Possessed is an Inverted Impulse

launched roller coaster The launched roller coaster is a modern form of roller coaster. A launched coaster initiates a ride with high amounts of acceleration via one or a series of linear induction motors (LIM), linear synchronous motors (LSM), catapults, tires, chains, ...

located at

Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom is an American amusement and water park located between Allentown and Emmaus, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The park features 64 rides, including six roller coasters, other adul ...

in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Manufactured by

Intamin Intamin Amusement Rides is a design and manufacturing company in Schaan, Liechtenstein. It is best known for creating thrill rides and roller coasters worldwide. The Intamin brand name is a syllabic abbreviation for "international amusement insta ...

and designed by

Werner Stengel Werner Stengel (born 22 August 1936, in Bochum) is a German roller coaster designer and engineer. Stengel is the founder of Stengel Engineering, also known as Ingenieurbüro Stengel GmbH (or Ingenieurbuero Stengel GmbH). Stengel first worked on ...

, the roller coaster originally debuted at Six Flags Ohio amusement park as Superman: Ultimate Escape on May 5, 2000. After

Cedar Fair Cedar Fair, L.P., formally Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, is a publicly traded master limited partnership headquartered at its Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. The company owns and operates eleven amusement parks, nine included- ...

purchased the park and renamed it back to

Geauga Lake Geauga Lake was an amusement park in Bainbridge Township, Geauga County, Ohio, Bainbridge Township and Aurora, Ohio, Aurora, Ohio. It was established in 1887, in what had been a local recreation area adjacent to Geauga Lake (lake), a lake of th ...

in early 2004, the coaster was immediately renamed Steel Venom. The ride closed in 2006 and was moved to Dorney Park. It reopened in 2008 briefly under the name Voodoo, and was renamed Possessed for the 2009 season. The model is identical to five other impulse coaster installations at other amusement parks. A larger version called

Wicked Twister Wicked Twister was an inverted roller coaster located at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. Designed by Werner Stengel, it was a second-generation, double-twisting Impulse model manufactured by Intamin. Wicked Twister o ...

was located at

Cedar Point Cedar Point is a amusement park located on a Lake Erie peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. Opened in 1870, it is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the U.S. behind Lake Compounce. Cedar Point is owned and oper ...

until its closure in September 2021.

History

Geauga Lake era (2000–2006)

The ride opened on May 5, 2000 at Six Flags Ohio as Superman: Ultimate Escape. It was based on the

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with their f ...

character Superman. Following

's acquisition of the park in 2004, in which the original

name was reinstituted to the park, all

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series '' Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation. ...

and

branding owned by Six Flags was removed. In the process, the coaster was renamed Steel Venom, while receiving a new logo with a black background featuring a silver and purple snake. Even though Cedar Fair removed any mentions of Superman from the ride, the original blue, red, and yellow color scheme remained intact. The coaster was dismantled after the 2006 season and put into storage. At the end of the 2007 season, Cedar Fair announced the amusement park section of the park would close and the park would operate exclusively as Wildwater Kingdom. Many rides at the park were relocated to other parks in the Cedar Fair chain.

Dorney Park era (2007–present)

Steel Venom was relocated to Dorney Park, where it reopened as Voodoo several weeks into the 2008 season on May 17, 2008. Prior to opening at Dorney Park, it was repainted to its current color scheme, as shown in the picture above, the supports were repainted teal and the track was repainted yellow. In 2009, the name was changed to Possessed after

Six Flags Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an American amusement park corporation, headquartered in Arlington, Texas. It has properties in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Six Flags owns the most theme parks and waterparks combined of any amu ...

expressed concerns over the name Voodoo, which it had recently trademarked for another ride. Instead of challenging, Cedar Fair opted to appease Six Flags and rename the coaster. Cedar Fair turned the incident into a marketing opportunity, which focused on a story that the ride was overtaken by evil spirits, fitting in line with the ride's original theme. Possessed was closed for the entire 2020 season due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. It reopened in 2021.

Design

The coaster's layout consists of two vertical spikes, one twisted and the other straight vertical with a holding brake, connected by a launch and station tract to form a basic "U" layout. The original ride began with riders being launched forward by the use of

linear induction motor A linear induction motor (LIM) is an alternating current (AC), asynchronous linear motor that works by the same general principles as other induction motors but is typically designed to directly produce motion in a straight line. Characterist ...

s. After the initial launch, the train heads up the twisted vertical spike that twists the train 180 degrees. The train then falls and is launched backwards up the vertical spike. It shuttles back and forth three times. During the ride's initial years, the holding brake at the top of the vertical rear spike would engage on the final launch, locking the train in place for a very brief moment. This holding brake is no longer operational.

Valleyfair Valleyfair is a amusement park in Shakopee, Minnesota, United States. Owned by Cedar Fair, the park opened in 1976 and now features over 75 rides and attractions including eight roller coasters. Valleyfair also has a water park called Soak Cit ...

's Steel Venom is currently the only Intamin impulse coaster in the United States still operating with its holding brake. The maximum

G-force The gravitational force equivalent, or, more commonly, g-force, is a measurement of the type of force per unit mass – typically acceleration – that causes a perception of weight, with a g-force of 1 g (not gram in mass measur ...

of the ride is 3.7 Gs, expectantly low for a twisted impulse coaster.

Gallery

Image:Possessed_(Front_1).jpg, Twisted spike Image:Possessed_(Front_2).jpg, Twisted spike Image:Possessed_(Back_3).jpg, Straight spike Image:Possessed_(Back_2).jpg, Train exiting the straight spike File:Possessed_station.jpg, Station and queue line File:Voodoo Dorney Park entrance sign.jpg, Entrance sign when known as Voodoo

References

External links

''Possessed'' official pageVideo of ''Possessed''
{{Intamin Roller coasters in Pennsylvania Roller coasters introduced in 2000 Roller coasters introduced in 2008 Roller coasters operated by Cedar Fair Amusement rides that closed in 2006