Giant Inverted Boomerang

Déjà Vu
Déjà Vu at Six Flags Over Georgia is one of four Giant Inverted Boomerangs
Manufacturer	[[Vekoma]]
Capacity	870 riders per hour
Duration	1 min 32 sec

Déjà Vu is a steel roller coaster located at three Six Flags theme parks: Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, Six Flags Over Georgia in Austell, Georgia, and Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois. These rides are modified versions of Vekoma's popular Boomerang roller coasters. Slated to open for the 2001 season at the three Six Flags parks, sudden errors and malfunctions occurred during testing. Oftentime, the trains would "valley" between segments of the rides and the vertical lift hill was not reliable. The rides finally opened in August, September, and October of 2001.

Déjà Vu is a departure from Vekoma's earlier Boomerang designs. These versions of the ride feature a vertical chain-driven lift hill that slowly lifts the train up a vertical spike. Also, these rides are bigger than previous Boomerang designs. Another modification was using 4-across seating, similar to what Bolliger and Mabillard's Inverted roller coasters use. However, the seating on Déjà Vu is "staggerd" such that the outside seats are pushed back slightly behind the middle two seats in each row.

Enthusiasts often angrily criticize these rides due to the constant downtime and reliability issues. However, this coaster design was not a success for Vekoma. Six Flags purchased four of these rides in 2001 (the three Déjà Vu coasters in America and Stunt Fall at Warner Bros. Movie World Madrid in Madrid, Spain). Due to the reliability issues of the existing rides, the product was considered a flop for Vekoma compared to the success of the base-design Boomerang.

When Six Flags ordered their four Giant Inverted Boomerangs, Stunt Fall was the last to installed. When Six Flags saw the issues that the first three had, they allowed Vekoma to go and work out all of the problems before installation. This is why Stunt Fall Ran on a more consistent basis. Vekoma has since implemented this system on their other three GIB's. Now all of these coasters run on a regular basis.

During initial testing on Six Flags Over Georgia's Deja Vu, the catch car (a little device that catches and holds the train) on Tower One derailed, breaking parts and destroying the components of the train beyond economical repair. The ride got a new train, the one that was originally supposed to go to Stunt Fall.

Because of the problems with Deja Vu at the three parks, Six Flags has stopped purchacing rides from Vekoma, the rides were also so costly that they drove Vekoma into bankruptcy (however they have since emerged from bankruptcty).

Layout and Experience

The ride begins when the train slowly backs out of the station on to the vertical lift hill. Once reaching the top of the lift, the train goes through the station and heads into the Cobra Roll (Also sometimes called a Butterfly Roll) inversion. This element contains two of the three inversions found on the ride. After twisting through the Cobra Roll inversion, riders then go through a single vertical loop and hit the second vertical spike of the ride. Riders then go up the second vertical tower. After the train reaches the top of the tower, it is released to coast backward through the layout. The train then goes through the station and heads up the vertical lift hill again. The ride then slows down and stops at the station, dazzling riders after having a flashback of Déjà Vu.

External links

• Listing of Giant Inverted Boomerang roller coasters at RCDB