West Coast Racers finally goes vertical at Six Flags Magic Mountain

May 14, 2019, 10:18 AM · We're just a couple of weeks away from Memorial Day weekend in the United States, the traditional start of the summer vacation season. This is the time of year when theme parks debut many of their new rides, and our calendar is packed with media events in the next few weeks, including Calico River Rapids at Knott's Berry Farm, Tidal Twister at SeaWorld San Diego, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland, and finally Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure.

But as other major theme parks are getting ready to open their new attractions for 2019 (or already have), the nation's roller coaster capital is just getting to the starting line on its new thrill ride.

Six Flags Magic Mountain announced its West Coast Racers last August, with an after-hours, in-park announcement separate from Six Flags' usual online announcement of its upcoming slate of new rides. The special announcement event suggested that this was not going to be like all the other new Six Flags rides, and well... that turned out to be right, but not in any way that we might have guessed.

Track pieces didn't show up to Magic Mountain until February, which would have been a late start for a spring opening, but still possible. But with construction not going vertical until this week, it now seems possible that we will hear about Six Flags' 2020 lineup of new rides around Labor Day before anyone gets the chance to ride West Coast Racers.

We were all aboard the hype train for this Premier Rides launch coaster, and we remain excited to ride this Mobius strip-style racing coaster themed to West Coast Customs, the Los Angeles-area shop known for its Hollywood show cars.

Yeah, the coaster will blast riders up to 55 mph through four launches, but West Coast Racers nevertheless has managed to make a claim for slowest start ever for a launch coaster. (Rimshot!) We think the ride will be worth the wait, and we will find out for sure... eventually.

Meanwhile, whenever you are thinking about a trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain, you can save on front gate prices with our Six Flags Magic Mountain tickets and vacation package pages.

Replies (3)

May 14, 2019 at 1:10 PM

Looks cool, but it also looks really similar to the ride experience of Twisted Colossus. NOT the same, but very similar.

May 14, 2019 at 5:13 PM

SFMM has a tendency to open rides late, but even for them this is slower than normal. At this rate, the best case scenario I could possibly see would be an opening at the beginning of August, and that would only be if they haul on construction and there are absolutely no more delays. Realistically, using the timeline of other Premier projects, I'm betting on a mid August to early September opening window for this one.

May 14, 2019 at 6:28 PM

I agree considering this park has Full Throttle and Twisted Colossus this is an interesting choice. Maybe this park has so many coasters they are running out of ideas haha. Or possibly West Coast Customs wanted to put their name on a ride and is going to pay x amount of money for x amount of years...and this is what they could come up with to fit the theme.

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