When Colossus opened at Thorpe Park on 22 March 2002, it did something no roller coaster had ever done: it turned riders upside down ten times in a single circuit. The Intamin-built machine instantly claimed the world inversion record and held it for over a decade, putting the Surrey park on the international thrill map in the process.
More than twenty years on, Colossus is still spinning riders through its trademark run of heartline rolls above the park’s lake in the Lost City area. It remains one of the most-copied layouts in coaster history – and it still sits near the top of our ranking of the roller coasters with the most inversions in the world.
Quick Answer
Colossus stands 98.4 ft (30 m) tall, reaches 44.7 mph (72 km/h), and flips riders upside down 10 times across 2,788.7 ft (850 m) of track in about 92 seconds. It opened in March 2002 as the world’s first roller coaster with ten inversions, a record it held until The Smiler (14 inversions) opened at Alton Towers in May 2013.
Key Stats
Height: 98.4 ft (30 m). Speed: 44.7 mph (72 km/h). Length: 2,788.7 ft (850 m). Inversions: 10. Duration: 1:32. Max g-force: 4.2g. Capacity: around 1,300 riders per hour. Trains: 7 cars per train, 28 riders.
Manufacturer: Intamin, catalogued as the Multi Inversion Coaster model. Designer: Werner Stengel (Ing.-Büro Stengel GmbH). Opened: 22 March 2002. Location: the Lost City area, in the southeast of the park.
A World First in 2002
At the turn of the millennium, the inversion arms race had stalled. Dragon Khan at PortAventura had held the record with eight loops since 1995, and nobody had managed to top it. Thorpe Park – then repositioning itself as the UK’s thrill-seeker destination – commissioned Intamin to break the deadlock, and the legendary engineer Werner Stengel laid out a track that crammed ten inversions into 2,789 feet.
Colossus held the world record from 2002 until May 2013, when The Smiler at Alton Towers arrived with a scarcely believable fourteen inversions. That record still stands today: no coaster anywhere has matched or beaten fourteen inversions since. Even dethroned, Colossus has never fallen far down the list – only The Smiler has more inversions, and the handful of coasters that match its ten are all copies of this exact layout.
The Ride Experience, Element by Element
Colossus wastes no time. After the chain lift climbs to 98 feet, the train drops into a full vertical loop (inversion 1), follows it with a sweeping cobra roll – two inversions in one element (2 and 3) – and then rattles through a double corkscrew (4 and 5). That’s five inversions before the mid-course, and the best-known section is still to come.
The finale is what riders remember: four consecutive clockwise heartline rolls (6 through 9), taken at slow speed along a dead-straight stretch of track barely ten feet above the ground, followed by one final counter-rotating heartline roll (10) that snaps the train toward the brakes. Riders feel up to 4.2g through the loop and the rolls. Ninety-two seconds after dispatch, you’ve been upside down ten times.
Height Requirement, Restraints & Accessibility
Riders must be between 1.4m and 1.96m tall (roughly 4’7″ to 6’5″) to board Colossus, and it uses over-the-shoulder restraints rather than a simple lap bar – standard for an inverting coaster of this type.
Thorpe Park’s accessibility guidance for Colossus requires non-ambulant riders to have full upper body strength, including head and neck control, and riders with limb differences need a minimum of three full limbs. An evacuation chair is available for guests who cannot use the exit stairs.
The Most-Cloned Record Breaker
Intamin catalogued the layout as the Multi Inversion Coaster, and parks around the world ordered it. An exact replica operates as a sister attraction at Chimelong Paradise in Guangzhou, China, while revised versions of the same ten-inversion design run today as Altair at Cinecittà World in Italy, Sik at Flamingo Land in the UK, Crazy Coaster at Loca Joy Holiday Theme Park in China, and Velikolukskiy Myasokombinat-2 at Wonder Island in Russia.
The clones stand slightly taller and run cable lifts, but the inversion sequence is pure Colossus. For Thorpe Park, the ride remains a signature attraction alongside Stealth, Saw – The Ride and Hyperia, and its loops above the lake are still one of the most photographed sights in the park. Thorpe Park has also been repainting Colossus’s track in phases during recent closed seasons, refreshing its colour scheme while keeping the original layout untouched.
Visiting Colossus
Colossus is a year-round fixture at Thorpe Park, though like all the park’s coasters it closes for scheduled maintenance during the UK winter off-season (typically January to March) and can occasionally close for weather or technical reasons on any given day. Opening hours vary seasonally, and ticket pricing is tiered by date, so it’s worth checking availability before you travel.
For current opening times, ticket prices and park map, check the official Thorpe Park website or the ride’s own page at thorpepark.com/rides/colossus.
Soak, snap and drape. A cooling towel takes the edge off a 45-minute midday queue in July.
Park apps, mobile ordering and photos kill a battery by 3 p.m. This one snaps on magnetically, so there's no cable to snag on a restraint.
Ride with your glasses on and keep them. Many parks allow glasses on rides if they're strapped, so check the ride rules first.
Colossus at Thorpe Park FAQs
How many inversions does Colossus at Thorpe Park have?
Colossus has 10 inversions: a vertical loop, a cobra roll, a double corkscrew, four consecutive heartline rolls and one final counter-rotating heartline roll. It was the first roller coaster in the world to reach double digits.
How long did Colossus hold the world inversion record?
Eleven years. Colossus took the record from Dragon Khan (8 inversions) when it opened in March 2002 and held it until The Smiler opened with 14 inversions at Alton Towers in May 2013. The Smiler still holds that record today.
How fast and how tall is Colossus?
Colossus reaches 44.7 mph (72 km/h) from a height of 98.4 ft (30 m), covering 2,788.7 ft (850 m) of track in about a minute and a half, with a maximum force of 4.2g.
How tall do you need to be to ride Colossus?
You need to be at least 1.4m (around 4’7″) and no taller than 1.96m (around 6’5″) to ride, since Colossus uses over-the-shoulder restraints sized for that height range.
Where is Colossus located at Thorpe Park?
Colossus is in the Lost City area, in the southeast section of Thorpe Park, looping over the park’s central lake.
Is Colossus still the world’s most-inverting coaster?
No. Colossus held the record from 2002 to 2013, but The Smiler at Alton Towers has held it since with 14 inversions. Colossus is still tied for second place worldwide, alongside the handful of parks that run copies of its exact layout.
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