Timber Drop 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 the

Fraispertuis City Fraispertuis City is a theme park in Jeanménil, France. It opened in 1966. Its roller coaster Timber Drop, created by S&S Power, was the List of roller coaster rankings#Steepness rankings, steepest in the world when it opened on July 2, 2011, b ...

amusement park in

Jeanménil Jeanménil () is a Communes of France, commune in the Vosges (department), Vosges Departments of France, department in Grand Est in northeastern France. Geography The river Mortagne (river), Mortagne forms part of the commune's western border. S ...

, France. With a slope of 113.1°, the coaster held the world record for the steepest drop in the world from 1 July 2011 to 16 July 2011, and currently holds the record for the steepest roller coaster drop in Europe.

History

On 8 October 2010 at the trade show of the Euro Attractions Show in Rome, Fraispertuis City finalized the purchase of a new roller coaster to be built by

S&S – Sansei Technologies S&S – Sansei Technologies (formerly S&S Sports, S&S Power, and S&S Worldwide) is an American company known for its pneumatically powered amusement rides and roller coaster designing. History Establishment Stan Checketts with his wife ...

. Named Timber Drop, the coaster was inaugurated on 1 July 2011 and opened to the public the next day. The coaster is an "El Loco" model, of which there are variants in five other parks. When Timber Drop was installed, two other El Loco coasters existed: One named

Steel Hawg Steel Hawg is a steel roller coaster located at Indiana Beach, Monticello, Indiana. The ride is the first ''El Loco'' model built by manufacturer S&S Worldwide (now S&S – Sansei Technologies) of Logan, Utah. The ride was installed by Ride Enter ...

Indiana Beach Indiana Beach is an amusement park located on Lake Shafer in Monticello, Indiana. The resort was developed by the Spackman family, who owned it from 1926 to 2008. The park was then sold to Morgan RV LLC, Apex Parks Group, LLC, and now is owned an ...

in the United States and another named Mumbo Jumbo at Flamingo Land Theme Park & Zoo in England. Steel Hawg (opened in 2008) and Mumbo Jumbo (opened in 2009) were holders of the world's steepest roller coaster drops of 111° and 112° respectively. Timber Drop had a steeper-than-vertical drop of 113.1°, which allowed it to win the title when opening. However, this record was exceeded fifteen days later, with the opening of

Takabisha is a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter steel roller coaster located at Fuji-Q Highland in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi, Japan. It opened on 16 July 2011, and is known for having a drop angle of 121°. It was the steepest coaster in the world before it was ov ...

(121°) at

Fuji-Q Highland is an amusement park in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi, Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture, Yamanashi, Japan, owned and operated by the namesake Fuji Kyuko, Fuji Kyuko Co. It opened on 2 March 1968. The park is near the base of Mount Fuji. It has a nu ...

in Japan on 16 July 2011. With a total budget of 4 million euros, Timber drop represented the largest investment in the park since its inception. More than one million euros is spent on decoration and arrangement of attraction, entrusted to the company Artistic Concrete Workshop. The theme of the attraction is that of redwoods. Trains and pass through several tree stumps during the run, various cut logs decorate the area surrounding the attraction. Since its opening, a counter was set up on the attraction, to count the number of visitors riding Timber Drop. The park, in partnership with the association "Trees for Life" decided to educate visitors on the issue of deforestation. Fraispertuis City committed to donate money to replant and maintain one tree for every 500 riders. In 2011, the park has recorded 146,500 riders, which led to the replanting of 293 trees in

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

References

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