Six Flags introduces Tormenta, the world's biggest dive coaster

What an awful name. Why oh why doesn't Six Flags hire some actual creative folks that can come up with smart, well themed attraction names. I recognize it's hard to relay the bull theme when they already have iconic coasters named El Toro and Raging Bull, but Tormenta??? This coaster sounds painful before you even get on.

I'm also not sure how a 300+ foot beyond vertical drop is going to feel on a dive machine (presumably with B&M's second generation OTSRs with retractable vests). The whole point of the first drop of a giga coaster is to give you that out of your seat feeling and building speed to generate positive g's at the bottom. If you're facing down, the zero-g feeling is completely lost since riders will be forced against the seat back instead of lifting off the seat.

The layout on this just isn't that impressive with 2 Immelmans and another inversion that looks to be a slight variation on an Immelman with the twist at the top of the inversion a little later in the element. There's no tunnel or other near miss element that I can see, and absolutely ZERO theming apparent from the images. SFoT actually has decent theming throughout the park, and the Spain area, in particular, is actually really well done. I worry that even though SF is revamping this area that they are going to strip much of the theming since this coaster doesn't appear to have anything that links it to Spain aside from its ridiculous name.

I agree with Russell about the drop, but I don't hate the name "Tormenta", it does a good job conveying terror while hinting at a vague storm theme, even if the rest of the name leaves a lot to be desired. And that third inversion does look weird, like some sort of sidewinder- immelman hybrid.

I'm glad there's a vertical loop, but one of those immelmans (immelmen?) should have been a dive loop. And that last inversion, to my knowledge, hasn't been seen on a dive coaster before. In fact, I'm impressed with the layout, besides the immelmen.

As for the theming, I'm not surprised we see so little of it- there wasn't any on the renderings for Siren's Curse, and everyone who rode it was impressed with the work they put in. I'm still hoping that some on-ride theming and/or interaction is added.

What is with Six Flags/Cedar Fair coming up with the weirdest names for their dive coasters? Yukon Striker, Dr. Diabolical, Iron Menace, Wrath of Rakshasa, and now Tormenta Raging Run.

Coming next year to Six Flags St Louis its Hippolyta Amazonias. Then at Knotts Berry Farm its Arbuckle Bean of Doom, new in 2027!

Well, that might be one of the worst names in recent memory. Simply calling it Tormenta would be much better, or even just picking two of the three words.

As for the ride, it really just looks like a standard dive coaster that's been upsized, and doesn't have the level of creativity we've seen from the downsized models B&M has done recently. That said, it still looks like a fantastic ride, and will probably be in the top two or three at SFOT for a vast majority of visitors. Personally, I'm still waiting for Cotaland to open before making another trip to Texas, but this guarantees that when I do SFOT will absolutely be included in the trip.

Better name: Rampaging Run (or Rampage Run)

Heck, just call it rampage. Or I prefer Tormenta by itself. Not everything needs to be semicolons and subtitles.

sounds pretty awesome in basically every respect

i agree that it needs at least one tunnel and some themeing. don't love the name either but better than wrath of rickshaw or whatever it's called. i also kind of get eyesore vibes because it's just too much for that skyline. while SFOT is LONG overdue for a major coaster, a multi launch intamin or mack would have been a nicer fit ala copperhead strike. i also think this park would have been better suited with a great family friendlier ride especially with the kids universe coming soon. but i'm sure it will be a big hit which they desperately need.

@mbrussmco - I totally agree. For being the OG Six Flags park, its attraction lineup is woeful compared to other parks in the chain, including SFFT that's located a few hours away. Titan's fine, but it's a clone, as is Mr. Freeze, while New Texas Giant has been surpassed by pretty much every RMC that has come after it. There isn't a single other attraction in the park that would warrant a dedicated visit to this park, so they definitely needed a serious headliner to at least put this park closer to level with its Texas sibling. However, this park has a long way to go before it's reclaimed its spot as a flagship of the chain. Even with this addition, I have a hard time ranking SFoT inside the top 10 of parks in the chain.

