The highest and fastest triple launch “roller coaster” in the world, that of the Vicenza-based mechanical ride manufacturer Zamperla, bears the Italian signature. The cars on Top Thrill 2, inaugurated after 2 years of work, at the Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, travel at 193 kilometers per hour at 128 meters in the air. «Call us carousels, it's what we've been doing for three generations – comments the president and CEO Antonio Zamperla – this project means a lot for our 450 employees, enthusiastic about having brought the new generation of technologies in roller coaster design to the global market».
The Top Thrill 2 «features three adrenaline-pumping launches, each with moments of airtime (i.e. the sensation of weightlessness), as well as the fastest backward launch in the world: the first forward launch takes passengers at 119 km/h , the second, backwards at 163 km/h and the third launch, forwards at 193 km/h.
«The project was a true partnership between the team of Roller Coaster engineers from Zamperla and Cedar Point” explains Alberto Ferri, Director of the Roller Coaster Business Unit Zamperla: the result was a milled aluminum frame with no welding, giant wheels , 530 millimetres, double the size of a steel coaster, to support high speeds and respond to the need to dissipate energy, carbon fiber to make the train lighter and give it the aerodynamic design of a racing car.
Cedar Point which hosts it is the second oldest amusement park in North America, with 68 attractions, including 18 roller coasters. It is owned and operated by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, one of the largest amusement park and resort operators in the world (11 amusement parks, four different outdoor water parks and resort lodging totaling more than 2,300 rooms and more than 600 sites for luxury campers).