Iron Gwazi

Iron Gwazi is an upcoming steel-wooden hybrid roller coaster under construction at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay amusement park in Tampa, Florida. Originally built as a wooden, dueling roller coaster with two separate tracks, Gwazi first opened to the public on June 18, 1999. It was constructed by Great Coasters International (GCI) and was named after a fabled creature with a head of a tiger and a body of a lion. Accordingly, the two sides of the roller coaster's track were named "Lion" and "Tiger." Both sides of the roller coaster reached a height of 105.4 feet (32.1 m), with a maximum speed of 51 mph (82 km/h), and stretched over 7,000 feet (2,100 m) when taking both tracks into account.

Iron Gwazi
Previously known as Gwazi (1999–2015)
Iron Gwazi sign
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
LocationBusch Gardens Tampa Bay
Park sectionMorocco
Coordinates28°02′02″N 82°25′23″W
StatusUnder construction
CostUS$9,000,000[1]
ReplacedGwazi
General statistics
TypeSteel – Wooden
ManufacturerRocky Mountain Construction
DesignerAlan Schilke
ModelI-Box Track
Track layoutTwister
Lift/launch systemChain lift hill
Height206 ft (63 m)
Drop206 ft (63 m)
Length4,075 ft (1,242 m)
Speed76 mph (122 km/h)
Inversions2
Duration1:50
Max vertical angle91°
Height restriction48[2] in (122 cm)
Trains2 trains with 6 cars. Riders are arranged 2 across in 2 rows for a total of 24 riders per train.
Iron Gwazi at RCDB
Pictures of Iron Gwazi at RCDB

Iron Gwazi is built and designed by Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC), and will feature RMC's I-Box track. Iron Gwazi will reuse a large portion of structure that existed when the roller coaster was known as Gwazi, making it a hybrid roller coaster that utilizes a combination of steel and wood. It will become the tallest hybrid roller coaster in North America when it opens, as well as being the joint tallest hybrid roller coaster alongside Zadra at Energylandia. It will also be the steepest and fastest hybrid roller coaster in the world. It was intended to open in 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida, the opening was pushed to 2021.

History

Gwazi

In October 1995, the Busch Brewery closed and was subsequently demolished, freeing up land in the middle of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.[3][4] The idea for building a wooden roller coaster came from the park considering to differentiate itself from the Orlando theme park market's use in newer ride technology and with the rise in interest of older-style attractions.[5] The specific inspiration for the construction of a wooden roller coaster at the Busch Gardens theme park came while Mark Rose, then vice-president of the park's planning and design, toured several amusement parks with family.[5][6] During the tour of theme parks over a 17-day period, Rose informally selected five roller coasters as finalists towards to select a prospective designer for the new Busch Gardens Tampa Bay attraction. Out of the finalists, Rose chose Hersheypark's roller coaster, Wildcat, which was later confirmed by Busch Entertainment (since renamed SeaWorld Entertainment) officials who signed Great Coasters International (GCI) for their project.[5][7] The name for the roller coaster was later conceived with the assistance of Washington University in St. Louis.[5]

In early June 1998, it was reported that Busch Gardens Tampa Bay were considering an on-site expansion for a resort to rival Florida amusement parks, along with a projected $10 million attraction slated for a 1999 opening.[8][9] On June 16, 1998, owner of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Busch Entertainment filed a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the name "Gwazi."[10] Groundbreaking began on July 15, 1998,[11] coinciding with Busch Gardens Tampa Bay formally announcing Gwazi.[12][13] The dueling roller coasters were collectively announced as the park's fifth roller coaster, with each track being themed to a lion and tiger respectively.[14][15] In addition, it was announced that Great Coasters International would be constructing the roller coaster.[11][16] Construction of the roller coaster's several hills were photographed in The Tampa Tribune during November 1998.[17] The roller coaster was reported to have been re-designed "several times" over the months of construction.[7] By late-May 1999, test runs began for the roller coaster.[6]