Well before this ride was announced I was planning a mid-America road trip, so I just hope it's open around Memorial Day. Agreed, name is a bit weird, but as long as the ride's ok, I'll live with it .. :)

With ZDT's closed, I'm hoping on Cotaland being open ... unlikely I'll head that way again any time soon after 2026.

"With ZDT's closed, I'm hoping on Cotaland being open"

I feel that since it's pretty obvious they're going to miss their preferred opening in time for the F1 race (mid-October), that the park is probably not going to be in a rush to open, though it might be a safe bet that it will open by next May.

OK I will say it - all of these dive coasters are basically the same.

If you look at HHagrid’s Magical Creatures coaster or Hulk Or VelociCoaster:

They are all very different rides.

Where is the creativity here?

Brian- those are all from the same park, where rides need to differentiate themselves from each other. But there's no park on the planet with two dives (even if dueling divers would be cool), so they don't necessitate the same amount of variation. Also, comparing this to Rakshasa, these are about as different as two dives can get. This has a MCBR and a lot of looping based inversions, and Rakshasa has more twisting based inversions and no MCBR.

This needs a lot of theming and I would have to agree with those who think that the name is awful. Otherwise it strikes me as an OK attraction but not a particularly exciting one. Granted, the latter part of the course looks better than the latter part of Yukon Striker but I find it more than redundant for a dive coaster to be built at both Texas SF parks within the space of a couple of years. @ Brian Emery, I do wish that they had come up with something more original. @Russell, I may be in the minority but I like the ride lineup in this park so much that before the pandemic I made it a point to visit almost every year. New Texas Giant can't hold a candle to Iron Gwazi or even Iron Rattler but it's so much fun to ride that it remains one of my favorites. I've never been to Six Flags St. Louis so whether Mr. Freeze is a clone makes no difference to me; it's still an extreme thrill ride. In any case, Tormenta will revitalize the park - admittedly, it could use some revitalizing - although I wouldn't stand in a queue for two hours to ride it.

SheiKra - Griffon and many others are the are same layout.

8 riders across stop at the top.. bla bla bla...

All the same.

@Bobbie - There's nothing particularly wrong with SFoT's lineup, it just isn't what I would expect from what is supposed to be one of the flagship parks in the chain. Just going head to head, SFFT's lineup is vastly superior, and with the legacy Cedar Fair parks part of the company, SFoT is topped by at least 10 other within the chain. It's sad, and borderline criminal, that SFoT's attraction lineup has been allowed to deteriorate to this degree, especially considering that SF's corporate headquarters used to be located across the street (now relocated to Charlotte, NC). It's so bad that even the addition of a multi-record breaking coaster cannot push this park into the top 4/5 locations within the chain.

I know a lot of folks really like New Texas Giant, mostly because it's the only RMC conversion that doesn't have inversions, but it is definitely in the bottom half of their creations in my book (including single rails and bottom-up builds). I also agree that most people probably haven't trekked to SFStL to ride the clone of Mr. Freeze, but I think there are plenty of other LSM launch coasters out there that would only make this coaster a destination-worthy ride for the biggest coaster enthusiasts. Not to be mean, but I've been to all but 3 legacy SF parks in North America (LaRonde, Mexico, and Great Escape), and there are probably only 3 that I've visited that have an inferior coaster lineup to SFoT (Darien, SFStl, and SFA). Don't get me wrong, it's great that this park is finally being shown some love, but SFoT has a long ways to go before it will be able to retake its rightful place as a flagship park within the chain. If not for SFFT (and Sea World and Schlitterbahn), we probably would not travel to Texas just to visit SFoT, even with this new coaster.

@Brian - I would say you're generally right, but there are quite a bit of variations to the design that has evolved quite a bit over time. First, not all of them are 8-across. Griffon is actually 10-across and Iron Menace is 7-across (Baron 1898 at Efteling is just 6-across). Secondly, the trains don't actually "stop" at the top. The train has a set of reverse-mounted chain dogs that lock into a second chain lift that slowly tips the train over the edge of the hill. The train never actually stops moving along this stretch of track, and the timing of the release is completely random based on the overall weight/distribution on the train and the stiffness of the springs on the reverse-mounted chain dogs. Finally, I think what we're seeing right now with B&M Dive Machines is similar to what happened during the explosion of B&M inverts and sit down coasters of the late 90's/early 00's.

