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Great Coasters International

 rollercoasterphilosophy, Flickr

Image: rollercoasterphilosophy, Flickr (license)

GCI was founded in Pennsylvania in 1994, and ever since, they’ve been doing just what the name says: making great coasters all around the world. While companies like B&M have made their name by innovating and coming up with new styles of roller coasters, GCI has been steadfast in its devotion to the lost art of ride design: wooden roller coasters.

Known for modern classics like Wildcat at Hersheypark, the comapny’s first construction, GCI has endeavored to keep building really fun classic wooden coasters — rides that look and feel like the vintage rides of years gone by, but with modern thrills for new generations.

Two of the company’s most recent works, Mystic Timbers at King’s Island and Wicker Man at Alton Towers, are critically acclaimed wonders of both smooth-yet-daunting thrills and incredible, immersive theming. 

It’s rare for a company that makes only wooden roller coasters to have a strong reputation for smoothness and joy, but GCI has gotten there.

Mack Rides

 Alex McCabe, Flickr

Image: Alex McCabe, Flickr (license)

Mack Rides, technically, was founded well over a century ago, eventually finding its way to amusement park rides in the early 20th century. And yet, for years, it wasn’t a company that was on most coaster super fans’ radar.

It wasn’t that the German manufacturer wasn’t successful — they were extremely successful, particularly in Europe. It was more that their most high profile success in the United States was ... the humble wild mouse coaster.

Throughout its history, however, Mack has been a bleeding-edge innovator for roller coaster design. It was the company behind the ahead-of-its-time Journey to Atlantis attraction at SeaWorld. It perfected spinning roller coaster technology on signature rides like Euro-Mir at its home base at Europa Park. 

And, importantly, its background in powered roller coasters (that is, roller coasters that have motors in them rather than move solely based on the pull of gravity) gave Mack a leg up in creating the most imaginative launched roller coasters the world has seen.

2018’s biggest coaster was built by a company further down this list, but the year’s breakout coaster had to be Time Traveler at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Mo. Combining vertical drops, launches, and spinning all into one roller coaster, the masterwork finally gave Mack Ride the prestigious acknowledgement it deserves after a long lifespan building rides for Disney, Europe, and beyond.

Gerstlauer

 milst1, Flickr

Image: milst1, Flickr (license)

Another German company, Gerstlauer was founded in 1982 by a former employee of industry titan Anton Schwarzkopf. Similarly to Mack, Gerstlauer begin its life by building simple spinning coasters and bobsled rides that were fun, but not earth-shattering.

But then, in 2003, the company unveiled what would become its calling card — and a major shift in roller coaster design as we knew it: The Euro-Fighter.

Gerstlauer’s Euro-Fighter is a style of roller coaster that is denoted by its small-occupancy vehicles and trains, its vertical lift hills (and beyond-vertical drops), and its many different types of inversions. While most have different layouts and elements within them, they all have a similar visual style that makes them feel connected.

The Euro-Fighter has become a must-have for most mid-sized parks, with its first drop becoming an iconic symbol of the brand’s rise to prominence.  

 
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