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Six Flags Magic Mountain has always been known for their record breaking rides.
In 1976, SFMM brought us the world's first successful looping roller coaster,
Revolution. In 1978, Magic Mountain opened Colossus. At the time, it was the
world's largest, tallest, and fastest dual tracked wooden coaster in the world.
In the 90's, Six Flags Magic Mountain brought us more record breaking rides.
In 1990, Viper was added to the SFMM skyline, and still remains the tallest looping coaster
of its kind. In 1994, Batman: The Ride opened, and is one of the first inverted roller
coasters. In 1997, SFMM introduced the world's tallest and fastest thrill ride on
the planet, Superman: The Escape, which features a 415-foot tower and a top speed of 100mph.
In 1998, Bolliger and Mabillard teamed up with SFMM to bring us the world's tallest,
fastest, and most twisted stand-up roller coaster in the world, The Riddler's
Revenge.
 In
the year 2000, SFMM continued the tradition of adding record breaking rides with the
addition of Goliath, a steel hyper-coaster. Not only was Goliath the first new roller
coaster of the Millennium, but at the time of opening, it featured the world's longest
drop on a complete circuit coaster.
.............
Built by Giovanola of Switzerland, this blazing orange and teal steel
mega-coaster is certainly a giant; the ride features a 61°, 255-foot drop, a 4500-foot
track length, and a top speed of 85mph.
Placed in the Pirate's Cove section of the park, Goliath is located across
from the Buccaneer and Swashbuckler flat rides. You enter the queue through huge rock
letters that spell out G-O-L-I-A-T-H. The queue itself is very long and features
several objects, plants, and trees used to enhance the ride's theme.
.............
Once you enter the boarding station, you can get a good look at the blazing
yellow trains. The trains are very wide and feature T-shaped lap bars. My only
complaint is that they have limited leg room.
When the air gates open, you enter the trains, pull down your lap bar, and two
gentle bumps glide you out of the station.
A right-hand turn around leads into the 235-foot lift hill, which is fairly
steep and runs fast. As you approach the top, you can see how high you really are as
you tower above Viper, Riddler's Revenge, X, and of course, Colossus.
 Finally,
you reach the top and begin to crest the lift hill. As you look down, you see a tiny
hole, and think to yourself, "Now how could we possibly fit in there?" But
before you have time to give it much thought, you are flying down the 255-foot drop into a
120-foot long mist-filled tunnel.
 Traveling
at speeds of 85mph, you begin to ascend back up, 200-feet into the air. From here, you
head through a banked turn around, and once again fly into another enormous sized drop.
After this, you soar over a bunny hop, which provides several seconds of airtime. From
the bottom of the bunny hop, you take a upward left-hand turn into the mid-course brake run.
 Making
a left-hand twisted drop off the brake run, you can feel the strong positive g's as you
enter the banked turn around. From the bottom of the turnaround, you head into the
most intense elements on the ride, a 570° helix. As you travel through the helix,
you gain more and more speed, and your vision begins to get blurry from the high positive
Gs.
Right before you feel as if you have reached your limits, you exit the helix and
head into another banked turnaround. After this, you enter a butterfly turn and then
make your way onto the final brake run, concluding your three minute long journey.
.............
Goliath is one of the smoothest and most intense steel roller coasters ever
built and is considered by many to be one of the best roller coasters on the planet.
The only major complaint I have is that the ride is fairly short for a hyper-coaster.
But overall, Goliath is an amazing coaster that I highly recommend.
Rating: 9/10
Pros:
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First and second drop
-
Tunnel
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Bunnyhop (airtime)
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Intense second half
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