Dragon's Fury

Dragon's Fury, one of Chessington's larger rollercoasters, invites guests to board four seater spinning cars for a whirling journey through Land of the Dragons.

Each rollercoaster car freely rotates as it makes its way around the track, which makes for a lot of fun as they pirouette through the various track elements. Dragon's Fury features Maurer's familiar overbanked "immelmann" turn just after the 51ft tall lift hill, setting up the ride nicely. The custom designed track layout ensures that the cars keep spinning from that point on, barely stopping throughout.

After a series of swooping hills, the cars end up at the far end of Land of the Dragons where they drop down from a set of mid-course trim brakes into a downward helix that feels fantastic if it catches cars at the right angle and they continue gently spinning as they traverse through it.

Dragon's Fury features a second lift hill which adds a bit of extra momentum to the cars, ensuring a fast and twirling ride back around the other side of Land of the Dragons into the final brake run.

Originally on returning to the station riders were greeted with a pre-recorded announcement advising them to "please exit to the left". Due to the car design, this made little sense as riders sit back-to-back, meaning for the riders returning to the station backwards the exit was actually to the right hand side. Regardless, the announcement persisted for several years after the ride was opened before it was finally changed!

The ride opened at Chessington in 2004, the same year as Spinball Whizzer - another Maurer Söhne Spinning Coaster - opened at sister park Alton Towers, as part of a two-ride deal negotiated by Tussauds Group who at the time owned both parks. Dragon's Fury got the lion's share of the attention and theming budget, and was a high quality addition to Chessington in stark contrast to the "cheap and cheerful" feel of Alton's effort. Chessington's was almost certainly helped by being a larger version of the coaster, with the custom layout ensuring much more spinning action. It was originally sponsored by the Skips crisps brand, with enthusiasts at the time affectionately referring to it as "the Skips Spinner".

In the main, Dragon's Fury has aged well. It still provides a great ride, even though the spinning has been damped down in recent years meaning the ride experience is less intense than when it first opened.

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