Park section Adventure Seaport Opening date April 7, 2001 Type Steel Height 70 m Height restriction 1.37 m | Status Operating Cost $20,000,000 Manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard Max speed 129 km/h | |
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Address 1 Six Flags Blvd, Cream Ridge, NJ 08514, USA Hours Open today · 10:30AM–9PMTuesday10:30AM–9PMWednesday10:30AM–9PMThursday10:30AM–9PMFriday10:30AM–9PMSaturday10:30AM–9PMSunday10:30AM–9PMMonday10:30AM–9PMSuggest an edit Similar El Toro, Bizarro, Kingda Ka, Green Lantern, Superman: Ultimate Flight | ||
Nitro is a steel roller coaster designed by Bolliger & Mabillard at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, United States. It opened on April 7, 2001, as the fastest roller coaster in New Jersey and the tallest on the East Coast of the United States. It has been ranked number three in the Golden Ticket Awards Best Steel Roller Coaster every year from 2007 to 2012. It was ranked number four in 2013.
Contents
Queue and station
Nitro's queue area consists of an indoor and outdoor area followed by a long path before climbing the stairs into the station. Views from the line show the backside to Batman: The Ride and the Six Flags Great Adventure mechanical and storage area.
Nitro's station music is the remix of the Mortal Kombat theme, which can be heard during the queue and station.
Layout
After leaving the station, the train makes a left U-turn and begins to ascend the 230-foot-tall (70 m) lift hill. After reaching the top, the train drops 215 feet (66 m) at a 68-degree angle, reaching its top speed of 80 miles per hour (130 km/h), then climbs up a 189-foot-tall (58 m) hill and dives down to the left, next coasting over a 161-foot (49 m) airtime hill. After that, Nitro enters its unique element, the Hammerhead turn, a tight U-turn to the right. Traveling over another camelback hill, Nitro enters its S-curve and into the 540-degree helix. After the mid course brake run, Nitro travels over three camelback hills, followed by a final brake run, and returns to the station. As the third B&M hypercoaster built, the ride is comparable amongst other first-gen B&M hyper hypercoasters like Silver Star at Europa-Park, Goliath at La Ronde, Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America, and Apollo's Chariot at Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
Trains
Nitro operates with three open-air steel and fiberglass trains with individual lap bar restraints. Each train has nine cars with riders arranged four across in a single row for a total of 36 riders per train.
Nitro's trains can be loaded and checked quickly, resulting in very high capacity with all 3 trains running. There are three main reasons for this:
- There is no "backup restraint" that must be checked (Nitro used to have a backup restraint, see below for more details). Most roller coasters have some sort of seat belt (either on the rider's lap or holding the main restraint down) that serves as a safety device in case the main restraint unlocks.
- Nothing needs to move out of the way before the train dispatches and after the train advances into the station. This is not the case on most of B&M's other coaster models. For example, on their flying roller coaster, the floor descends and the seats flip into flying position before the train begins to move. On floorless roller coasters and inverted roller coasters, a sort of gate in front of the trains must swing open in addition to the floor moving.
- The trains can be deployed much more successively than most roller coasters. Usually, as soon as one train has crested the lift hill, the train behind it can be dispatched onto the lift.
Track
The steel track is 5,394 feet (1,644 m) in length and the height of the lift is approximately 230 feet (70 m). It was manufactured by Clermont Steel Fabricators located in Batavia, Ohio. The track colors are pink and yellow, with blue supports.
Nitro currently has the second steepest drop of a lifted (as opposed to launched) roller coaster in the park, behind El Toro's 76 degree first drop. The coaster previously featured signs erected on the lift hill stairs which compared points on the hill to other tall structures, such as Niagara Falls; these signs were later removed.