Take a trip upside-down on Gardaland's S&S Screaming Squirrel rollercoaster...
| Theme Park | Gardaland |
|---|---|
| Type | Rollercoaster |
| Audience | Thrillseekers |
| Opened | 30 April 2005 |
| Manufacturer | S&S |
| Model | Screaming Squirrel |
| Height | 98 ft |
| Inversions | 3 |
| Duration | 1½ minutes |
Sequoia Adventure sits surrounded by Magic Mountain's track
Wild Mouse coasters are recognisable the world over with their four seater cars and tight switchback corners. With their Screaming Squirrel model, S&S have put their own spin on the classic wild mouse design, flipping the switchback track 90° leaving riders literally hanging in mid-air.
Sequoia Adventure is Gardaland's S&S Screaming Squirrel, featuring three vertical switch back elements, the highest being almost 100 feet of the ground.
Riders sit in four seater cars, which first travel horitontally upright along the arm formed by the track, before careering over the "cliff-edge" and flipping upside-down to travel back along the underneath side of the arm. Upon reaching the end, the car is once again flipped right way up ready for the run along the next arm, repeating three times for maximum ... pleasure?
The track design and layout is fairly simple but, although not inherently rough, the overall experience isn't particularly comfortable: hanging upside down for extended periods while just going back and forth isn't exactly fun.
Generally, Screaming Squirrel rollercoasters have not proved popular with theme parks, which have tended to opt for S&S's more refined El Loco design. As such, Sequoia Adventure is something of an oddity: it is one of only three Screaming Squirrels ever built, and one of only two still in operation (the other being Man-O-War at Mysterious Island in China).
Sequoia Adventure is probably worth riding for the novelty, but don't expect to come off wowed.
Ride entrance
About to flip over
Riding upside down
Inversions