To promote the opening of Gwazi, park officials sold "first ride" tickets for a preview event, which was held on June 17, 1999, where 3,500 tickets were sold out of 5,700 to pass-holders. In addition, around 500 guests from the American Coaster Enthusiasts were in attendance.[18][19] Construction of the roller coaster's theming and removing of excess wood were still being completed during the preview event.[19] The roller coaster opened on June 18, 1999, as Florida's first dueling wooden roller coaster.[20] In 1999, Florida was home to two dueling roller coasters: the Dueling Dragons inverted roller coaster (later known as Dragon Challenge), at Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure and Gwazi; the two roller coasters opened a month apart.[21][22] Gwazi was the first wooden roller coaster to open at any Busch Entertainment parks.[11][23]

A view of the original Gwazi's entrance and lion lift hill in 2006

Despite continued maintenance, Gwazi developed a reputation for delivering a rough ride. The "Lion" side of the roller coaster was re-tracked in 2009 followed by the "Tiger" side in 2010.[24] The last part of the overhaul included the installation of four GCI designed Millennium Flyer trains to replace the roller coaster's original Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters (PTC) trains.[24][25][26] Even with the re-tracking and new trains, Gwazi remained difficult to maintain and ridership continued to decrease. At the end of the 2012 season the "Tiger" side of Gwazi closed. Soon after the closing of the "Tiger" side, a bridge was built across the "Tiger" side's loading platform and one of the "Tiger's" trains was relocated onto the "Lion" side's track.[21][27]

In December 2014, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay confirmed that Gwazi's "Lion" track would officially close due to low ride attendance, operating costs, and negative guest feedback.[28][29] After 15 years of operation, the roller coaster's last train was dispatched on February 1, 2015 and Gwazi closed indefinitely.[21][30] Gwazi's trains were reused for InvadR, another wooden roller coaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg.[31][32] In addition, wood planks from the roller coaster were also reused in other SeaWorld Entertainment Parks including SeaWorld Orlando and in Busch Gardens Tampa Bay itself.[33]

Iron Gwazi

At the time of closure, Mark Rose, the vice-president of park services for Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, stated although there was no decision for the site, possible attractions were being conversed to replace it.[34] Likewise, a park's spokesperson discussed that Busch Gardens engineers were proposing possible ideas to add new elements, manufacture steel parts, or demolish the structure completely.[35] Within the interim time of three years, rumors were sprouted about the possibility of a remodeled roller coaster, new attraction, or an amphitheater replacing the Gwazi structure.[36]

During a conference held on September 12, 2018 for the announcement of the parks ninth roller coaster (entitled Tigris), Busch Gardens Tampa Bay officials hinted that there were future construction plans involving Gwazi slated for 2020.[37][38] On the same day, SeaWorld Entertainment filed a trademark for the name "Iron Gwazi".[39] In December 2018, updated construction applications sent to the city of Tampa listed Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) as the ride manufacturer for an upcoming attraction in the Gwazi area.[40][41] On-site preparations and construction were started in late 2018 for the code name of an attraction entitled "BGT 2020", with a crane being visible from the site in January 2019.[42]

Iron Gwazi under construction in July 2020

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay elaborated that more information about a new attraction was to be announced in March 2019 after the completion of track work for Tigris.[43][44] On March 1, 2019, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay announced Gwazi's replacement as a hybrid roller coaster conversion by Rocky Mountain Construction. The roller coaster was touted as being the steepest and fastest hybrid roller coaster, as well as the tallest hybrid roller coaster in North America.[45][46][47] Permits uncovered in March 2019 report that the roller coaster would be around 210 feet tall.[48] Construction on the project site went vertical on August 10, 2019.[49] Busch Gardens Tampa Bay announced the name for the roller coaster, "Iron Gwazi", on September 12, 2019.[50][51] Iron Gwazi was acclaimed to be 206 feet (63 m) with a 91 degree drop, and speeds up to 76 miles per hour (122 kilometres per hour).[52] During the 2019 International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) Exposition on November 19, 2019, the trains for Iron Gwazi were revealed by Rocky Mountain Construction.[53][54]

