In 1999, Six Flags Great Adventure's huge expansion included Medusa -- the world�s first floorless coaster - and several other new attractions.  In 2000, they got their very own water park, Hurricane Harbor.  But in 2001, they wanted to top this all off with something special.  The park soon announced plans for Nitro -- the most explosive coaster on the planet.

Nitro is the third installment of B&M's highly rated speed-coasters.  The addition of Nitro gives SFGAdv 12 coasters -- 3 of them B&M designs; Batman: The Ride and Medusa being the other two.

Nitro features a 66 degree, 215ft drop, top speeds of 80mph, and a track length of 5,394ft.  With that, Nitro is the tallest and fastest coaster B&M has ever created, and the longest coaster Six Flags has ever debuted.

Nitro features B&M's awesome speed-coaster trains - no sidewalls, slightly raised and reclined seats, and extremely comfortable lap restraints.  The ride's L-shaped layout has resemblance to Apollo's Chariot, but with a few of its own unique elements.

The ride's chain lift and drop can be seen from almost anywhere in the park.  The blue, magenta, and yellow color scheme gives quite an impression as you walk under the ride's giant banner.

Once you board the ride and your lap restraints are checked, you begin your journey with a swooping left-hand turn out of the station and approach the giant 230ft lift hill.  Once you engage the chain lift, it's a long trip up.  But soon enough, you are heading over the peak, and plummeting down the incredible 215ft, 66 degree drop.  The wind blows in your face as you accelerate faster and faster, until you are soon soaring at 80mph.

But it isn't long before you are climbing back up, 189ft into the air.  From here, the train pitches way over to the side for a left-hand turn, and then flies back down, resulting in an incredible moment of airtime.

From this point, we speed at full thrust into a giant 161ft camelback, which sends us flying out of our seats once again.  From here, we head to the far end of the course for Nitro's unique Hammerhead -- an element where the train rockets up into the air, flies through a 180 degree turn, and soars back down to the ground.

Heading out of the Hammerhead, we approach another camelback for several more seconds of airtime.  At this point, we are preparing for Nitro's next unique element, the spiral.

As we make our way through the spiral - the turns getting tighter, the banking getting steeper, positive Gs increasing - until finally we exit into the mid-course brake run.  From the brake run, we fly down into an incredible, airtime filled stretch of rapid bunny hops -- a wonderful way to finish off a wonderful ride.

Nitro is simply an incredible ride.  It is jam packed with great airtime, high Gs, unique elements, and steep drops. It surpasses Medusa as the top steel coaster in the park, and is one of B&M's finest projects to date.  If you haven't done so yet, be sure to make arrangements to experience the most explosive coaster on the planet.

Rating: 9/10

Pros:

• First Drop
• Hammerhead
• Airtime
• Comfortable trains

Cons:

• Slow chain-lift
• Lacks positive G's