West Coast Racers at Magic Mountain, Credit #153

I got the chance to finally ride Magic Mountain’s first roller coaster in nearly five years. They’ve built CraZanity and Justice League and revamped Revolution but… this was the first new coaster since Twisted Colossus.

And it took over 12 months to build. West Coast Racers was announced in August of 2019 but, because of myriad delays, is only opening now. Was it worth all the waiting and the hype?

The ride is fun but it’s not all that intense and I think I’ve been craving something new, big, and crazy rather than something that barely uses it’s second and fourth launches. It’d be a good first-time coaster for someone who’s never done a launch or gone upside down.

The one thing about this ride that absolutely kicks ass is the dueling element–the fact that you’re wrapping and weaving around another train is just so fascinating to watch. And I think this is one of those rides that’s more fun to watch glide through its inversions and moderately-forceful helices.

This is why I preferred my back row ride over the front row: your sightline of the other train are greatly increased to the point that, when you’re going through the stall on the white side, the train on the yellow side completes its turn beneath you.

It’s the same on the rare perfect-duel of Twisted Colossus. My favorite element of all time is when you go through the stall with another train taking the airtime hill beneath you, getting closer, descending again. It’s an absolutely zen moment that doesn’t happen enough.

Now, though, you get a little taste of that with every lap on West Coast Racers. It’s pretty fucking great, honestly, and it makes it worth the wait alone.

Yet, I’d still peg it as the King of the B-Squad, those only-sometimes rides that fill out the park’s lineup.

It’s fun as hell, don’t get me wrong. I fully expect it to be a first ride on visits with nervous riders. But other than it’s just like Justice League: I rode it once in 2017 when it opened and I haven’t walked into the queue since. Or Drop of Doom because I kinda hate drop rides because that feeling of having your stomach pushing up against your shoulders. These rides fill out the park and make it a better, more well-rounded, experience for most guests.

But me? Damn do I still need some big and fast and loud and apeshit. I keep holding out for an RMC T-Rex that’s, like, 300 feet tall and absolutely ridiculous. In my fantasy, it’s stationed out by Apocalypse and it goes up into the hills to the west where Roaring Rapids currently resides. But then they’d be down to basically just Jet Stream and two boats on Tidal Wave in terms of water rides so I dunno what an expansion like that would look like. That’s just one dork’s dream, though.