A media construction tour was held on January 30, 2020 to detail the progression of site construction.[55][56][57] Track work for Iron Gwazi was completed on March 8, 2020,[58] and testing began a day later on March 9, 2020.[59][60] However, due to Florida's COVID-19 pandemic-related park closures, the initial opening date was missed and construction was halted at the initial testing phase as Busch Gardens Tampa Bay shuttered on March 16, 2020.[61] SeaWorld Entertainment owed $3.5 million to Rocky Mountain Construction for the $9 million cost of Iron Gwazi, that indefinitely delayed further construction.[1] In SeaWorld Entertainment's preliminary second quarterly reports, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, all attractions scheduled to open in 2020 were to be postponed to 2021.[62][63]

In September 2020, the park updated its website to reflect a new opening date set for Spring 2021.[64] In November 2020, the park released a point-of-view shot of the roller coaster.[65][66]

Characteristics

Wooden roller coaster
A view of the original Gwazi from the Skyride in 2006

Gwazi's footprint covered eight-acres of the land once occupied by the Busch Brewery.[11][15] Gwazi was constructed as Great Coasters International's (GCI) third project,[67] and was supplied with six-car Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters (PTC) trains.[27] According to designer Mike Boodley, brand new Millennium Flyer trains were offered, but Busch Gardens was unwilling to take a chance on an unproven train design. Gwazi was the last GCI coaster to open with PTC trains.[24] Both PTC trains and the Millennium Flyer trains featured a lap bar restraint system.[6]

The two tracks of Gwazi were commonly known as "Lion" and "Tiger", with yellow being the primary color of the "Lion" trains and blue being the primary color of the "Tiger" trains.[21][27] The theme of Gwazi centered around the struggle between different territorial wildcats, the African lion and Asian tiger. The plaza surrounding the area was similarly themed to each cat, with the "Lion" side including a desert atmosphere and the "Tiger" side including landscaping and streams.[11][23][27]

Gwazi's individual wooden tracks reached a length of 3,508 ft or 1,069 m or 7,000 feet (2,100 m) when combined.[27][68] Moreover, the maximum height of each side was 105.4 ft (32.1 m).[27] When originally constructed, Gwazi used 1,250,000 board feet (2,900 m3) of treated southern yellow pine. The structure used two million bolts, together with 4.4 million nails for the tracks that consisted of 20-foot long, 2-by-12 planks in eight layers.[69] The structure of Gwazi was said to withstand winds of up to 100 mph or 160 km/h without riders.[6]

Steel roller coaster

Iron Gwazi uses the land once formerly occupied by Gwazi. Andrew Schaffer, the director of design and engineering for the park, stated "it’s definitely not an exact number, but we’ve been telling people about 25% of the original wooden structure has been re-utilized, and 75% of the foundations".[70] Likewise, the roller coaster occupies the same station that once housed Gwazi.[71] The roller coaster is themed to the crocodile, similar to naming of other attractions at the park with animal theming.[70][72] The queue area will provide educational elements about the species and the narrative of the re-imagined roller coaster as it relates to the crocodile's evolution. The color scheme consists of green for the trains and purple for the track to contrast each other.[70]

Ride experience

The ride experience of both the "Lion" and "Tiger" side of Gwazi followed similar paths as dueling roller coasters. Gwazi was touted for having the first six fly-bys on a dueling roller coaster.[73][74] A fly-by is where the two roller coasters pass each other in opposite directions at high speeds, giving the impression that the two will collide.[21] At the time, Gwazi was promoted as the largest and fastest dueling wooden roller coaster in the Southeastern United States.[75] Altogether, one cycle of each ride took around two and a half minutes.[27]

