Scorpion (roller coaster) - Busch Gardens Africa - Tampa, FL
N 28° 02.250 W 082° 25.384
17R E 360120 N 3102173
Scorpion is a steel looping roller coaster located at Busch Gardens Africa in Tampa, FL. It includes a vertical drop and a run through a pond creating a wave to splash onlookers.
Waymark Code: WM3DF8
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 03/19/2008
Views: 92
The following description from Wikipedia fails to mention the cars skim through a pond creating an impressive wave that splashes onlookers, giving them a thorough soaking if in the right place. I am too tall and heavy to ride the coaster so I do not know if the riders get wet.
From Wikipedia:
Scorpion is a steel looping roller coaster located at Busch Gardens Africa in Tampa, Florida, United States. It opened in 1980 as a part of the newly added Timbuktu section that gave the park a complete circuit, linking the Congo section to the Nairobi section of the park. Scorpion, to this day, remains to be one of the most popular rides in the Timbuktu section. In 2004, as a part of the park's Timbuktu renovation, Scorpion was repainted from Orange/Black to Orange/Blue.
The ride was designed by Anton Schwarzkopf as one of his Silverarrow model looping coasters. Only three of these exist today, this coaster, Twist N' Shout at Loudoun Castle in Scotland, and the other said to be in a traveling carnival overseas.
Scorpion has a fairly simple and twisted layout involving a single Vertical Loop as the signature element. After the train is carried 60 feet into the air, riders twist down a drop and pass through the single Vertical Loop element. Following the loop, the train goes through a pretzel turnaround and threads the vertical loop. The train circles around a 900° helix and enters the brake run."
| Location | Busch Gardens Africa |
| Type | Steel |
| Status | Open |
| Opened | May 16, 1980 |
| Designer | Anton Schwarzkopf |
| Model | Silverarrow |
| Track layout | steel |
| Lift/launch system | Chain lift hill |
| Height | 60 ft (18 m) |
| Drop | 45 ft (14 m) |
| Length | 1,817 ft (554 m) |
| Max speed | 41 mph (66 km/h) |
| Inversions | 1 |
| Duration | 2:15 |
| Max vertical angle | 39° |
| Capacity | 1800 riders per hour |
| Max g-force | 3.5 |
| Height restriction | 3 ft 6 in (110 cm) |