Adventure World announces $12m Eurofighter roller coaster

Perth's Adventure World has announced its plans for a new major roller coaster after months of teasers, speculation and glimpses of the ride's construction. The Eurofighter style coaster from German manufacturer Gerstlauer is the first of its kind in Australia.

Currently dubbed 'Mi1', the ride will have its name officially announced on Friday, 13 September ahead of an opening in time for Adventure World's "Fright Nights" event in November.

With a height of 30 metres (100ft) and length of 630m (2,066ft), Mi1 will be the fifth tallest and fourth longest full-circuit roller coaster in Australia. The coaster will feature three inversions in addition to a steeper-than-vertical 100º first drop.

The coaster itself features a near-identical layout to Saw - The Ride at Thorpe Park in the United Kingdom. Mark Shaw, Adventure World's CEO – himself a former Senior Manager at the popular UK theme park – indicated to Parkz that the ride was an easy choice for Adventure World.

"Saw - The Ride continues to draw huge queues at Thorpe Park despite being six years old now and competing with newer and bigger rides like Swarm," he said. "The ride also has an exceptional reliability record and relatively low maintenance reputation within the industry."

Shaw, along with a team of Adventure World's owners and senior management, embarked on a process that saw them test rides in Japan and the UK before making a final decision.

"We chose the ride after extensively researching the available rides and found the Gerstlauer Eurofighter the best option to provide a thrilling ride with tight twists and turns on a relatively small footprint."

While the ride's full name and theme details aren't expected for another seven weeks, the Black Friday announcement indicates a horror-based theme, with the first riders when the coaster opens at November's Fright Nights getting to experience the new flagship attraction in the dark.