an upward-sloping section of track on a roller coaster on which the roller coaster train is mechanically lifted to an elevated point or peak in the track. Upon reaching the peak, the train is then propelled from ...

and enters the drop, it falls into a large

vertical loop The generic roller coaster vertical loop, also known as a Loop-the-loop, or a Loop-de-loop, where a section of track causes the riders to complete a 360 degree turn, is the most basic of roller coaster inversions. At the top of the loop, rid ...

, and then into multiple 180-degree helixes. Then ride goes around a large 180-degree helix and into a brake run. After two small left turns and a straightaway, the train returns to the station.

References

Roller coasters introduced in 1982 1982 establishments in Japan Roller coasters in Japan {{Amusement-ride-stub