Gwazi was Busch Gardens Tampa Bay's mammoth double wooden coaster, but was shut down on February 1, 2015. It was also the Southeast's largest and fastest double wooden roller coaster, boasting more than 1.25 million board feet of lumber and more than 2 million bolted connections. Named after a fabled lion with a tiger's head, Gwazi raced riders through almost 7,000 feet of track and six "flyby" maneuvers in which trains passed within feet of each other at crossing speeds of 100 mph. Gwazi is in reality two distinct roller coasters intertwined: Gwazi Tiger has an element that gave riders a slalom sensation, more like a bobsled than a wooden coaster. Gwazi Lion was a seemingly continuous number of spirals.
| Year | Track | Type | Designer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Wood | Dueling Twister | Great Coasters, Int. |
Elements: Dual-Track, Six Near Miss Dueling Passes
February 2, 2015 – Standing-but-not-operating since this date.
February 1, 2015 – Closing date
2012 – Gwazi Tiger (one side) was shut down after the summer season and remained closed ever since.
January 2011 – Four GCI Millennium Flyer trains replace the original 24-passenger, six-car PTC trains.
Opening date: June 18, 1999
Estimated cost: $10 million
Train has twelve cars with one row each, seating two abreast per row.
Height requirement: Riders must be less than 49 inches tall
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