Two B&M Hyper Coasters Go Head-to-Head in the First Edition of Roller Coaster Showdown
Bolliger & Mabillard’s critically acclaimed hyper coasters are tall, airtime-packed, modern thrill rides. This week, I’ll be pitting Busch Gardens Europe’s Apollo’s Chariot against Six Flags Great Adventure’s Nitro.
Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure
-Nitro boasts a taller first drop (215′). It’s the 9th largest America.
-The fourth hill is a hammerhead turn more than 100′ in the air. (Seen here.)
-Nitro has an S-curve and a tight upward helix. Nitro has more of a flying in the air feeling” than Apollo’s “closer to the ground” layout.
Apollo’s Chariot at Busch Gardens Europe
-Apollo’s Chariot’s lift hill is only 170′ tall, but it offers a 210′ drop to the surface of the Rhine River.
-Apollo’s third drop features a swooping decent resulting in the train skimming the ground. Great for those riding on the left side of the train.
-AC is packed with airtime, especially on the series of bunny hills on the trip back to the station.
Edge: The edge goes to Apollo’s Chariot for its relentless amount of airtime on pretty much every hill. Not only are riders treated to an insane number of drops, but they also experience airtime (being lifted out of your seat).
Which coaster would you pick in this week’s Coaster Showdown? Do you have suggestions for next week’s edition? Leave a comment below.
May 10, 2009 at 05:30
Cole, that post will be locked soon. Just trust me. It'll be edited, or eliminated
May 10, 2009 at 15:02
Yup. Cole you've been blocked. Please people, try to make your point without swearing.
September 14, 2009 at 16:02
I agree. A.C. is better.
September 26, 2009 at 13:09
I've been on both, and they both are very good rides – but I think Nitro has a slight edge. Nitro's spiral is much better than A.C, and Nitro's drops are better. I think the woods setting also helps Nitro.
June 21, 2010 at 17:51
I think Nitro is better becuase you go over the hills faster and you kinda fall out of your seat. Nitro has more drops and their mostly bigger throughout the ride. I also like the bunny hills and drops at the end of nitro. I think nitro is in a better park than AC is in.
June 26, 2010 at 16:36
i would have to say the edge goes to nitro.
ac is good, but i don't think it does a hole lot! the turn around on ac is pretty much just a double or tiple helix and their are no over banked turns on ac just a tun of bunnyhops.
the themeing on ac is verry good verry colorful and a nice line to wate in with covered roofs wood, and umbrellas providing a canopy obstructing sunlight. another thing that turns you on is the smell of ac. they put the line next to some great pastery shop and it smells amazing.
nitro offers a lot more nitro offers 3 great hills 100ft+ one of them turning you sidwase at the top, a hammer head(overbanked turn) a (s) curve and what few bunnyhops nitro has to offer, are better then any of ac's bunnyhops going back to the station.
nitro has a junk yard theme and i would have to say has the better theme. line wise. not station or ride wise
for daytime riding i would choose ac cause the line is in the shade, but night time nitro lights up much like top thrill dragster where as ac id like kingda ka at night.so nitro looks cooler at night and you have a better sunset to look at.
station rules, ac does not offer bins to put articals in. so you have to sit on what ever you have or your not riding ac. nitro your were allowed to just throw your shoes etc. on the other side but now i think they have bins.
reply to me at youtbe.com/tslabjr7 if you want to reply.
June 18, 2011 at 10:06
I never even knew Nitro had a theme. The station just felt like an old shack when I was there.
June 19, 2011 at 05:04
Nitro is an abbreviation of Nitroglycerin, a heavy liquid material used in dynamite and other explosives. I don't know why it would have a junkyard theme, so I think the supposed "theme" of the ride may of been just a coincidence.
PS- According to Wikipedia, Nitroglycerin is also used to help treat heart disease and prostate cancer. I just thought that was interesting.
June 26, 2010 at 17:24
I prefer A.C. because of the airtime as the critic pointed out. I also love the dive into the River and the pre-drop on the first drop. I rode Nitro front row and it is still on the chain when you go over and I think that halts some of the momentum. Either way they were Both GREAT rides and I love them both. B&M hypers are my favorite!
