The Latest Behemoth - A Media Day Trip Report

by: Paul Fowler

In late 2007 Canada's Wonderland announced Behemoth, the park's 15th coaster. Previous to this, the park boasted a broad lineup of rides, but none that really stood out as a flagship attraction. Considering the park tops all other seasonal parks in attendance, it deserved a major coaster. At 230 feet Behemoth provided what the park with just what the doctor ordered ... a show-stopping hyper coaster!

This new thrill machine features a new proto-type train from Bolliger & Mabillard, who took their standard hyper coaster trains and pulled back the outside two seats, raising them up slightly. This new design gives all the seats a "front row view". The outside two seats in particular provide you with plenty of room both in front and beside you. This provides for a very exposed feeling while riding.

The ride is located along the southern edge of the park, with the lift hill, airtime hills, and turnaround situated parallel to a large pond. The 230 foot-tall lift hill passes directly over the park's Back Lot Stunt Coaster, dwarfing the ride's 50 foot structure. On your right you can watch the rest of the park spread beneath you slowly drop away. The Mighty Canadian Minebuster just like Back Lot Stunt Coaster is soon far beneath you. On your left the skyline of Toronto is clearly visible and the CN Tower's massive structure looks like nothing but a small spec.

Before long the train starts to level off, plunging into the 230 foot first drop. In the last rows you are yanked out of your seat when the front of the train pulls you into the drop. You will, however, only enjoy a brief moment of floating till seat catches you again as the train levels out at the base of the drop. In the front seat, you are dangled face down as the train slowly creeps over the top of the hill. It's quite a feeling as the lap bar across your hips is the only thing holding you in. Like a giant holding you between his fingers, before letting you drop.

After the first drop, you will fly through the first of many airtime hills. Some gentle floating airtime results, as you cruise over this 2nd hill. With a look to the right, the Mighty Canadian Minebuster is still quite a bit below us.

Coming out of the first airtime hill, the train banks up, to the left, and heads through a heavily banked hammerhead turn. For a split second, the train is partly inverted, before being whipped back to the ground.

After pulling this 180, 3 back to back airtime hills again provide some floating airtime.

A short midcourse brake run gives you a moment to catch your breath before dropping into the coasters twister finale. A 720 degree downward spiraling helix results in some strong positive G-forces. As the G-forces are pulling your arms back down, the train levels off, snaps through another 180 degree turn, before heading over one more airtime hill and into the final brakes. You've just finished riding Canada's tallest and fastest roller coaster. Care to ride again?

Manufacturer: Bolliger & Mabillard
Cost: $26,000,000 (Cdn)
Height: 230 feet
Top Speed: 77 miles per hour
Track Length: 5,318 feet
Angle of Descent: 75 degrees
Number of Trains: 3 trains, 8 cars each
Capacity: 32 per train - 1,545 per hour
Ride Design: Fiberglass and steel coaches with lapbar restraints

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.