Silverwood theme park has announced “Stunt Pilot”, a brand new, single-rail RMC Raptor-track roller coaster coming in 2021. This will be the first major roller coaster to be added since Aftershock was installed in 2008, and the first major “ground-up” coaster since Tremors in 1999. In this post, we’ll re-cap a bit of park history, and then cover the details, plus some of our thoughts and comments.
It’s been a long time since Silverwood has added anything new to either park. Like seriously, a LONG time…5 seasons to be exact. Indeed, in 2016, the Riptide Racer mat slides were added to Boulder Beach, and since then, things have been awfully quiet.
If we’re just talking about the theme park side of the house, backtrack to 2014, when the Krazy Koaster and Puppy-Go-Round were added. For a “major” attraction, reach one year further, when Spin Cycle was added in 2013. Now consider the fact that there have been a few rides removed during that same time period. Suffice to say, the theme park has been waiting quite a while for a new addition.
A glimmer of hope came last fall when the park announced the “Light up the Night” evening drone show that was meant to debut in 2020. But for a variety of reasons, that didn’t pan out, and we were left with yet another year of Silverwood as we have come to know it.
So when Silverwood began teasing a new ride this month, we were keeping our expectations low. After all, we’ve been conditioned to do so for many years now. Couple that with the, er, challenging state of the amusement park industry right now, and we figured that any hope of something truly major – let alone a roller coaster – was nothing more than a pipe dream. We even dug up an article we wrote a few years ago about our dreams of what RMC might do at Silverwood someday, and said we were 99.99% sure it wouldn’t happen. A decent sized new flat ride seemed like the obvious choice.
Boy, does it ever feel GREAT to be totally, utterly, and completely dead wrong. We couldn’t possibly be more thrilled with today’s announcement!
Here’s the official video release from the park:
The wait is finally over…
2021 Season Passes are now on sale at our Early Bird Special. Buy your passes now: https://t.co/gmziUbxC2L pic.twitter.com/1P3u4eRU5x
— Silverwood Theme Park (@silverwood4fun) September 17, 2020
Stunt Pilot will join the growing family of RMC Raptor Track coasters which currently includes Railblazer at California’s Great America, and Wonder Woman: Golden Lasso at Six Flags Fiesta Texas. Those two feature the same track layout, although one is a mirror image of the other. Stunt Pilot appears to be getting the same specific layout as Railblazer.
As described in the video, this will be themed to the old stunt planes that used to grace the skies of the park back in the early days. We never had the opportunity to see those shows, but we love it when theme parks reach back to their roots for inspiration when it comes to theming.
We had the opportunity to speak with Jordan Carter, marketing director for Silverwood, earlier today. He confirmed that this will be installed in the space in between the Log Flume and the Tremors turnaround – see photo below. This space was formerly occupied by several Scarywood attractions, and at one point, was a rumored location for a Sky Coaster that never materialized. Suffice to say, we’re glad to see this spot finally getting a permanent ride! The Roller Coaster Alley sign will be re-located closer to the Log Flume, so as to officially include Stunt Pilot in that area of the park.
Carter also confirmed a few other details: the trains will have 10 cars, as opposed to the 8 cars on Railblazer and Wonder Woman. This should help with capacity, as lines for those two coasters can quickly hit 2-3 hours. And no, that wasn’t a typo – we did say trains. That’s right folks, for the first time ever, Silverwood will indeed have a roller coaster operating with two trains!
In our conversation with Carter, we also learned that Silverwood hopes to include a few “stunt show” themed elements. These could include things such as LED light-up hoops that will encircle the track. More details will be released as these plans are finalized.
Railblazer at California’s Great America
So there it is. To give ourselves a small pat on the back: we did say in our RMC article that a Raptor or T-Rex coaster seemed most probable…and that the chosen location would be perfect. So at least we have that!
And we’ll just come out and say it: IT’S ABOUT TIME!! With RMC literally in Silverwood’s backyard, this has been a long time coming.
Having experienced these coasters in person, we can unequivocally say this is going to be an INCREDIBLE addition to Silverwood. RMC Raptor Track coasters are really something else…very hard to describe with words the level of intensity and G-forces that is packed into such a small space. There’s not much else we can offer in terms of commentary here – this is EXACTLY what Silverwood needs, and precisely what we were hoping to see.
As always, we’ll continue to provide updates throughout the offseason as we learn more, and as the ride begins to take shape. So stay tuned!
Planning a trip to Silverwood this year? Be sure to check out our Silverwood Trip Planning Guide to get some great ideas on how to plan your trip. Also, our Silverwood Rides and Attractions Guide and Boulder Beach Attractions Guide have even more details on which rides, slides, and shows to hit up while you're there!
Are you looking forward to Stunt Pilot? Have you ridden an RMC Raptor Track coaster before? What do you think of them? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below - we love hearing from all of you!
The official Silverwood Theme Park website can be found at: www.silverwoodthemepark.com. All business-related questions should be directed to this site.
Cool
Nice! I still wonder what the BIG expansion was going to be that was talked abou
Johnt in the 0ld podcast from years ago? Must not be in the cards anymore I guess.
Looking forward to this new coaster for sure. Keep the updates coming!
Thanks for the comment! Yeah, considering it’s been nearly 10 years since that “big expansion” was teased and nothing’s come of it, probably safe to assume it’s not happening, unfortunately.