Today, the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE), owners of Playland Amusement Park in Vancouver, announced the purchase of Canada’s fastest launch coaster, and the first LSM coaster from Zamperla. The coaster will open at Playland in 2024. The $9 Million (CDN) project caps off nearly a decade of growth for Zamperla since the Thunderbolt opened at Luna Park in Coney Island in 2014 and highlights the continued development of Zamperla’s Roller Coaster business unit.
“This is an incredibly exciting day,” said PNE President and CEO Shelley Frost. “Despite the financial effects of the COVID pandemic, the PNE has displayed its resiliency and innovation by not only surviving the pandemic, but by pivoting our business throughout it to emerge in a place to invest in this spectacular ride and into Playland’s future. We know that the new coaster will be an impressive addition to Playland’s ride roster, and we look forward to introducing it to our guests in 2024.”
The new LSM launch coaster will occupy the previous location of the park’s retired Corkscrew roller caster, and its experience will perfectly complement the park’s current line-up of rides and attractions.
Launching riders at a speed of 45 mph (72 km/h), the yet-to-be-named coaster will feature 1,246′ (380m) of track and will stand 59′ (18m) tall. It will also feature Zamperla’s new Lightning trains, which will be revealed at this month’s IAAPA Expo in Orlando.
“Our engineers have worked to make sure this is the best roller coaster train in the world,” said Adam Sandy, Zamperla’s Roller Coaster Sales and Marketing Director. “We thought about every square centimeter of the Lightning, from the bottom of the wheels to the top of the seat. The Zamperla engineering team kept our core design values at the forefront: safety, ergonomics, the total cost of ownerships – and of course pure fun for thrillseekers.”
During the ride’s announcement, PNE noted that the $9 Million CDN investment was the single largest for a ride in the park’s history.
“We’re very excited to work with the Pacific National Exhibition on one of their largest investments. This LSM coaster will be the fastest launch coaster in Canada,” added Michael Coleman, Zamperla’s North American Sales Manager. “Playland and Zamperla have a long partnership, and their team started discussions with us over a year ago about their long term planning and helping them grow the park’s offerings. This year, we opened Skybender, a Zamperla Gryphon, which was a huge success and allowed Playland to market the first ride of its type in the world.”
This roller coaster joins Cedar Point’s Wild Mouse and Adventureland’s Flying Viking as Zamperla Coasters opening in North America in the next two years.
Be sure to tune in to Monday’s episode of the Coaster101 podcast to learn more about Zamperla’s coaster division as Adam Sandy rejoins the podcast!
Has anyone here ever brought up the fact that the layout for this coaster looks exactly like Senzafiato, a closed Intamin accelerator coaster in Italy at Miragica? Feel free to compare the layouts of the two:
https://rcdb.com/4194.htm
Yes, it seems like this be more of a refurb and retrofit of the Intamin coaster with Zamperla trains. Interestingly, the Chief Sales Officer of Zamperla used to be co-CEO of Intamin.