The historic Montezooma’s Revenge at Knott’s Berry Farm that was the first looping roller coaster for many kids in the 1970s and ‘80s has been reimagined for a new generation of young riders — and nostalgic fans — after four years of start-and-stop work.
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Six Flags invested more than $20 million in the Montezooma: The Forbidden Fortress coaster set to officially debut on Monday, July 20, according to Knott’s Berry Farm Park President Raffi Kaprelyan.
“It’s like a brand new ride now,” Kaprelyan said during an interview on the Montezooma station platform. “It still has a historic feel. We wanted to maintain that.”
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Montezooma: The Forbidden Fortress could soft open this weekend at the Buena Park theme park, according to Knott’s officials.
“I’m excited about the ride,” said Kaprelyan, who worked as a ride operator on Montezooma’s Revenge in the early 1980s. “Everybody says they can hardly wait to get on the ride.”
Knott’s employees rode the new Montezooma coaster on Wednesday, July 15 while production crews filmed a television commercial for the ride.
The original 1978 Schwarzkopf flywheel-launch coaster featured a single train that traveled forward and backward on an 800-foot-long shuttle track with a 76-foot-tall vertical loop. American Coaster Enthusiasts designated the original Montezooma coaster a historic landmark as the last operating ride of its kind in the United States and the longest standing in its original location.
The reimagined Montezooma: The Forbidden Fortress boasts a new coaster train, electromagnetic launch system, track, supports and backstory. The station house remains the only original part of the ride.
The redesigned Montezooma coaster train departs from a rethemed station that has been reimagined as an architectural cousin of the Mayan stone temple housing the Jaguar coaster next door. Montezooma riders pass through a fanged-toothed portal with smoke and lighting effects.
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Knott’s employees who rode the new Montezooma coaster said it was fast, smooth and quiet.
Kaprelyan said the ride will get even quieter when crews eventually swap out the nylon wheels for urethane.
The new coaster is capable of forward, backward and random launches, but Knott’s will start with only the traditional forward launch when the ride debuts.
“The cool thing is we’ve got the opportunity down the road,” Kaprelyan said.
The new Montezooma: The Forbidden Fortress coaster starts with a forward launch through the single loop and up the far spike before racing backward down the spike and through the loop again in the opposite direction. The relatively short 35-second ride concludes with a backward race through the station and up the rear spike before returning to the station.
The new linear synchronous motor launch system rockets riders forward at 55 mph while electromagnetic fins assist with the braking.
Netherlands-based ride renovator Kumbak worked on the Montezooma renovation. Kumbak has previously teamed with European theme parks Efteling, Walibi and Bakken.
“They’ve done a lot of retrofits on other rides,” Kaprelyan said. “This is the first time they built something like this.”
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Manufacturing delays reverberating from the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the slow progress on the makeover of the Montezooma coaster that closed in January 2022.
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