Fuji-Q Highland has announced that its iconic roller coaster, Do-Dodonpa, has closed permanently.
The S&S Thrust Air Coaster has been closed since August 2021, following multiple injury accidents during the previous year. The ride was known for its launch, to 111.8 mph in just 1.6 seconds.
But the intensity of that launch proved troubling for both the coaster trains and passengers, with multiple reported incidents, some leading to cervical and thoracic spine fractures. The Japanese government launched an investigation, and today, the park announced that Do-Dodonpa would not reopen.
"Although we have had many discussions with the manufacturer, we have come to the conclusion that it is difficult to make this a reality, and in order to fulfill our social responsibility as a company that puts safety first in operating an amusement park, we have decided to close down operations," Fuji-Q Highland said in statement posted in Japanese on its website.
Do-Dodonpa got its most attention in the United States when its original configuration featured in a Roadblock on Season 9 of The Amazing Race (which premieres for its 36th season tonight, BTW).
* * *
To keep up to date with more theme park news, please sign up for Theme Park Insider's weekly newsletter.
Sounds like it was a real joy. 0-111 mph in 1.6 seconds sounds enjoyable to me only if we are entering Ludicrous Speed on a Spaceball Starcruiser and Rick Moranis
is at the Bridge, and even then we’d still have gone plaid.
I never rode this, but did ride Hypersonic XLC. For as innovative as it was, Hypersonic was a complete disaster of engineering. Virtually every feature S&S incorporated into the design of the coaster that was supposed to be an improvement ended up backfiring. I distinctly remember Stan Checketts proclaiming how smooth and great the ride would be because the trains were fitted with rubber tires on squared track. The thought was that cars ride on rubber on a flat surface, so why not coaster trains? Plus, those materials were cheaper to make and maintain/replace. Instead, those tires were a maintenance nightmare with one single under/over inflation taking a train out of commission. Then you had that square track that was the opposite of smooth where you literally felt every single seam along the length of the track. It was like driving a car on concrete with poorly maintained expansion joints. Then there was the launch - Yes, it was INTENSE, even when compared to the Intamin hydraulic launches that were introduced a couple of years later. However, the short launch track (about half the length of Storm Runner, which reached about the same top speed) meant there was little room for error in the launch to clear the top hat, forcing the mechanism to be set at the top end of its specifications. It also meant extra time between cycles to make sure enough air pressure was built up to power the launch (even after they added an extra storage tank).
Hypersonic was one of those things where the designer thought they were being clever by doing so many things differently than the standard only to find out why roller coasters are built the way they are. I'm sure if S&S had just tried to incrementally improve roller coasters one feature at a time, they would have had more success, but because they packed so many new novel approaches into a single design, they ended up paying for it, and their reputation took a major hit because of those facepalming failures.
Not until S&S bought Arrow, and all the R&D they had done for decades, did S&S understand why roller coasters are built the way they are. I do still find it funny that S&S sources parts that look like they came from Radio Shack - I mean the weather proof boxes used for the on-board electronics on Steel Curtain are straight out of the McMaster-Carr catalogue.
I'm just taking this excuse to direct people to the absolute website design glory of https://www.mcmaster.com.
Congratulations to Maxx Force at Six Flags Great Adventure for being the world's new roller coaster acceleration champ: https://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201908/6947/
Robert - Do you mean Six Flags Great America? I thought Great Adventure had Kingda Ka...
I got to see this ride sitting idle on a visit to the park last year, and while I'm said I won't get the opportunity to go back and try it sometime, I was never very optimistic it would return (especially not without significant modifications). Japanese theme parks are very strict when it comes to safety standards, so it's incredibly difficult for a ride that has caused serious injury to recover, especially when said injury was not related to guest error. I'm sure the launch was something, as an acceleration of 3.2 g isn't something easily experienced (for reference, Maxx Force is right about a 2 g launch), but the rest of the layout looked very uninspired and I've heard it did not ride well (likely contributing to the injuries). Hopefully Fuji-Q will replace this with something else crazy to keep up their reputation as the extreme thrill park of Japan.
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
I have ridden Dodonpa, in its original form with the tower, and have to say that (at least to me) the launch was not really that memorable because of what came after totally overshadowed it. Going over the top of that tower felt like getting punched in the stomach by Mike Tyson. I have no idea if Hypersonic was the same way but I wasn't surprised at all when they decided to replace it with a vertical loop.
TBH the most surprising this about this announcement was that the ride lasted so long (albeit being SBNO for much of the latter years). The capacity was absolutely atrocious, I think we waited like an hour and that was with maybe 50 people in line. It was also pretty funny when we rode they decided to make us wait an additional train because they thought the train would be too heavy (even though we are really skinny by American standards lol).