Special Features: SheiKra... now available in floorless

Posted at 5:04 PM EDT (2104 GMT)

Jun. 16th, 2007 -- How do you take something away from the best coaster in Florida and manage to make it better? Just ask Mark Rose, Vice President of Design and Engineering at Busch Gardens Africa. He and his team took SheiKra and kicked it up a notch by slicing out the floor.

SheiKra opened back in 2005 to the delight of coaster enthusiasts all over North America. Busch Gardens brought the first Bolliger and Mabillard Dive Machine to the States and took it several steps beyond England's Oblivion by adding an inversion and a second drop. The ride takes its passengers up 200 feet and straight back down into an immelmann loop. It then whips around through a midcourse and drops its riders down a second 138-foot drop into a tunnel. Finally, the riders plunge into water finale, drenching nearby onlookers.

When the ride opened for the press yesterday, all of those elements were still present. The one thing that was missing was the floor. It took three weeks to retrofit SheiKra's cars with a new chassis to support the floorless design.

After a brief announcement from Dan Brown, the parks Executive Vice President and General Manager, he turned all attention to a plasma screen TV. An image of Mark Rose aboard SheiKra popped up with Rose narrating his entire ride, live. Busch Gardens mounted several video cameras all throughout SheiKra's train to capture the new floorless experience. I had a chance to try out the new SheiKra in the video hot seat and have the footage to share with you. Check it out!

Overall, the basic feel of SheiKra is unchanged… but if you decide to give it a whirl in the front row, prepare yourself for those drops. You will be hanging 90 degrees straight down with absolutely nothing in front of you. If you have ridden SheiKra already, I recommend getting back out as soon as possible to give the new floorless version a try. If you have never ridden SheiKra, what are you waiting for? Hurry up and get out to Busch Gardens Africa to give America's first dive coaster a spin.

I would like to thank everyone at Busch Gardens for having us for this awesome event. I would especially like to thank our media escort Tom who was especially helpful.

For photos, check out or database gallery.

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