Amusement and theme park rides are growing taller, faster and more exciting every year. Each new season another fiendish challenge is unveiled which deserves the title 'White Knuckle Ride'.

Top of the list is the roller coaster, the mainstay of amusement parks since the 1920s, when over two thousand wooden beasts stood in parks across the United States. Several survivors from that era are still operational today, thanks to the devotion of staff and the tireless work of construction and maintenance crews. In recent years sensational modern 'woodies' have been constructed to stand alongside them, and to compete with the new breeds of steel coaster, which feature loops and corkscrews, batwings and boomerangs, cobra rolls and cutbacks. After years of riders being politely requested to remain seated, there are now coasters which require them to stand! Seventy of the best of all types are here, photographed from every angle, in spectacular colour. Alongside the roller coasters, theme park rides have developed in other areas. Water slides, rapids rides, log flumes, dark rides and simulators provide a whole new range of wet and dry thrills. The best of these are here too.

Mark Wyatt's authoritative text accompanies the photographs, supplying information on each ride and explaining the technology.

Nothing can truly compare with taking a ride on one of these thrillers, but this handsome volume comes close!

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