Similarly to my blog comparing The Smiler to Stealth, I’d like to breakdown 3 very similar yet ultimately different rides. 3 Gerstlauer Eurofighters here in the UK, Speed: No Limits, Saw: The Ride and Rage.
The facts
All 3 rollercoasters feature similar elements, all have beyond vertical drops, all have vertical chain driven lifts, over shoulder restraints, 8 riders per car and all feature at least 2 inversions.
The fastest and tallest is Speed: No Limits, followed by Saw: The Ride and finally Rage is the shortest and slowest. Saw has the longest track, Rage the shortest and Speed features only 2 inversions, while the other two have 3.
Saw is the only one to feature any real theming. Rage does try to have a little storyline with a superhero called Captain Rageman attached to the ride, but beside a voiceover and a few static boards, that’s really it. Speed has no theme.
Speed was the first to be built, arriving in 2006, then Rage in 2007 and finally Saw in 2009. As mentioned earlier, all feature beyond vertical drops, with Rage and Speed having 97 degree drops and Saw’s being 100 degrees.
All have held a record for the steepest drops in some form or another, where Speed and Rage were the steepest in the world being tied with 7 others for the title. Saw never held the world record as Steel Hawg ( at Indiana Beach, Indiana) was introduced a year earlier than Saw, and beat its 100 degree drop by 1 degree. However Saw did hold the UK title for 16 weeks before Mumbo Jumbo (at Flamingo Land) took it away again. I’ll certainly have to talk about Mumbo one day!
The theming of Saw
As I mentioned before, only Saw has any theming worth talking about, and it is very heavily themed around the Saw films. It features an extensively themed ride station and building as well as a decently themed queue and of course, a soundtrack.
Though Speed doesn’t have a theme, I don’t feel it would benefit from one. The same for Rage. Both are fine enough rides without theming, though they could certainly do with a soundtrack to listen to!
Ride experience
All 3 ride well enough, but I feel that the weakest is Saw a that does suffer a fair bit with rough patches, where Speed feels incredibly smooth. Rage is certainly in the middle ground here, not as smooth as Speed, but certainly not as rough as Saw!
I find the trains on all 3 to be quite comfortable, the restraints are just right, and keep you in place enough to enjoy the ride. It’s certainly a different experience being on your back when ascending each rides lift hills but I didn’t feel uncomfortable in my seat on any of the rides.
All 3 would definitely benefit from lap bar restraints as opposed to the over shoulder ones we have, especially Saw, that would add even more to the ride!
Inversions aren’t everything…
Saw and Rage both feature 3 inversions, and Speed only has 2. Each has a different layout, and though each has similar inversions, all are unique in their own right.
Saw has a heartline roll, immelmann loop and a dive loop, Rage has a loop, cutback and heartline roll, and finally Speed has just a loop and heartline roll.
Interestingly, Speed is the only one of the 3 that doesn’t immediately enter into an inversion following the beyond vertical drop, instead opting for an airtime hill, that is taken at decent speed and offers great ejector airtime!
So which is best?
In my opinion, Speed is the better ride out of the 3 but Saw is the best overall experience. The scenery, story elements and ride itself, push Saw slightly ahead of Speed if you take the whole package into consideration.
Rage is the weaker of the 3 for me. It’s still a great ride and well worth a visit to Adventure Island to have a ride on, but I would honestly say that Saw and Speed are better overall.
loopsandlapbars.com 