There are only a few roller coasters in the world with such a spectacular construction history as Conny-Lands Cobra roller coaster. Europe’s biggest linear roller coaster was originally planned to open in the 2007 season but due to delays and manufacturing issues the roller coaster finally opened to the public in the 2010 season. 3 years later than expected, just to get dismantled at the end of the season to receive a complete reworked track by Stakotra, the company that produces the tracks for Intamin.
Since the 2011 Season the roller coaster did not undergo any major changes or improvements and stood as the highest and fastest roller coaster in Switzerland to this day.
For the 2020 Season Conny-Land decided to completely replace Cobras trains with new ride vehicles manufactured by sunkid Heege a German year-round provider of free-time attractions focused on family attractions.
Originally those new trains should have debut at the 2020 season start in early April but due to the COVID-19 situation season start got pushed back to the 6th June 2020.
The new dark red seats feature a comfortable ride experience due to the new lab bar restraint design incoperating a chest harness system which ensures a tight fit, which makes the portions of the ride in which passengers hang upside down way more comfortable than before.
One of the biggest complaints about the old restraint system was the fact that the shoulder restraints even though they had padding on it were rather hard. This combined with the fact that cobra had a tendency to throw passengers around in their seats made up a somewhat rough and sometimes unpleasant ride experience.
From riding the new seat design and especially the in my opinion very comfortable chest harness restraint system I can tell that the ride is way more pleasant now than it was back in 2016 when I last rode it.
Not only did the seat and restraint design change but the entire car configuration changed as well. While the old train featured a more traditional “all-forward-facing” coaster car configuration, which is typical for roller coasters. The new train features 3 cars with a configuration in which passengers face each other. This configuration allows for a complete new experience which was surprisingly refreshing.
To make room for this new car configuration the train lost one row of seating. The old train featured a 9 forward facing rows with two seats each. The new train however counts one row less with only 8 rows of two seats.
The front car, as well as the rear car feature a strictly forward facing row while the 3 cars between feature the mentioned 2 rows with 2 seats face each other.
It is very refreshing to see new things happening in the Swiss theme park world. Those new trains for Cobra are not only a good sign for that roller coaster it also shows that Conny-Land is committed to push the experience for their guests. Especially with the rumored upcoming new indoor roller coaster for 2021 we have quite a lot to look forward to.