The Italian ride manufacturers behind Coney Island’s newest amusement park say they will try out their latest scream machines right here in Brooklyn, making local thrill seekers either test pilots or guinea pigs.
“We’re basically putting everything at the limits of what you can do with a regular human body,” Central Amusement International President & CEO Valerio Ferrari said this week. “Our goal is to bring prototypes to the market at our own park first to make sure everything is working fine.”
Ferrari describes one of the new rides — Air Race — as a “corkscrewing” aerial simulator capable of subjecting its riders to up to four gs.
“It’s going to be quite the ride,” Ferrari said.
According to Ferrari, some of Zamperla’s newest rides are actually based on concepts pioneered in Coney Island 100 years ago.
“For us it’s like coming full circle,” he said. “The manufacturers are back to where they belong in Coney island.”
Next year, four more Zamperla thrill rides are expected to debut in a new section of the Coney Island amusement district called the “Scream Zone.”
The company, an offshoot of Italian ride manufacturer Zamperla, has a 10-year lease with the city to operate the amusement park on Surf Avenue in Coney Island. They plan to introduce at least one new ride in Brooklyn every year over the next decade.
Central Amusements already operates Victorian Gardens, a venue in Manhattan which features kiddie rides — where g force is usually not a factor.
