Nemesis (roller coaster)
Nemesis is an inverted roller coaster located at the Alton Towers theme park in England. The ride's concept and layout was devised by designer John Wardley and Tussauds Studios. It was manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard and opened in March 1994. It is located in the Forbidden Valley area of the park, adjacent to Galactica and The Blade.
The ride stands tall and features a top speed of. The four-inversion roller coaster was one of the first Bolliger & Mabillard rides to be installed outside of the United States and the first in Europe.
History
Development history
In 1990, Alton Towers added the Thunder Looper roller coaster; the addition was only temporary due to planning restrictions imposed on its installation. The park began planning for a new roller coaster which would open prior the closure of the Thunder Looper. They desired a roller coaster that was big, different and exciting, but they were constrained by the tree-level height limit imposed on the park.Alton Towers approached Arrow Dynamics for the new roller coaster. The Utah-based company was working on a prototype of a pipeline roller coaster, similar to TOGO's Ultratwister design. John Wardley worked on the design of the ride which was originally to be themed around a secret military facility, codenamed "Secret Weapon 1". Due to the design of the ride and the height restriction imposed on the park, SW1 would only have a track length of. Development of the project was put on hold a short time into the process, due to the financial problems being encountered by Arrow at the time and technical problems with the ride's design. The project was revived a year later under the codename "Secret Weapon 2"; rock blasting was used to clear more space for the larger ride. The project was again abandoned when Wardley rode the prototype, describing it as "very slow, looked cumbersome, and was very energy inefficient". The park began to look for an alternative.
Wardley became aware of a new roller coaster design being installed by Bolliger & Mabillard at Six Flags Great America. He subsequently entered into discussions with Six Flags who agreed to privately disclose information about the new ride, in exchange for a similar favour at a later date. Jim Wintrode, the general manager of Six Flags Great America at the time, proposed the concept of an inverted roller coaster that featured inversions. Although Wardley believed this would be impossible, Wintrode worked with Bolliger & Mabillard to develop. Wardley rode Batman: The Ride prior to its May 1992 opening and wanted to add a similar ride to Alton Towers.
The inverted roller coaster, then dubbed "Secret Weapon 3", was developed throughout 1992. Wardley and Nick Varney, marketing director of Alton Towers, came up with the name "Nemesis" and pitched a theming concept about an alien creature excavated from the ground. Tussauds Studios elaborated on this, creating the station and surrounding theme design. Wardley also worked alongside Stengel Engineering and landscape architects to develop a layout for the ride and surrounding area, which could be exciting for both riders and non-riders; for example, the final inversion was built at the eye level of an observer and the queue makes its way all the way around the quarry in which the track sits.
Operational history
The £10 million Nemesis officially opened to the public on 19 March 1994, following a soft opening three days prior. It opened as one of the first Bolliger & Mabillard rides to be installed outside of the United States, along with Diavlo at Himeji Central Park, Japan, which opened four months later.In August 2004, Nemesis gained the Guinness World Record for the "Most Naked People on a Rollercoaster". The ride set the record at 32 riders - the number of seats on a single Nemesis train. It took the record from Thorpe Park's Nemesis Inferno roller coaster which set the record at 28 just three months prior. The ride lost the record in 2010 when 40 naked riders boarded Green Scream Rollercoaster at Adventure Island.
In 2009, Alton Towers received several complaints from nearby residents regarding increased noise levels emitted from the ride. New wheels had to be installed on the two trains before the ride returned to normal operation.
Characteristics
The Nemesis stands tall, but due to the modified terrain, features a drop height of. With a top speed of, the ride features four inversions: two corkscrews, a zero-g roll, and a vertical loop. Riders of Nemesis experience between 3 and 4 times the force of gravity on the 1-minute, 20-second ride. Nemesis operates with two steel and fiberglass trains, each containing eight cars. Each car seats four riders in a single row for a total of 32 riders per train.Ride experience
Once the train is ready for dispatch the floor beneath it is lowered before the train then departs the station making a 45-degree, right-hand turn towards the lift hill. Once at the top of the hill, the train makes a small dip and turns around 180 degrees to the left. The train then descends down the first drop into the first inversion, a right-handed corkscrew. The train then navigates a right-handed, 270-degree downward helix that features 90 degree banking. Then the train rises up into the second inversion, a zero-g roll, where riders experience the feeling of weightlessness. It then makes a 180-degree right-handed stall turn into the third inversion, a vertical loop. After a left stall turn the train enters the second corkscrew. The train then passes through an underground tunnel, and through one more 180-degree turn, before being stopped by the brake run and returning to the station.Reception
Nemesis has received positive reception by park visitors and the attraction industry as a whole since its opening. More than 50 million people have ridden Nemesis since opening. In Amusement Today's annual Golden Ticket Awards, Nemesis has consistently ranked highly. It is also one of only seven roller coasters to appear in the top 50 every year since the award's inception in 1998. It debuted at position 10 in 1998, before peaking at position 7 in 2003.Two further rides with the Nemesis brand were later opened at Merlin Entertainments theme parks. The first is Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe Park, another Bolliger & Mabillard inverted roller coaster. The ride opened in 2003. Alton Towers hosts the second related ride,. The drop tower opened on the former Dynamo site in 2012 and is currently closed.
As a result of this branding, Nemesis is often compared with its Thorpe Park counterpart - Nemesis Inferno. Nemesis has ranked favourably in Amusement Todays annual Golden Ticket Awards, being one of only seven roller coasters to appear in the top 50 steel roller coasters for all 15 years. Nemesis Inferno has never made an appearance. In a poll conducted by the Los Angeles Times, Nemesis received 37.93% of the vote for title of best roller coaster in England, while Nemesis Inferno received 0.32%.