Colossos - Kampf der Giganten, Wooden roller coaster in Heide Park, Soltau, Germany
Colossos - Kampf der Giganten is a wooden roller coaster at Heide Park in Soltau, 1344 m long and 53 m high. Its light-brown timber lattice carries a steep lift hill on the left and a curving drop on the right, with a 61° first drop and a 480° downward helix. The station house has a cedar-shingled roof and a square cupola with a pointed spire, and a railed wooden walkway runs alongside the track.
Colossos opened on 13 April 2001, built by Intamin to a design by Werner Stengel's engineering office at a cost of about 45 million DM. Its prefabricated, laser-cut track was a first for a wooden coaster. After the track was shut down on 28 July 2016, Merlin Entertainments chose to keep and rebuild it rather than convert it to a hybrid; the retracked ride reopened on 19 April 2019 as Colossos – Kampf der Giganten.
Since 2019 the ride has been themed as Colossos: Battle of the Giants, in which a large fire monster attacks the coaster and draws on the riders' energy to be defeated. On the third bunny hop a monster figure appears to have torn the track from its anchorage; riders pass through it while it roars and shoots fire upwards. The station entrance still displays the Guinness World Records certificate naming Colossos the world's steepest wooden coaster.
Riders are secured twice, first with a seat belt and then with the lap bar. The rows use stadium seating, each 10 cm higher than the one in front for a better view. Since 2015 a crane at the boarding area lifts wheelchair users into and out of the train. The train is slowed by magnetic brakes before friction wheels return it to the station.
The track was originally assembled from prefabricated wooden segments cut with laser technology. This construction method allowed particularly precise assembly of individual sections and sped up the building process considerably.
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