Trio of New European Coasters Now Open

Three roller coasters on our list of most anticipated coasters for 2022 outside of the United States have recently opened.


Dino Dash – Tayto Park

  • Location: Ashbourne, Meath, Ireland
  • Manufacturer: Vekoma
  • Length: 833.3 feet
  • Height: 38.4 feet
  • Speed: 28.6 mph

The smallest of these three coasters, Dino Dash at Tayto Park, looks to pack a punch in a small footprint. The new ride, which opened on April 9th, 2022, looks like it offers a great introduction to g-forces, pulling as many as 2.9gs.  The layout is an upgraded, more thrilling version of Vekoma’s older junior coaster models, like Flight of the Hippogriff at Islands of Adventure.

tayto park dino dash

The dinosaur theming looks to be very well done, so we’ll have to add it to our list of best dinosaur themed roller coasters.

Tonnere 2 Zeus – Parc Astérix

  • Location: Plailly, Hauts-de-France, France
  • Manufacturer: Custom Coasters International / refurb by The Gravity Group
  • Height: 98 feet
  • Length: 4,044 feet
  • Speed: 52 mph

Originally a Custom Coasters International ride opened in 1997, Tonnerre de Zeus has been undergoing a complete re-tracking and reprofiling by The Gravity Group. The three phased refurb has been ongoing since 2019 but has finally been completed and reopened in 2022. Some parts of the layout altered to provide more airtime and new Gravitykraft trains were added.

The coaster’s new name is Tonnere 2 Zeus and it looks absolutely fantastic! We had the pleasure of seeing the vehicle at IAAPA. Gravity Group has really been killing it with their recent ride refurbishments, starting with the Racer at Kings Island (and we can’t wait to ride the new and improved Beast).

Fonix – Farup Sommerland

  • Location: Nordjylland, Denmark
  • Manufacturer: Vekoma
  • Height: 131 ft
  • Length: 2,969 ft
  • Inversions: 3

Fårup Sommerland has opened Denmark’s largest and fastest roller coaster. Fønix (Phoenix) features the world’s first ‘stall loop’ element, and has 14 moments of airtime. I know coaster enthusiasts have said this a hundred times, but these new age Vekoma coasters look really, really good. Glad we’re finally getting one here in America at COTALAND.


Which of these three new European coasters would you most like to travel to ride? Or which layout would you love to see a park in the US clone? Let us know in the comments below!

Share