August 29, 2010 at 10:34
Apollos all the way! love dat ride! Has better hill with the fake drop! -lol
October 30, 2010 at 11:19
i still like nitro enough said :}
March 28, 2011 at 08:48
I think Nitro is just a more intense ride. I usually ride Nitro 2-3x per visit which is multiple times a year b/c I have a seasons pass+live about 1 hour away. I did however ride AC over 15x in a row b/c of unlimited quick queue and I must say I was very impressed by it as well.
April 26, 2011 at 14:47
Love them both. I think Nitro is better and more intense. My wife actually raised a hand on AC, She barley even opened her eyes on Nitro and would not ride it twice. She rode AC repeatedly. She has blood pressure issues…so that nitro affected her pressure that much more than AC should tell you something…
May 25, 2011 at 13:27
Noo this isn't right at all
June 13, 2011 at 12:47
Nitro!!!
June 18, 2011 at 10:04
In terms of the actual ride, Nitro felt a bit more intense and had a little more airtime when I rode it. They're both great rides though
June 23, 2011 at 11:27
that is a difficult question for me. i have ridden both of them. Fortunately Apollo's Chariot was my first experience of the two. So i'm going off on a limb and choosing AC over Nitro.
June 25, 2012 at 14:52
Does what you ride first matter? You should see the rest of the peoples comments, which don't focus on what they rode first.
July 3, 2011 at 09:43
Nitro is smoother, and has more big hills. It also has the swooping drop out of the station, which is fun. Nitro has more elements than apollo does with the hammerhead. Nitro also has, in my opinion, a more interesting L shaped layout than apollos out and back. Nitro also seems more spread out, and like c c said has more flying in the air feeling, which I think is what makes great coasters.
October 24, 2011 at 19:44
wrong
voted by many coaster enthusiast in the world, A.C is one of B&M's smoothest and quitest coasters. It been rateda 9.31 in smoothness, while Nitro gets stuck with an 8.4.
January 23, 2012 at 11:22
I didn't post this.
July 14, 2011 at 11:06
My wife and I for our honeymoon hit 10 roller coaster parks in 11 days in July 2010.
We got to ride well over 50 coasters.
Apollo's Chariot was very memorable. I was simply awesome and the amount of airtime reminded me of Magnum XL 2000.
Nitro was lost in my memory along the likes of the Mind Erasers and racing woodies. SFGA impacted me much more with El Toro and Bizzaro. Nitro just didn't seem like a standout to me like Apollo's Chariot.
Clear winner to Busch Garden's.
July 14, 2011 at 20:35
Now that's quite a honeymoon. You chose well Peter!
July 18, 2011 at 18:30
Peter, you just verified what I was thinking about for a while. Nitro is overlooked by some people because it is in the same park with el toro and kingda ka. I think Nitro is much better than bizarro(sfga) by alot, though. Apollo stands out because it is in a park with 3 other roller coasters- one that is an old but still ok arrow looper(loch ness), one that is a tall and fast but somewhat painful on cobra roll invert(alpengeist) and one that is tall and fast and steep and awesome but is too short(griffon, although I do like it better than apollo). Nitro is in a huge park with more than 10 other roller coasters. I love Nitro, though. Its only equal in sfga is el toro.
July 29, 2011 at 00:22
I simply choose Apollo because this oldie is a goodie. I know it's got fewer camel backs than Nitro, but for being the first hyper coaster by the same company, it's pretty impressive. Plus, I really like the view you get when you're on the lift hill.
Nitro was everything Apollo had (with a better kick of excitement), but…. I HATED waiting in line. The amount of time they took dispatching each train was ridiculous. That's my only complaint
August 25, 2011 at 09:56
Really? The loading was slow? I always think the loading is fast, especially for great adventure. But apollo did not have any line at all except for the seat lines when I went, and Nitro does. The secret might be to go to nitro early in the day, although I have also ridden it later in the day and the line wasnt bad. Compared to waiting for el toro and kingda ka, nitro's line is almost like a walk on. Except when those evil platinum flash pass people take a second ride on the row youre waiting for, then it takes longer.
September 10, 2011 at 06:23
what about Goliath at Six flags over Georgia? i think its better than both of these
October 9, 2011 at 17:17
apollos chariot is smoother and has better airtime and more length