Orange and green balloons adorned a corner of Darien Lake Park as the facility celebrated the opening of Tantrum, a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter.
General Manager Chris Thorpe told WSYR that the park is thrilled about the coaster. He said they were, “Very excited to be opening this ride. It’s our first ride in ten years that we’ve put in. What’s unique to this attraction is that it’s straight up, beyond vertical.”
“Tantrum was a great project and really fits the park,” said Andreas Simonis, one of the Managing Directors of Gerstlauer Amusement Rides. “The orange and green colors the park chose really pop, it stands out among the park’s great coaster collection.”
The park celebrated with a great press event and opening day celebrations. They even partnered with Perry’s Ice Cream to create Tantrum Twist, a flavor inspired by the coaster. Darien Lake Park received fantastic responses from local media, with stations from the Buffalo and upper-New York markets flocking to the park to share Tantrum with their viewers.
The 8-passenger vehicles feature lap bars and are extremely comfortable and offer the park the flexibility of running one, two or three trains each day.
Ride Entertainment also handled the ride installation. Bill Wright, Managing Director of the company’s Installation Division, oversaw the ride erection. “They really have a great team to work with. We had some setbacks with late containers due to the ships being delayed, but that’s the nature of the beast. We worked hand-in-hand with the Darien team to get the ride up as quickly as possible and get the soft opening done in time for Memorial Day Weekend. A majority of the ride steel went up in only a few days.”
The park saw a large response during the soft opening over Memorial Day Weekend and June 1-3, which was the official ride debut.
Ride Stats.
- Manufacturer: Gerstlauer Amusement Rides (Germany)
- Model: Euro-Fighter
- Height: 98 feet (30 meters)
- Track Length: 1,246 feet (380 meters)
- Top Speed: 51 mph (85 km/h)
- Number of Trains: 3, 8-passenger
- Height Requirement: 48 inches (1.22 meters)
- Erection by Ride Entertainment’s Installation Division
Elements:
- Vertical Lift
- 97-degree Beyond Vertical Drop
- Immelman
- Diving Loop
- Structure Slalom
- Top Hat
- Tilted Loop
