Seven times overhead. Two minutes of complete madness. An anxious tingling feeling that everyone knows. Europa-Park Rust invites you to the premiere of its new main attraction “Voltron Nevera”. The star entered.
Before the seat bar swings down, I have already turned five screws on the emotional rollercoaster. The tension fights against anticipation. Fun wrestles with fear. Well-known queue emotions, which are followed by existential questions: What physical stress can my body withstand? Aren’t lawn mowers much more dangerous than amusement parks? And what do you actually eat before you are catapulted into a loop at a 105 degree incline, stand on your head a total of seven times and feel weightless for 2.2 seconds at a time?
In the morning at the bakery we chose an American. Enough sugar for high stress levels. Not enough glaze to fit snugly into the curve. Let’s see.
Hundreds of years ago, it was enough for a few Russians to build wooden ramps and use them to slide down artificial sledding mountains. It was the birth of the roller coaster. Today, those who are crazy about positivity throw themselves into vertical falls and bolted steep curves on steel monsters. When Europa-Park Rust, the largest amusement park in German-speaking countries, now presents its latest attraction called “Voltron Nevera”, the ride with the steepest start and the most inversions in the world – then these are not just superlatives that sell well in the leisure business, Then it’s somehow a social happening for a society in a thrill-seeker’s mania.
Europa-Park: the center of gravity of madness
Almost 400 guests are invited to the big roller coaster premiere. You meander past a Dutch YouTuber who is waving his arms wildly and shouting into the camera: “WELKOM IN EUROPE PARK!”; past Swiss reporters tying action cameras to their hands; past suspected rollercoaster bloggers who have already uncorked the first beer; and past a man who seems somehow out of place in this adrenaline-charged scene. Blue shirt, dark coat, shiny watch, a cappuccino in his hand. You have to drive “the thing” once, he tells his companion, but you don’t have to drive it just five or six times, which is really a surprising statement, because he himself will later open “the thing” with a gigantic key is basically the master of “the thing”, the patriarch of the family-run Europa-Park: Roland Mack.
It’s ok to drive once, but you don’t have to do more than that: Europapark boss Roland Mack
His land of milk and honey has always been a center of gravity for folklore. Hansi Hinterseer is coming at the end of April. Dieter Bohlen is currently casting Germany’s future superstars and jungle camp participants. The park is divided into country-specific theme areas. What gullible politicians demanded when Crimea was still a vacation destination and not a staging area for Putin – a European house from Lisbon to Vladivostok – is reality here.
Shoulders in the hanger, breakfast on the stomach wall
In the newly designed Croatia, the rails of “Voltron” lie there like a twisted cell phone charging cable. In between there are olive and lavender trees, a replica of the church tower of the city of Novigrad. Only the weather is more German than Mediterranean, not very worthy of an inauguration. Rain falls on a priest who, judging by the dialect, is very Swiss and is now supposed to give his supernatural blessing to earthly joy. When looping, he jokes, you’re so close to heaven anyway, haha. A final clarinet “Oh when the saints go marching in” – then the guests are allowed to march into the “Voltron” queue.
Memory log of two revolutionary roller coaster minutes: lightning start into the loop, then spiraling around your own axis, left, right, suddenly your shoulders are hanging in the bracket, your head is pointing towards the ground, breakfast is knocking on the wall of your stomach, for seconds, continue at full speed, brake, change direction on a turntable, backwards up a steep slope, a few more screws, done, done, relieved (fortunately only mentally).
New attraction in Europa Park: Reporter tests spectacular roller coaster “Voltron Nevera”
02:02 minutes
A little later there was a brief meeting with Patrick Marx, the person responsible for the ongoing headache. The 34-year-old in the brown hoodie was in charge of developing “Voltron” for five years and 38 layout drafts. A good man to ask the questions in the queue after the test drive has been completed.
Mr. Marx, what physical stress can my body endure? “We try never to exceed forces of 4g, i.e. four times the weight. Technically speaking, we could do that. But then it becomes uncomfortable for the body.”
Is mowing the lawn more dangerous than riding a roller coaster? “You could say that. Normal life goes on outside. But on the train we have everything under control. We know where the guest is. We have a triple security system in the bracket. We have secured everything with sensors.”
What do you eat before a 105 degree start to the loop? “A half-full stomach is optimal.”
Causes headaches: roller coaster developer Patrick Marx
© Philipp von Ditfurth / stern
The developer of the roller coasters is no longer tingling
Marx says he rode his first roller coaster when he was three years old. He planned vacations to amusement parks soon, not his parents. And while his fellow engineering students are probably planning bridges and tunnels today, he is designing roller coasters for Europa-Park, traveling around the world, testing out market innovations.
How often do people say their life is a roller coaster? This really applies to Patrick Marx. There’s just one problem: “When I see a train myself, I analyze it in so much detail that hardly anything surprises me anymore.” He calls his own latest achievement an “emotion machine” – but that only applies to the other passengers. “I know exactly what’s happening in which corner.”
It almost sounds tragic: the man who developed roller coasters has lost his very own roller coaster feeling – the tingling sensation when queuing.
Transparency note: The trip was carried out with the support of Europa-Park.