Top secret 2001 theme park rides-you read it first

A very close friend of mine who works in the amusement park industry called me on the phone a few hours ago, telling me about some great sounding rides that will open in 2001 in theme parks across the nation. I won't reveil his name, but I will give you the buzz on these cool sounding 2001 attractions.

1) PGA-Danger Zone. Taking the place of the Grizzly (which I always liked to refer to as the Ghastly) comes this dueling woodie from CCI featuring two unique features. One is the introduction of criss-crossing tracks that will have the two trainsl come within a few feet of crashing into each other. The other with be a rotating peice of track halfway through the ride that will turn the trains backwards, thus causing riders to experiance a big drop and several bunny hops in reverse. Sounds great to me. Expext the two tracks to be around 3500-4000 ft and the highest point at 110 ft.

2) Kennywood-Unamed B&M prototype. The word is out-the replacment for the Steel Phantom will be a stand up inverted featuring a 350 ft drop that goes through the Thunderbolt's structure at 120 mph and will feature at least 10 loops. You got it right, inversions in the double didgets.

3) La Ronde-Le Gyrotron 2. Yes, its back. The famous dark ride built during the 1967 Expo in Monteal will get rebuilt, featuring spetacular S/X that will be presented on two large Imax screens and a newer, scarier robot spider. Canadian rock band Rush is rumored to do the soundtrack for this ride. 4) Six Flags Theme Parks-KISS themed coasters at various parks. Parents and music critics beware, Six Flags have made an agreement with the make-up clad rockers to use them in several future coasters planned for several of the SF parks. Details are sketchy, but reports point at one of the rides being named Destroyer and that it will be an indoor Hulk-style ride from B&M featuring lots of fire F/X and maybe a blood spitting demon or two. 5) Sea World, San Diego-Sea Wasp. Expect to "Feel the Sting" as B&M's largest floorless coaster to date comes to SWSD. Named after a jellyfish found off the Austrailian coast whose sting can cause death in humans within minutes, Sea Wasp will be 195 ft tall and will feature 8 inversions. The coasters queue line will be themed to an Australian beach, comeplete with "Beware of Stingers" signs. 6) BGW-War Pigs. The brewery near BGW will be torn down late spring to make way for GCI's largest dueling woodie to date. Named after a Black Sabbath song, the two different tracks will be named Gog and Magog and expect a lot of debate over which track is better. At one part of the ride, the two trains will plunge into an underground tunnel at opposite directions-the effect should be great. Anyway, thats it so far for the 2001 preview. No words yet for what to expect from CF, Disney, or Universal, but I'll keep up updated as new things develop. -Wendigo

P.S. APRIL FOOLS!!!