The world's most high-tech rollercoaster

Juniper Foo | Jun 12, 2009

Great balls of Hollywood Rip, Ride and Rockit! (Credit: Universal Studios)

You can offer me a gazillion bucks as bribe, but it still won't tempt me to get on any extreme ride. More so if it's going to shake parts of me in ways that Someone up there didn't intend for. So if it falls into any of the following anatomical descriptions like hair-raising, toe-curling, heart-stopping, spine-tingling, blood-curdling, breath-stopping, pulse-pounding--then thanks, but no thanks. But if you like to be shaken and stirred, and the swine flu pandemic isn't about to stop you, head on over to Universal Studios Florida in Orlando where "the world's most high-tech rollercoaster", the Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit, is slated to launch soon.

Maurer Söhne, the company responsible (indeed) for some of the terrifying-est rides in my books, has engineered what it claims is a thrill ride immersive enough to scare you out of a lifetime of frights. For the first time ever that we've heard, you get to pick a soundtrack from a user-selectable music system via a personal "guest interface panel". Fourteen onboard digital video cameras capture your ride in hell over 3,800ft of track, which (morbidly) you can then buy as a keepsake video.

If you're ready to take a walk on the wild side, here's a glimpse at what you can expect to face: Six-seat X-Cars with stadium seating on extra short-wheeled bases for tight maneuvers; a 167ft vertical lift at the start of the ride; and six "near-miss encounters" with the other four two-car trains that will be careening around the track at the same time. Say mummy.