Iron Rattler Review
10 years on, Iron Rattler has been the leading attraction at Six Flags Fiesta Texas since opening in 2013. This was the first Hybrid coaster by Rocky Mountain Construction to feature an inversion, of which is a standard inclusion in all of their modern creations.
The coaster was a conversion of the previous Rattler which was known as being unpopular and painful. This coaster saw the main drop off the quarry wall change from 166ft to just 124ft as they kept re-profiling in order to increase rider enjoyment and safety. Lucky for us, the genius of Alan Shilke and RMC began the conversion process after the very successful start to their partnership with Six Flags and New Texas Giant located at Fiesta Texas’s sister park Over Texas.
The size of the drop increased a further 5ft from the original design taking the new steel hybrid to 171ft off the quarry wall. To this date, I have always sworn on Expedition GeForce to have the best drop in the world, until I rode Iron Rattler. The setting, the banking, the turning at the bottom of the drop is perfect. Having to fit into the park with the terrain has moved this to the top of my list for best first drop in the world.
A double up, another drop of the quarry and then the first inversion on an RMC follows as it flips you back up on the quarry wall. The part on top of the quarry is not full out RMC madness but is an enjoyable ride before throwing you back of that quarry wall for another highlight of the coaster. This huge drop picks that speed back up and is an incredible feeling as you go through the dark in a tunnel and into the brake run.
Having described the entire ride experience in only two paragraphs, it is obvious that this is a very short ride. The coaster itself is almost 2,000ft shorter than the original. Admittedly the original had a boring helix on top of the quarry but after the tunnel finale kept on going for more before hitting the final brake run which is what I wish Iron Rattler did.
Because of the quality over quantity aspects, I still love this ride. The first drop and the huge drop of the quarry wall was fantastic. Plus the Gerstlauer trains are so much more comfortable than the RMC in house trains. When we visited, Iron Rattler was only operating with one train and the queues were at times around the 2 hours mark. But good news, the park has just received a third train so that the coaster can continue to operate at maximum capacity throughout the year. This is a fantastic move by Fiesta Texas which makes this in my opinion the best operated park in the Six Flags chain.
The coaster also represented a milestone for both Gabby and myself. This was credit 200 for Gabby and RMC number 10 for me. Becasue of this, the coaster will always keep a special place in both our hearts.
Iron Rattler just misses out on my top 10, if this was a longer experience, I could easily put this as a top 5 but the only reason I rate this so much is for the two drops. The coaster continued to pave the way for RMC in the coaster industry as more inversions were added in the later models and to this day, the coaster still sits as a top tier RMC staying at number 5 out of the 15 I have ridden.
