Intamin is a manufacturer and supplier of
amusement rides, roller coasters and transportation products based in Wollerau, Switzerland. Today, the company is well known for its ability
to continuously innovate, allowing them to meet the needs of their clientele. Because of this, Intamin has become notorious
for working with parks to create rides with specific features; massively increasing the
size of the manufacturer’s attraction portfolio. This currently ranges from thrilling roller
coasters, to water rides and even from drop towers to observation towers. As a result, the manufacturer has become one
of the largest within the amusement industry - making it extremely likely that even your
own local theme park features an Intamin product of some description. However, the Swiss business wasn’t always
the broad producer of rides they are today. Intamin was founded back in 1967 by Robert
Spieldiener Reinhold Spieldiener, and Alfons Saiko. These three men all shared the same passion,
amusement rides. In its early years, the company was a broker
for various amusement manufacturers, helping to sell their rides overseas. This can be seen directly in the name Intamin, a shortened form of INTernational AMusement INstallations. Initially, the distributor had a partnership
with one of the largest manufacturers within the industry at the time, Schwarzkopf. In fact, Intamin produced the steel for various
Schwarzkopf rides, including Revolution at Six Flags Magic Mountain and SooperDooperLooper
at Hersheypark. However, it wasn’t until 1979 when they
would go on to debut their first roller coaster. Wilderness Run, a small family coaster, opened
to guests at Cedar Point as the company’s original coaster. It wasn’t anything special, even for the
time, but it did mark a huge step towards the Intamin we know today. In the same year, they also began the construction
of observation towers by supplying the world’s tallest of its kind, measuring 600ft / 182m
high. The small manufacturer continued to expand
their portfolio at a rapid rate in the following years. 1980 saw the debut of an iconic Intamin attraction:
the river rapids ride. The company initially produced Thunder River,
at Six Flags Astroworld - the world’s first ever rapids attraction. Since then, the business has gone on to install
approximately 70 rapids rides across more than 20 countries around the globe. The popularity of this model alone places
Intamin within many of the world’s leading theme parks. However, like many manufacturers, not all
of the company's models are hugely successful. In 1981 they introduced American Eagle at
Six Flags Great America, their first wooden roller coaster. Only 7 were built worldwide, most before the
turn of the century. To address this, Intamin discontinued the
ride in 2001 in favour of a newer and more impressive version. Although, in the time in between, they continued
to introduce models at a blinding pace. This included the debut of their iconic drop
tower in 1982. The exact design of Intamin drop towers has
evolved over the decades, however, they first began life as freefall towers. These took guests vertically upwards in caged
carts, before rapidly descending a curved drop. Initially popular, the models presence dwindled
across parks as Intamin introduced their 2nd iteration of drop tower, the giant drop, in
1995. Unlike previously, these resemble the classic
drop towers seen around the world today. 4 guests per gondola would ascend to the top
of a circular tower before plummeting back towards the ground. Not only were giant drop towers taller than
their predecessors, but they could also tilt guests forwards throughout the ride. Intamin upgraded the model one last time around
the turn of the millennium by introducing the gyro drop tower; a huge vertical structure
supporting a spinning circular car. Riders would sit around the edge of the single
gondola, giving them a rotating view of the park. Due to their high capacity and intense design,
a large number of giant and gyro drop towers can be found across the world today. Interestingly though, Intamin weren’t actually
the ones making their original drop tower design. Instead, they sold and marketed the product
which was designed and built by Giovanola, another amusement rides manufacturer. This venture marked the start of the initially
strong relationship between the two companies, which would eventually lead to Intamin buying
majority shares in Giovanola. The two businesses continued their new relationship
in 1984 with the debut of the Swiss Bob model, first seen at Six Flags Great Adventure. Intamin’s own bobsled coaster, fabricated
by Giovanola, was similar to the designs seen from other manufacturers at the time. And like these other companies, their bobsled
model quickly lost popularity in the years following its premiere. Nevertheless, the pair continued to debut
new and unique roller coasters. 1985 saw the construction of Z-Force at Six
Flags Great America, a new model known as a Space Diver. The compact ride saw guests navigate tight
drops, diving underneath other track pieces in a looping pattern. At the time, this type of design was quite
revolutionary. Even despite this, Z-Force forever stood as
the only one of its kind. Fortunately however, the coaster did introduce
something exciting into the amusement industry. Leading up to its construction, two Giovanola
employees, Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabillard designed and fabricated an all new box shaped
track. From this point on, Giovanola would use this
as their flagship track design for roller coasters. While after several years, the two employees
