Saw The Ride | |
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Thorpe Park | |
Coordinates | 51°24′09″N 0°30′43″W / 51.402623°N 0.511905°WCoordinates: 51°24′09″N 0°30′43″W / 51.402623°N 0.511905°W |
Status | Operating |
Opening date | 14 March 2009 |
Cost | £13.5 million |
General statistics | |
Type | Steel – Euro-Fighter |
Manufacturer | Gerstlauer |
Designer | John Wardley (track layout) |
Model | Eurofighter |
Track layout | Custom |
Lift/launch system | Vertical chain lift hill |
Height | 100 ft (30 m) |
Length | 2,362 ft (720 m) |
Speed | 55 mph (89 km/h) |
Inversions | 3 |
Duration | 1:40 |
Max vertical angle | 100° |
Height restriction | 55 in (140 cm) |
Trains | 8 trains with a single car. Riders are arranged 4 across in 2 rows for a total of 8 riders per train. |
Saw The Ride at RCDB Pictures of Saw The Ride at RCDB |
Saw – The Ride is a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter roller coaster located at Thorpe Park in the United Kingdom. Designed by Gerstlauer and British designer John Wardley, the roller coaster opened to the public on 14 March 2009. It was billed as "the world’s first ever horror movie-themed rollercoaster" and was marketed with the slogan "Face your Fears" by Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures. The ride is themed to the Saw film franchise and features several scenes from the films with nearly a third of the ride enclosed. Its beyond-vertical drop of 100º made it the steepest roller coaster in the world at the time of its opening, and the cost for the ride was estimated at £13.5 million.
Thorpe Park announced plans for a new roller coaster on 14 October 2008. Thorpe park created a dedicated website for the new ride releasing full details and claiming it would become "the scariest ride in the world". The official press release detailing the park's fourth major roller coaster confirmed a development partnership with Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures, and it claimed Saw would feature "the steepest freefall drop in the world". The press release also revealed that "the world’s first ever horror movie-themed rollercoaster" would be marketed under the slogan "Face your Fears".
During construction, the codename "Project Dylan" was used to keep the movie tie-in secret. The name 'Dylan' in fact came from the project director's cat, with no actual relevance to the ride. A large section of the Canada Creek Railway had to be rebuilt, affecting a small section of the Samurai line queue. Competition winners and annual pass holders were allowed to attend a preview event, before it opened to the public on Saturday 14 March 2009 a year later. Saw – Alive, a live-action horror maze, was opened at the park in 2010 to complement the ride. It caught fire in April 2011, but was repaired over the course of a month.
A Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor is displayed next to the ride. It was removed at the beginning of the 2013 season due to vandalism, but returned at the end of the same season after repairs.