Dorney Park to build Iron Menace, first dive coaster on East Coast. What riders can expect

Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom wants to take you for a spin in 2024.

Next season, the theme park in Allentown will debut a dive rollercoaster enshrined as "Iron Menace."

It is the first new roller coaster built there since the opening of Hydra in 2005.

'Iron Menace' not for the faint of heart

Each autumn-red colored train, built by Bollinger & Mabillard, has a 21-rider occupancy, with seven rows holding three riders each. Iron Menace races along nearly 2,200 feet of steel track at speeds that top out at 64 miles per hour.

The run begins in the remains of an old steel mill and climbs 160 feet to a point where riders will hang over the beyond-vertical first drop before diving into the first of four mind-bending inversions.

That is Iron Menace's "hold and dive" feature, which pauses the ride for three seconds as it suspends riders before the first 95-degree, 152-foot drop. The train will then pull up sharply and flip 180 degrees in an Immelmann inversion.

According to Coasterpedia, an Immelmann inversion begins with the first half of a vertical loop. As the top of the loop is approached, the train is fully inverted. The track then twists 180 degrees, thus the inversion is exited in the opposite direction to which it is entered.

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Iron Menace's run will produce a zero-gravity roll and dish out a 360-degree inversion in weightlessness.

Topping off Iron Menace's run is a tilted loop and a 360-degree corkscrew spin.

What is a dive coaster?

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A dive rollercoaster is generally defined as having vertical or nearly-vertical drops and feature wider trains to fit more than four riders at a time.

Coasterpedia notes that all dive roller coasters pause its train for a few seconds at the top of a drop.

Dorney Park spokesperson Jessica Naderman said Iron Menace is the first such dive coaster in the northeast. Other dive rollercoasters are in California, Florida, Ohio, Texas and Virginia.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Iron Menace: Dorney Park to debut new dive coaster in 2024