responsible for the track left Giovanola to form their own company: Bolliger and Mabillard
- now one of the largest roller coaster manufacturers within the industry today. After departing Giovanola, Walter and Claude
continued to use their design, albeit with slight modifications, leading to the similarities
we can sometimes see today between the three companies. A fantastic example of this lies within Intamin’s
and Giovanola’s 2nd roller model model to use this type of track, the Stand Up coaster. These rides see guests navigate a series of
twists, turns and inversions all while in a standing position. Shockwave at Drayton Manor become the 3rd
and final stand-up coaster for the company, featuring track that heavily resembles the
Bolliger and Mabillard track we see today, despite it being an Intamin ride fabricated
by Giovanola. In the years following, Intamin focused on
fulfilling orders and fabricating attractions. However, by 1993, the business was ready to
debut two new models. The first, their family coaster, was a classic
sit down coaster with a focus on gradual twists and turns. Though, due to the extremely competitive nature
of the family coaster market, the model wasn’t a success. Fortunately, the same cannot be said of the
2nd model. Intamin’s Multi-inversion coaster started
its life in the single inversion ride, Indiana Jones at Disneyland Paris. Newer roller coasters were quickly built over
the following years featuring much larger layouts and more inversions. This eventually peaked in 2002 with the debut
of Colossus at Thorpe Park, which is now an iconic Intamin attraction, the 10 Inversion
coaster. At the time of its opening Colossus featured
the most inversions of any roller coaster worldwide. Because of this fact, the ride has now been
cloned over 5 times across various parts of the globe. A year after the introduction of the new models,
Intamin debuted two record breaking rides. White Cyclone at Nagashima Spa Land became
Asia’s tallest, fastest and longest wooden roller coaster; while Euro-Star, which was
introduced into the German Fair circuit, became the world’s first and largest travelling
inverted coaster. The ride operated until 2011 before it was
removed entirely. Excitingly though, Euro-Star has made a comeback
in 2019 and can now be found operating in Russia. Sadly however, by 1996, Intamin’s relationship
with Giovanola had begun to fade, eventually leading to them selling their majority shares
in the company. Though work still continued on new attractions,
which in 1997 resulted in the construction of another record breaking roller coaster. At this point in time, the company unveiled
the Reverse Freefall coaster, a ride which used magnets to propel guests to high top speeds, before they ascend a large vertical spike. They would then quickly plummet back towards
the ground, marking the end of their experience. Dreamworld’s Tower of Terror, and Superman
at Six Flags Magic Mountain both opened in 1997 as the only two ever constructed. Both became the world’s first roller coasters
to utilise LSMs, linear synchronous motors; and the first roller coasters to reach speeds
of 100mph (160kmh). By the end of 1998 Intamin had completely
dissolved its relationship with Giovanola. Instead, it enlisted another company to fabricate
its track, Stakotra. Since then, the Slovakian company has produced
all track and train chassis for Intamin. At roughly the same time, Giovanola became
independent and began selling roller coasters directly to amusement parks. These two facts meant that in the years following
this, Intamin’s track design changed drastically. As a result, the company's new for 1998 additions
featured distinctly different track. Linear Gale at Tokyo Dome City, and Kings
Dominion’s Volcano the Blast coaster both debuted with new triangular track comprised
of a lattice of cross-ties, a design which Intamin still uses to this day. Volcano opened to guests as the world’s
first full circuit suspended launch coaster, accelerating riders twice throughout the twisted
layout; while Linear Gale became the swiss manufacturers first Impulse coaster. This model sees guests launch through the
station multiple times, allowing them to accelerate up and down two parallel spikes. After its debut the Impulse coaster saw many
more installations across the globe. But, in today’s world, theme parks now look
to other manufacturers for compact multi-launch attractions. By 1999, Intamin had hit their stride. The company had started to become known for
their innovative rides, leading many parks to consider their attractions. This was seen directly in Darien’s Lake’s
new for 1999 addition, Ride of Steel. Here Intamin constructed the Mega Coaster,
a roller coaster over 200ft (61m) tall with a distinct focus on height, speed and airtime. However, this was quickly overshadowed by
another new attraction the following year. In 2000, Cedar Point built Millennium Force,
the world’s first roller coaster to break the 300ft (91m) height barrier. Because of its tall nature, the ride debuted
with a cable lift hill, a new take on old technology to pull guests to the highest point
at a much faster rate. Despite the difference in height, the two
rides share many similarities in terms of track, train and layout design. On top of this, Millennium Force quickly gained
a fantastic reputation, often being voted the world’s best roller coaster. As a result, it has not only become an iconic
Intamin attraction, but also an iconic roller coaster on a global scale. Make sure to watch part 2 of this mini-series
all about Intamin by clicking the video on screen now, or heading to the link in the description below.
