The Viper (Darien Lake)

Infobox roller coaster
name = The Viper


caption = The Viper's 121-foot lift hill.
location = Darien Lake
type = Steel
manufacturer = Arrow Dynamics
designer = Arrow Dynamics
model = Steel multi-inversion
status = Open
opened = May 1982
height = 121
drop = 75
length = 3100
speed = 50
restriction = 48
inversions = 5
capacity = 2100
rcdb_number= 224

The Viper is a steel looping roller coaster located at Darien Lake. This was the first large ride at the park and the first roller coaster of its type anywhere in the world to have five inversions. The ride was built through a joint venture of the now defunct Arrow Dynamics and Huss. It opened in 1982, and still operates to this day.The coaster has three trains, color-coded red, yellow, and blue, with seven cars each; riders are two across with two rows in each car. The track was originally all black, but it was repainted to a green track with black supports when Six Flags took Darien Lake over.

When new, The Viper ran all three trains at a time, with the safety blocks being distinguished as: The station house and lift hill, the top of the lift hill to the brake blocks just before the corkscrew, and from the corkscrew to the holding area just before the station house. Now there are only ever two trains running at a time, with the third stored underneath the station house. The brake blocks prior to the corkscrew are used for speed control before the train enters the second half of the ride.

Ride Layout

Exiting the station house, the track makes a wide U-Turn to the lift hill, which brings the car up 120 ft. above the ground. Technically speaking, the "first drop" of The Viper is about 10 feet, which gives the train enough momentum to round a bend to the right, before dropping off the first real hill of roughly 70 feet. After the drop takes the train through the vertical loop, it enters consecutive batwing rolls. By the time the train exits those, the track has turned 180° and is now headed back towards the station. After a left turn the train encounters the mid-ride brakes. Next, the track makes a 180° turn to the right and enters consecutive corkscrews, spinning twice. Then its off to a large circle where, while making a 540° loop, the track goes through a 110' tunnel, then finally returns to the station.

Ride Elements

*Vertical Loop
*Batwing (Arrow's "Boomerang") (2 Inversions)
*Double Corkscrew
*Tunnel: 110 feet long.

Another point of interest: the entrance queue goes under portions of the track, allowing an underneath point of view for observers.