10 Reasons to LOVE Iron Gwazi (& A Few to Hate)

march 1 2019 busch gardens tampa confirms what we already knew with a twist it was clear by then that rmc was slated to work on the old dormant gwazi wooden coaster but we didn't know what it was going to look like it caught just about everyone off guard when we learned that this would be a hyper hybrid almost twice as tall as the original this wouldn't be just any rmc hybrid this could be one of the world's best coasters its 2020 opening was pushed back because of covet seaworld decided 2021 wasn't their time either finally in the winter of 2022 iron gwazi made its grand debut people finally got to ride it and they went nuts this shot up to many people's number one spot an insane breakneck experience i of course needed to get out there i couldn't get there right away i had to wait i had one shot to get to florida this year and in late july i was able to do it and get four rides on rmc's newest hybrid and yes i vlogged the whole experience check out that video in the card above or the link below but today i wanted to give you my full thoughts on this coaster and find out where it ranks among rmc's best and in my top 50. these are 10 things to love about iron gwazi and a few to hate [Music] before we dig into the details of iron gwazi if you can drop this video a like i'd appreciate it it really helps out the channel i have 10 things to love about iron gwazi so let's run those down first before pointing out the flaws the first couple points are before you even leave the station first you can choose your row for a ride that will pull very long lines you're going to want to make your right count i recommend you come on a weekday outside the summer months don't be stupid like me and come on a saturday in the summer but regardless of when you come you may run into an employee signing seats but there was no problem at all requesting a specific row i was able to get one ride in the very back that's where you want to be and three rides in my second favorite row in rmc's that being row 10. in some parks their assigned seating is very strict dollywood and lightning rod is a little less forgiving not a problem with iron gwazi go get your favorite row just a side note they do not allow bags in the station but they don't have any stupid loose article policies when it comes to phones knock on wood hopefully they don't have an incident that makes them change this but for now you can put your stuff in a zipper pouch under the seat or just leave it in a cargo pocket once you're on the train your next battle will be with the ops for my experience it wasn't much of a battle their ops do not staple they look at your bar if it's too high they will ask you to push it down more but you will not get smashed and ruin your ride these are your typical rmc new age lap bars the kind you'll find on steel vengeance i love these the shin guards don't bother me and they allow me to get some extra room so you're now ready to leave the station you're in your favorite row and you have the perfect amount of airtime room everything is perfect for you to have a legendary ride hang a left dip under the queue and head out the 206 foot lip hill this is very intimidating and you crawl up that lift very slow it slows down even more coming over the top i wish it wouldn't but in the end it doesn't matter that much that's because of the next thing to love the first drop 206 feet beyond vertical at 91 degrees if that sounds amazing that's because it is in fact i don't think any other rmc first drop is better than this one the top of the class for me was iron rattler followed by steel vengeance and i think the length of iron gwazi's drop plus the air time you get over it that makes it the best it does feel a lot longer than the drop on steel vengeance and it gives a really nice prolonged moment of floater airtime in the back maybe it would be ejector if the lip tilt wasn't so slow but you'll get plenty of that later enjoy your floater after this drop you rise into the next big element the outer bank turn rmc has mastered this element intimate has even tried to get in on this i don't blame them this is amazing steel vengeance has a huge one just like this and that's my favorite element of all time it tosses you out of your seat by tilting the wrong way then drags you all the way to the ground the whole time you don't touch your seat at all this element on iron gwazi does not disappoint i think the one on steel vengeance is still better but on iron gwazi it still delivers you get tossed out of your seat at the top and you float the whole way down it's not as powerful as steel vengeance but i still can't complain you get air time that's all that matters the ride then rises back up banks to the right you reach the peak and then it just rips you to the left through a barrel roll down drop this seems like a unique element but technically it's the same element you find on storm chaser or twisted timbers obviously those serve as the ride's first drop so you aren't moving that fast into them with iron gwazi you're going pretty fast before you rip into it in the back you see everyone's bodies fling to the side as you roll into this also because it turns before the roll you don't really see it coming so it can't catch you off guard that will make the whip that much more crazy this is a great inversion and very well placed but to be perfectly honest i thought it was a very similar feeling to twisted timber's first drop i thought it would be crazier like with a big outer bank despite my small criticism i can't complain you then have a high overbank turn the best part of this is a small pop of airtime you get as you whip out of it i'm sure this is only good in the back but then you got the next thing to love the outer bank wave turn this whips you to the right hangs you there and then it straightens you back up as you dive down this is a rare element it reminds me a lot of the green high five untwisted colossus but this is more drawn out and therefore so much better that green high five is kind of awkward and one of my least favorite elements on twisted colossus but on iron gwazi it was executed so much better because it leaves you there you fly out of your seat way more than i expected this was the most surprising part of the ride for me a real hidden gem the ride goes into a small airtime hill and then a bank turn i got some airtime on both of these moments i really didn't expect it on the turn so that was nice and then you got the next element to love the zero g stall this element is rmc's best inversion in general and even though this is not their best stall i think twisted colossus still has the edge here it provides that great feeling of weightlessness and just as you're floating there