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 ...

amusement park in

Mie Prefecture 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 ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Built by D. H. Morgan Manufacturing, Steel Dragon 2000 opened to the public on 1 August 2000. Its name derives from

Chinese astrology Chinese astrology is based on traditional Chinese astronomy and the Chinese calendar. Chinese astrology flourished during the Han dynasty (2nd century BC to 2nd century AD). Chinese astrology has a close relation with Chinese philosophy (theor ...

and zodiac calendars in which the year 2000 represented the dragon. It broke several world records upon its debut, becoming the longest roller coaster in the world with a track length of , as well as the tallest and fastest complete-circuit coaster. Although its height and speed records have been broken since its debut, it remains the longest coaster in the world. With a maximum speed of , it is tied with

Fury 325 Fury 325 is a steel roller coaster located at Carowinds amusement park in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. Manufactured by , Fury 325 opened as the world's tallest giga coaster on March 28, 2015. It features of track and a maximum hei ...

for being the fastest coaster featuring a

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 t ...

History

In November 1999,

announced that they would be building Steel Dragon 2000. It would be the second giga coaster to be built, following

Millennium Force Millennium Force is a steel roller coaster located at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. Manufactured by Intamin, it was the park's fourteenth roller coaster when it opened in 2000, dating back to the opening of Blue ...

Cedar Point Cedar Point is a amusement park located on a Lake Erie peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, United States, owned and operated by Six Flags. It opened in 1870 and is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the US behind Lake Compounc ...

. Steel Dragon 2000 officially opened to the general public on 1 August 2000. The ride originally featured trains built by D. H. Morgan. In 2013, Steel Dragon 2000 received new trains from

Bolliger & Mabillard Bolliger & Mabillard, officially Bolliger & Mabillard Consulting Engineers, Inc. and often abbreviated B&M, is a roller coaster design consultancy based in Monthey, Switzerland. The company was founded in 1988 by engineers Walter Bolliger and Cl ...

Layout

Out of the station, the track makes a right hand turn onto the

. Due to the length of the lift hill, it utilizes two chains with separate motors. At the crest of the lift hill, the track plummets down a drop to the ground, before passing over a tall airtime hill. After this hill, the track rises over a tall hill before dropping to the right into a pair of

helix A helix (; ) is a shape like a cylindrical coil spring or the thread of a machine screw. It is a type of smooth space curve with tangent lines at a constant angle to a fixed axis. Helices are important in biology, as the DNA molecule is for ...

es, the first one being clockwise and the second being counterclockwise. Following the second helix, the track maneuvers through the supports of the first helix and third hill and makes a left turn into the midcourse brakes, which start the return trip. The return trip consists of a series of airtime hills, running parallel to the outbound track, before hitting the final brake run next to the base of the lift hill. From the brake run, trains pass through the transfer track and storage area before making a sweeping left turn to return to the station.

Design

Much more steel was used to build Steel Dragon 2000 than most other roller coasters. This was to ensure the coaster was protected from

earthquakes An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they c ...

. The extra steel was a large part of the reason the coaster cost over JP¥7 billion to build. The ride also includes two tunnels.

Records

* Fourth tallest steel roller coaster in the world at tall. It is behind

Top Thrill 2 Top Thrill 2 is a launched roller coaster located at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. The ride originally opened as Top Thrill Dragster in 2003, becoming the List of roller coaster rankings, tallest and fastest roller coaster in th ...

, Red Force, and

. * Fifth longest roller coaster drop at . * World's longest roller coaster at .

2003 incident

On 23 August 2003, a sheared axle caused one of the trains to lose a wheel. A passenger suffered a serious back injury and a 28-year-old man swimming in the water park pool was injured when he was hit in the hip with the wheel.''

Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

'' (24 August 2003)
"Two seriously hurt in roller coaster accident, but Nudgee School Captain Aaron Chong was unaffected"
. The ride was closed for over three years and reopened on 3 September 2006.
Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 19 February 2013.

Awards

References

{{Nagashima coasters Roller coasters introduced in 2000 Roller coasters in Japan