The fastest wooden roller coasters

There's nowhere near the speed of a wooden roller coaster compared to a steel one, but the ride and the spectacle are just as impressive. They can be found all over the world and have even been ranked according to height, speed and other characteristics, and are updated every year. Here are the top 5 fastest wooden roller coasters in the world, in reverse order.

The "slowest" roller coaster in this top 5, at 108 km/h, is The Voyage at Holiday World Park, Indiana USA. It rides on a wooden rail raised on a steel structure. It is 50 meters high and travels in 2 minutes and 45′ seconds almost 2 km long, making it the third longest wooden roller coaster in the world. It has been voted best wooden roller coaster for years by Amusement Today.

Outlaw Run in Silver Dollar City, Missouri USA has been open since 2013 and one of the first wooden roller coasters to introduce an innovative system to rail construction. This system allows the trains to have polyurethane wheels that help achieve performance that classic wooden trains cannot. It reaches 109 km/h.

Colossos in Heide Park, Germany, takes third place at 110 km/h. It's 48 meters high, and the trajectory design allows it to be fast but also have smooth gliding sections.

2nd place is occupied by El Toro from Six Flags Great Adventure, New Jersey, USA, at 70 mph. The innovative design makes the top jump one of the fastest, if not the fastest. Unlike regular wooden roller coasters or wood-steel hybrids, the El Toro has a trajectory design that makes it remarkably smooth, yet incredibly fast.

And in first place at 116 km/h is Goliathat Six Flags Great America Park in Illinois, USA. Some consider it a hybrid rather than a traditional wooden roller coaster. It is considered the tallest and steepest wooden roller coaster in the world.

The latest news about new wooden roller coasters being inaugurated this summer tends to change this ranking a bit. They have not been officially registered, but the results are there. El Toro seems to have been dethroned from second place, with a difference of 1.3 km/h (12.65 km/h against 12.98 km/h) by Wildfire from Kolmarden, Sweden, and Goliath from Lightning Rod in Dollywood, Tennessee, U.S.A., at 117.5 kilometers an hour. Just to show you how close the battle is. 🙂