page_title: Tower of Terror II
section_title: Escape Pod
hierarchical_section_title: Tower of Terror II / History / Original ride / Escape Pod
caption_attribution_description: English: The original Tower of Terror Escape Pod. The Escape Pod (vehicle) can be seen part way up the tower. The Escape Pod was decommissioned in 2010 when a new vehicle with backwards facing seats was installed.
context_page_description: The Tower of Terror II was a steel shuttle roller coaster located at the Dreamworld amusement park on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. When the Tower of Terror opened on 23 January 1997, it was the first roller coaster in the world to reach 100 miles per hour speeds making it the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world of its time. The ride was situated on the Dreamworld Tower which also houses The Giant Drop free fall ride. The ride was originally known as the Tower of Terror until it was modified and relaunched in September 2010.
  The steel and concrete structure cost A$16 million to construct. The original ride featured a shorter, 80-metre tunnel, a rigid lap bar using a hydraulic locking system and would carry 15 passengers at a time.
  The relaunched ride takes 14 passengers. It propels passengers to just under 161 kilometres per hour with a maximum of 4.5 g and 6.5 seconds of weightlessness. As of 2010, the ride was 4th in the tallest roller coaster rankings, 3rd in the tallest roller coaster drop rankings and 4th in the fastest roller coaster rankings.
context_section_description: The first steel passenger vehicle, known as the Escape Pod, would carry 15 passengers in four rows and weighed around 6 metric tons (5.9 long tons; 6.6 short tons). The car was equipped with four large steel road wheels that run on the track, measuring 600 millimetres (24 in) in diameter at the front and 900 millimetres (35 in) at the rear. Smaller jockey wheels run on the other side of the track such that the track sits between the pairs of wheels.
  The original Tower of Terror's restraint system consisted of a thick, rigid lap bar with hand grips mounted to the lap bar.
  These restraints used a hydraulic locking system (rather than a ratchet) which allowed them to be pulled down to any position; when "locked", they could move down to any position but not up. In contrast, a ratchet-based restraint only locks at each "notch", and will often be too loose or uncomfortably tight for riders. The minimum height restriction was 120 centimetres (47 in), the same as most other major coasters. In addition, it was actually possible for a rider to be too tall to ride the Tower of Terror, if they are over 200 centimetres (79 in) tall.
caption: The original Escape Pod launching up the Dreamworld Tower.
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