Intamin

Image: andrewb94, Flickr (license)

If Switzerland is the capital of the roller coaster design world, Intamin is its crown jewel. No other company has created the record-breaking and earth-shattering rides that Intamin has made in its history and lived to tell the tale. The closest company in pedigree, B&M, is nearly 20 years younger and hasn’t had nearly the same influence on the landscape as Intamin. 

Consider this: The fastest roller coaster in the world, Formula Rossa, is an Intamin creation. The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka, is an Intamin creation. Both Universal Studios and Disney have rides built by Intamin. Even flat rides, like Falcon’s Fury at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, are not too complex for Intamin to handle.

And then, of course, there are the two masterpieces at Cedar Point: Maverick and Millennium Force. The former is a launched whirlwind of inversions and G-forces that has become beloved by the coaster community, while the later is one of the most iconic roller coasters on the face of the earth. 

If you like roller coasters, you’ve ridden an Intamin that you love. And you probably already knew the company’s name.

Rocky Mountain Construction

Image: rollercoasterphilosophy, Flickr (license)

But if Intamin is the old guard of roller coaster excellence, Rocky Mountain Construction is the upstart iconoclast.

Founded in 2001, RMC didn’t hit its stride until former Arrow Dynamics guru Alan Schilke came aboard in 2009. He, along with RMC founder Fred Grubb, created what became known as the steel I-box track — and, in doing so, changed roller coasters forever.

Traditional tubular steel construction usually meant that steel roller coasters had their own characteristics and their own types of elements. They were built differently, so they looked and felt different to the wooden roller coasters that preceded them. RMC’s innovation was in creating steel track that looked and performed like wooden track, but in a sturdier and more malleable package.

The result was hybrid steel/wood creations that look more like they erupted off a 12-year-old’s notebook than an AutoCAD program. And yet, RMC managed to do just that: Turn your wildest fantasies about roller coasters into a wacky, thrilling reality.

That’s what the best roller coaster manufacturers do, of course. They take your most terror-inducing dreams and turn them into amalgamations of steel and wood that you can actual experience. And nobody does it better than the companies on this list.