in pure bliss it rips you back upright with a great moment of width like i said in my vlog this ride has whip so much whip and the reason for that is the next reason to love iron gwasi it's pacing for my calculation only zadra is better paced in iron gauzy when it comes to rmcs when you're flying through the elements this fast all those forces are just accentuated that's definitely true when it comes to whip but also when it comes to ejector airtime but up to this point i haven't mentioned ejector airtime but don't worry that's coming iron gwanzi kind of pulls a fury 325 finale saving its best air time for the end after the stall you pull up into a slightly outer banked hill then you turn right and up into a double down the second part of that double down is one intense ejector moment but iron gwazi isn't done another long turn to the right then a pop-up and bam one more violent ejector moment diving under the outer bank tail i just mentioned you make a left turn and then whip into the brakes and when i say you whip into the brakes i mean you hit it with a head of steam this ride could have been so much longer and still had enough speed to make it great that being said the 10th and final thing to love about iron gwazi is the length when you're done with the coaster you don't want to feel like it's a short ride i never felt like any of my four rides were too short from the first drop to the final breaks it's about 47 seconds that's right in the middle of the rmc pack the same amount of ride time you get on the joker a couple seconds behind twisted timbers 5 behind lightning rod 10 behind wicked cyclone and of course 30 behind steel vengeance when you put it that way maybe it is a little too short but i'm just telling you when you write it you don't feel cheated when you hit the final breaks so there you go 10 things i love about iron gwazi there isn't much to complain about and most of my points to hate don't have anything to do with the ride itself a couple minor things the name is stupid and lazy that's my opinion but here's one that's hard to argue with iron gwazi is located right in the middle of the park but it's insanely hard to shoot you can see it great from other rides but from the ground level good luck finding places to get good pictures or get footage this is why i don't have much of my own footage you almost need to have special access to the infield to really capture it all now for the more serious stuff this has a bad habit of breaking down it went down several times on my visit once when i was in line and waited about an hour for them to fix it i know that most new coasters have this problem especially rmcs twisted colossus used to have horrible downtime back in 2015. now it seems to be a lot better i got stuck in a four hour delay for steel vengeance on opening weekend it happens to rmcs i'm guessing they need to tweak the sensors just beware if you're gonna ride it this year you may see a 45 or 60 or 90 minute posted wait time but the chances of it breaking down during your already long wait are pretty good the rideops were also warning people against leaning on the gates or shaking the gates and they said this will cause the right to break down i agree people shouldn't be doing that but for that to cause the right to break down just seems like a bad design another thing to hate this has some of the worst dispatch times i've ever seen at least outside six flags america one minute is pretty good two minutes is pretty bad but iron gwazi was lucky to dispatch every three minutes it was so frustrating to see the train sitting there ready to go and they have that board that shows how long it's been sitting in the station i think it maxed out at 299 seconds and sometimes they hit that point but usually it would clear 180 and that just isn't good one thing i noticed is that it's not friendly to bigger riders it seemed like on every train there was one person who needed some extra effort to get the lap bar to clear they couldn't do it and they had to unlock it and leave the train it seems like these rmc trains are unforgiving for anyone above average size that slows down dispatches big time finally my biggest complaint iron gwazi runs very slow in the morning i got my first ride just after opening around 10 15 am and i was incredibly disappointed if that was my only ride i would probably rank it in the bottom 25 of my rmc's there was no bite it had no power no whip but i didn't lose hope i had the same problem with jersey devil and unfortunately i had to leave after my one morning ride so it's my lowest drink rmc and it's not even close i had time to ride iron gwazi later on so i rode again at 1pm then 8 30. then got one of the last rides of the night and that was by far the best one i will rank iron gwazi based on those warmed up rides but it has to lose points for being so slow in the morning other rmcs don't have this problem i rode twisted timbers in the morning and the afternoon and it was just as powerful no matter when i wrote it so the million dollar question where does iron gwazi rank it gets major points for having unique elements and executing them so well it loses some points for not having that many ejector moments and being slow in the morning i feel like this is better than lightning rod but i wouldn't put it ahead of wicked cyclone i think that layout was so insanely good unpopular opinion i know leave all the hate in the comments but my rides in 2021 were so good all day that i can't drop it this still puts iron gwazi in my top 10 knocking lightning rod down to number eight and now i have to ask does iron gwazi deserve to be ranked over veloci coaster my answer is no iron gwazi will take my number seven spot overall and my number three rmc that's all i have for iron gwazi if you've had a chance to write it let me know if you agree or disagree with anything i said here i got four rides so i feel like i got a pretty good sense of it even though i only rode in the back it seemed like every time i wrote it i learned something new i wish i could have gotten 10 more rides but i was more than satisfied with my four before you go don't forget to drop a like and if you're new here and love coasters please consider giving me a sub also check out my links below for my discord server and my second channel where i post copyright free off-road footage and my baseball channel if you're a baseball fan like i am thank you all for watching and i'll see you all next time [Music]

Channel: Airtime Thrills

Views: 31,394

Keywords: iron gwazi, busch gardens, tampa, florida, BGT, RMC, rocky mountain construction, hybrid, coaster, theme park, roller coaster, amusement park

Id: _qc-lYnynLM

Length: 11min 27sec (687 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 08 2022