Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010
Dragon Khan
The Dragon Khan at the PortAventura theme park in Salou, Spain, set a world record when it was built in 1995 for having eight terrifying inversions. (The record has since been broken by the Colossus coaster at England's Thorpe Park, which has 10 inversions.) Dragon Khan also has a good backstory: the coaster is said to be the reincarnated form of the evil Prince Hu of Beijing, and he reacts furiously each time a human dares to climb atop his back. Whether you buy into the tale or not, this coaster has serious credentials: 4,165 ft. (1,270 m) of vertical and diving loops, zero-gravity turns and cobra rolls.