2018 Roller Coasters

We’re not particularly big fans of the trend known as National Day of Literally Everything That Is Marketed at Least in Part on the Internet. (It’s crass. And obvious.) We will make an exception, however, for the day in August that celebrates the roller coaster. Because it actually brings us good tidings.

This year on Coaster Day (observed on 8/16 for the past 30 years, FYI), five big, new roller coasters were announced — and there’s one we’re making time for now in our calendar. Here’s what you need to know: It’s been dubbed a hyper-hybrid. Why a hybrid? Because it’s a mix of steel and wood. Steel means you can do crazy sh*t. Wood gives riders a rougher, tougher ride. A steel-wood hybrid is meant to offer guests the best/worst/most terrifying of both worlds.

What else? It’ll provide its riders with a 90-degree, 200-foot drop. It’ll be the world’s tallest, fastest, longest hybrid. And it’ll be called Steel Vengeance, built on the bones of the one-time Mean Green, a “notoriously tough” wood coaster.

For a preview, see the official POV video:

This one’s our top pick, and we’ll be heading to Cedar Point when it opens. If you’re looking for a runner up, though, this will do nicely: “Passengers will ascend a 150-foot vertical lift, teeter over the top, and hang for a few seconds before diving at 57 mph into a 96-degree drop.” That’s HangTime, coming next year to Knott’s Berry Farm in Southern California.

Hope you have a strong stomach.

Meet your guide

Diane Rommel

Diane Rommel has written for The Wall Street Journal, Outside, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Travel + Leisure, Wallpaper and Afar, as well as The Cut, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post and McSweeney’s. She once drove from London to Mongolia, via Siberia.