The old adage that “speed kills” is ringing true among the world’s fastest roller coasters that have been closing at an alarming rate — but fortunately for thrill seekers a new coaster king will soon arise in 2025.
Kingda Ka at New Jersey’s Six Flags Great Adventure — the reigning champ for speed (128 mph) and height (456 feet) — became the latest of the world’s fastest coasters to fall.
ALSO SEE: Six Flags to spend $1 billion on 11 coasters over next 2 years
Six Flags announced last week that Kingda Ka would be removed and replaced by a new record-breaking launch coaster in 2026.
“Kingda Ka has delivered more than 12 million rides since 2005,” Six Flags said in a statement. “What was cutting edge roller coaster technology 20 years ago has been surpassed by more modern advancements.”
Top Thrill 2 roller coaster at Cedar Point in Ohio. (Courtesy of Cedar Point)
Four other coasters on Roller Coaster Database’s world’s fastest list are currently “standing but not operating.”
Formula Rossa (149 mph) at Ferrari World in the United Arab Emirates
Top Thrill 2 (120 mph) at Ohio’s Cedar Point
Superman: Escape from Krypton (100 mph) at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia
Ring Racer (99 mph) at Germany’s Nurburgring race course
That leaves Red Force (112 mph) at Spain’s Ferrari Land as the reigning world’s fastest coaster.
Fury 325 (95 mph) at North Carolina’s Carowinds currently holds the title as America’s fastest coaster.
Fury 325 at Carowinds debuted as the tallest and fastest version of the wildly popular Giga coaster model from Swiss designers Bolliger & Mabillard. (Courtesy of Carowinds) Carowinds
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The Superman reverse freefall launch coaster will reclaim the U.S. title it hasn’t held in more than two decades when the Magic Mountain ride eventually returns to operation.
The Superman: Escape from Krypton coaster closed for repairs in September, according to Magic Mountain officials. A reopening date has not yet been announced.
The record-setting coaster opened at Magic Mountain in 1997 as Superman: The Escape — tying Tower of Terror at Australia’s Dreamworld as the world’s fastest coaster.
The nearly identical Intamin shuttle coasters shared the throne until the 112 mph Dodonpa coaster opened in 2001 at Japan’s Fuji-Q Highland.
Cedar Point’s Top Thrill Dragster grabbed the title of world’s fastest coaster in 2003 with a top speed of 120 mph.
Kingda Ka became the king of the world when the top hat-style Intamin Accelerator coaster debuted in 2005.
Formula Rossa at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi hits a top speed of 149 mph 21 mph faster than America’s fastest coaster, Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. (Photo courtesy of Ferrari World Abu Dhabi)
Formula Rossa snatched the world’s fastest crown in 2010, but the coaster has been closed since January to repair the launch system — a process that can take a year or more, according to Screamscape.
Ring Racer remains an expensive but worthless white elephant — operating for only a few days when it opened in 2013, but still “standing but not operating” to this day.
Ferrari World’s Formula Rossa, Cedar Point’s Top Thrill 2 and Magic Mountain’s Superman are all eventually expected to reopen.
Cedar Point closed Top Thrill Dragster for the entire 2022 and 2023 seasons after a metal piece flew off the ride and seriously injured a woman waiting in the attraction queue in August 2021.
The rechristened Top Thrill 2 replaced the Intamin hydraulic launch system with a Zamperla electro-magnetic propulsion launch system in May — but the ride only operated for about a week before the park closed the coaster again due to mechanical issues.
This detail from concept art released by Six Flags shows the record-breaking roller coaster The Falcon’s Flight in the upper right. The ride will be among the attractions at Six Flags Qiddiya, scheduled to open in Saudi Arabia in 2023. (Courtesy of Six Flags)
The world’s fastest coaster list will be reshuffled again in 2025 when Falcon’s Flight debuts at Six Flags Qiddiya City in Saudi Arabia.
Falcon’s Flight will become the world’s fastest coaster at a blistering 155 mph — 6 mph faster than Formula Rossa’s top speed of 149 mph.