For those that do not know, Sea World/Busch Gardens signed an exclusive agreement with B&M when Sheikra was built at BGT. At the time, the chain had exclusive North American rights to the Dive Machine design (at the time there were only 2 in the world - Oblivion at Alton Towers and G5 at Janfunsun). From 2005 until 2015, no other North American parks could build a dive machine, so until Valravn opened in 2016, Sheikra and Griffon were the only 2 examples most American coaster enthusiasts could ride. However, as part of the development for Griffon, where BGW wanted to increase the capacity of the coaster, B&M integrated their floorless coaster technology into the design. B&M felt that trying to get 30 people on a train in a 10-across arrangement would add too much weight to the train and create excessive wear on the track and lifts. Removing the floor was an easy solution that trimmed the needed weight (along with those unusual perforations in the seat back supports if you take a closer look at the trains). Because Busch/Sea World had exclusive rights to the design, B&M reverse engineered Sheikra to allow for the installation of the floorless trains and load platform, which is why the individual pieces of the retractable floor move very different than most other floorless stations.

As the exclusivity arrangement with Busch/Sea World lifted, other North American parks were able to add B&M Dive Machines, but because of the size of the trains and overall design, there are limitations to what you can do with the individual elements. I think Wrath of Rakshasa and Dr. Diabolical's Cliffhanger are the best modern versions of the Dive Machine and offer a good variety of elements that include zero-g rolls, vertical loops, dive loops, Immelmans, and corkscrews. If you're into interesting forces and motions, those are probably the best examples of what a B&M Dive Machine can do. However, for me a B&M Dive Machine should be more about the visual appeal given the foundational design elements. The whole point of the dive machine is being slowly tipped over the edge and staring straight down at a massive drop. While I haven't ridden every version, I have been most impressed with those that capture the pure fear and anticipation that is created by the original B&M Dive Machine, Oblivion. While the drop is "only" 180 feet, you can't see it, because it's at the bottom of the massive tunnel buried underground, so as the train dives into the abyss, it accentuates the feeling of speed and intensity of that drop. Sheikra's second drop is @60 feet shorter than its second, but that second drop is just as good because it goes through a turret and underground tunnel. The same goes for "smaller" dive machines like Baron and Valkyria (at Lisegerg) where tunnels help lesser drops feel just as big, fast, and terrifying as massive drops like Valravn. Yukon Striker combines the height of Valravn with a tunnel (and adjacent coaster interaction with Vortex) to deliver one of the best first drops.

That's why I'm not very impressed with Tormenta, because while I'm sure you'll feel that massive first drop is different than the other big dive machines, visually, it won't be much different from Valravn. Also, the repetition of elements has always been a pet peeve of mine. I don't necessarily mind repeating elements back to back to essentially create a "new" singular element (like multiple corkscrews or vertical loops), but when designers throw the same element at various points of a layout makes me think they've run out of ideas. I'd also say that while the last element on Tormenta looks interesting, I question whether it's actually an inversion, just like the oft-criticized "inclined loop" element. I really think there was a lot of potential here with a coaster that tops out a 309', and even though SF has cleared a lot of space by removing 2 attractions and annexing a chunk of the parking lot closest to the entry gate (going to make SFoT like SFMM and SFoG with most spots FAR away from the gate), this layout feels very compact and wasteful of the potential energy generated from dragging trains to over 300'.

I applaud them for adding a premier coaster whatever the name. I hope this also has them sprucing up other parts of the park which is in dire need of TLC. I, for one, wish they would also add (or bring back) a river journey, and the Cave ride is beyond awful.

One thing I will disagree with: SFFT is not a few hours away. It is 4.5 hours away assuming I-35 is good to you. It is often much longer than that. The Texas Department of Transportation’s slogan is Go $!@? Yourself.

Happy Haunt...i am 62 and i'm pretty sure I-4 has been under construction my entire life. what is up with that??

@Bobbie, totally agree and the fact that the state of Texas has 3 Batman clones, 2 in the same city, 2 S&S 4th dimension coasters says to me they really need more variety.