The Footprints of King Kobra
In the off season Will and I were taken on a ride back stage, so John Pagel could give us a good view of Lake Charles drained. When we were back stage standing under the Anaconda we saw something interesting. Footers that are still there for the King Kobra roller coaster.
The King Kobra was a Schwarzkopf shuttle loop coaster that used to stand on the same spot as the Anaconda life hill on the shores of what used to be a very large Lake Charles. Kings Dominion opened in 1975 with 15 rides. Two years later in 1977 they opened the King Kobra. This was Kings Dominions fourth
roller coaster. The coaster had a 9 year run, and closed in 1986. The spot remained empty until 1991 when Arrow Dynamics was hired to build the Anaconda roller coaster. When the coaster was removed from the park it moved around to several amusement parks like Jolly Rogers and Alton Towers. You can now find the coaster in Brazil at Hopi Hari, its name Katapul.
Kings Dominion has a very large back stage area that has a lot of different rides in what is called there ride grave yard. So when we were back at the Anaconda, it was really cool to be able to take a few picture of what is left of the Kings Kobra.Pictures of King Kobra Footers
Pictures of King Kobra at Kings Dominion are from Roller Coaster Database
Labels: Anaconda, Clint Novak, King Kobra, Lake Charels
Posted at 6/24/2009 02:43:00 PM
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I can attest the King Kobra was a maintenance & engineering headache. The brakes needed continual adjustment when it got really humid or it would stop out of position, and we would have to push it into launch position. At one of the British parks it violated a noise ordinance (over 50 db) and had to be dismantled and sold. It got no respect...