Lion
Lift hill of the Lion track

Upon departing from the station, the train traversed foreword before dipping into a right U-turn to pass the other train parallel. Thereafter the train slightly climbed to the left before ascending the 105.4 ft (32.1 m) lift hill. Once at the top, the train entered a pre-drop to the right before descending the 91.8 ft (28.0 m) drop and reaching its maximum speed of 51 mph (82 km/h) near the bottom where it ran parallel again to the opposite side's train. The train slightly banked right before ascending into a left-banked turn through the lift hill of the Tiger side, where it exited downward and entered into a right-banked turnaround. The train then banked up into a left turn before traversing downward into the outer-region of the layout in multiple slight banked right turns. Afterwards, the train entered a series of hills running parallel to the opposite train passing by the station before banking to the left into a downward spiral. The train descended slightly before ascending into a slight right turn, quickly transitioning into a left turn and into the brake run. In the completion of the course, the train then made a right turn and then a slight left before re-entering the station.[27][76]

Tiger

Upon departing from the station, the train traversed into a slight right turn before dipping into a U-turn towards the left to pass the other train parallel. Thereafter the train slightly climbed to the left before ascending the 105.4 ft (32.1 m) lift hill. One at the top, the train entered a pre-drop the to left before descending the 91.8 ft (28.0 m) drop and reaching its maximum speed of 51 mph (82 km/h) near the bottom running parallel to the opposite side's train. The train slightly banked right before ascending into a right-banked turn where it flattened into a drop. Afterwards, the train then ascended into another right banked turn before dipping down and then ascending into a left banked turn. The train then descended the left banked turn, dipping down again before it made a right banked turn towards the outer-region of the layout in multiple slight banked left turns. The train then entered a series of hills, running parallel to the opposite train passing by the station, before entering a right banked downward spiral. The train descended slightly before ascending into a slight baked left turn quickly transitioning to a right turn and into the brake run. In the completion of the course, the train then makes a left turn and then a slight right before re-entering the station.[27][77]

Comparison
Statistics Gwazi[27] Iron Gwazi[78]
Years 1999–2012 (Tiger)
1999–2015 (Lion)		 —
Manufacturer Great Coasters International Rocky Mountain Construction
Designer Mike Boodley Alan Schilke
Track Wood Steel
Height 105.4 ft or 32.1 m 206 ft or 63 m
Drop 91.8 ft or 28.0 m 206 ft or 63 m
Length 3,508 ft or 1,069 m 4,075 ft or 1,242 m
Speed 51 mph or 82 km/h 76 mph or 122 km/h
Duration 2:30 1:50
Inversions 0 2
Max vertical angle — 91.0°
Trains PTC (1999–2011) GCI (2011–2015) Rocky Mountain Construction

Incidents
Main article: Incidents at SeaWorld parks

In 2006, a 52-year-old Palm Springs, Florida resident collapsed and shortly died after riding Gwazi and being rushed to a local hospital. It was determined that the roller coaster (which was functioning properly) had aggravated an existing condition of high blood pressure.[79][80]

Reception and legacy

Gwazi received generally positive reviews upon its debut. In a St. Petersburg Times report, guests reaction to the roller coaster was positive with many taking into account its twists and turns, air time, and smoothness.[81] A writer for The Tampa Tribune, Levin Walker, similarly noted that among guests the roller coaster was praised for its speed and initial drop, with some commenting upon the partial rattle accustomed to wooden roller coasters.[82] An editor for Park World, Paul Ruben, stated that Gwazi had "everything a good coaster should have," and adding "it never slows down" which makes it a "good coaster".[81]

The opening of the Gwazi in 1999 coincided with several other major roller coasters debuting in the Florida-theme park market, including that of Dueling Dragons and The Incredible Hulk Coaster at Universal's Islands of Adventure and the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster at Disney's MGM Studios.[83][84][85] Likewise, Gwazi was one of several wooden roller coasters that opened in North America during a resurging interests in older-styled attractions.[86] Dueling Dragons and Gwazi were mentioned comparatively because of their similar dueling aspect.[87][88][89]

Awards

Prior to its closure, Gwazi had received several placements from Amusement Today's Golden Ticket Awards.

Golden Ticket Awards: Top wood Roller Coasters
Year2002200320042005200620072010
Ranking 34 (tie)[90]44 (tie)[91]38[92]43 (tie)[93]46[94]40 (tie)[95]46[96]

See also

References
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