Six Flags Magic Mountain adding Full Throttle coaster in 2013

The Full Throttle launch coaster debuting at Six Flags Magic Mountain in 2013 will feature a record-setting vertical loop that riders traverse twice -- once on the inside and again on the outside.

> Photos: Full Throttle coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain

The one-of-a-kind terrain-hugging roller coaster will have three launches -- two forward and one backward out of a special effects tunnel.

> Photos: New attractions coming to Six Flags parks in 2013

As planned by designers, Full Throttle riders will be launched from the station, going from zero to 70 mph through the world’s tallest loop and into a series of high-banked turns.

Following a dive loop drop, the coaster train screeches to a halt inside a special effects tunnel only to be rocketed backward to the top of the dive loop.

After a brief pause, the train descends the dive loop, launches forward through the former monorail tunnel and races over a top-hat element tracing the outside of the record-setting loop.

Full Throttle’s record-setting 160-foot-tall vertical loop tops the Superman: Krypton coaster at Six Flags Fiesta Texas, which holds the current title of world’s tallest loop, at 145 feet.

Magic Mountain’s own Viper, with a 144-foot-tall loop, is a close second, according to Roller Coaster Database.

Cedar Point’s $26-million Gatekeeper winged coaster will claim the record of tallest inversion (170 feet) when the ride opens in May 2013.

Full Throttle will bring Magic Mountain’s coaster count to 18, two more than Ohio’s Cedar Point and the most of any park in the world.

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