Twister (roller coaster)

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Twister
Location	Knoebels
Type	Wood - Kilocoaster
Status	Open
Opened	July 24, 1999
Manufacturer	Knoebels staff
Designer	John Fetterman, 1999; from John Allen's 1964 "Mister Twister" design
Track layout	Twister
Lift/launch system	Chain lift hill, split
Height	101.5 ft (30.9 m)
Drop	89.6 ft (27.3 m)
Length	3,900 ft (1,200 m)
Max speed	51.5 mph (82.9 km/h)
Inversions	0
Duration	2:10 min
Cost	US$ 3,000,000
Height restriction	3 ft 6 in (110 cm)
Twister at RCDB Pictures of Twister at RCDB
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In 1998, Knoebels began a new wooden roller coaster project. Seeking to preserve another classic ride, the park looked into acquiring the defunct "Mister Twister," a 1964 John C. Allen design which had been abandoned when the entire Elitch Gardens amusement park was relocated in Denver, Colorado. This time, when space constraints made physically relocating the ride impossible, Knoebels purchased the blueprints and set out to rebuild the roller coaster from scratch, modifying the design to fit the space available.

For the new "Twister," ride designer John Fetterman created a modified mirror image of the original "Mister Twister" layout, compacting the ride but preserving the highlights of the old design and Allen's original mathematical model. These highlights included the large double helix, which now wraps around the ride's curved station, and a large swoop curve at the top of the lift hill. To keep the swoop curve in the new design, Fetterman created a split lift hill. The "Twister" train climbs halfway up the structure on one lift hill, makes a 180-degree turn and finishes the climb on the second lift. While several roller coasters use more than one lift hill in their layout, "Twister's" zig-zag lift is unique.

"Twister" opened on July 24, 1999. The first rides were auctioned off to raise just over $8,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.^[1] Taller and more intense than the "Phoenix" the coaster enjoys steady ridership and good rankings in roller coaster polls both formal and informal.