El Toro (Six Flags Great Adventure)

Wooden roller coaster

El Toro (Spanish for The Bull) is a wooden roller coaster located at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey. Designed by Werner Stengel and manufactured by Intamin, the ride opened to the public on June 11, 2006. Intamin subcontracted Rocky Mountain Construction to build the ride, and the coaster's track was prefabricated, allowing for quicker installation and lower construction costs. El Toro is the main attraction of the Mexican themed section of the park, Plaza Del Carnaval. It replaced another roller coaster, Viper, which closed following the 2004 season. When it opened, El Toro had the steepest drop of any wooden roller coaster in the world at 76 degrees, a record that was later broken by T Express at Everland in 2008. Among wooden coasters, its height of 181 feet (55 m) ranks fourth, its drop height of 176 feet (54 m) ranks second, and its maximum speed of ranks third. The coaster has been well received, and with the exception of its first two years of operation, has consistently ranked in the top three of the annual Golden Ticket Awards publication from Amusement Today.

El Toro sits on the former site of Viper, which closed in 2004. All components of Viper were removed in early 2005, except for the station. Al Rubano, the director of Six Flags Great Adventure's construction committee, oversaw the ride's construction. The lift hill was topped out on December 20, 2005, at a height of 188 feet (57 m). The ride had a surprise opening on June 11, then held its grand opening on June 12. El Toro uses the same station as Viper, the coaster that formerly stood on the site.

El Toro carries a Mexican theme, and its name translates to "The bull" in Spanish. The ride's queue is surrounded by Southwestern style buildings of Plaza del Carnaval, and it features abandoned "wagon wheels" and Spanish posters along a wall separating the queue from the ride. After coming down the drop, the train snakes through twists and turns. After coming out of the twister section, the train slows down as it moves through small "S" curve camelback hills and into the brake run.

El Toro operates two trains, labeled A and B, each with six cars per train. Riders are arranged two across in three rows for a total of 36 riders per train. It has a theoretical capacity of 1,200 guests per hour. The trains have padded "wings" at shoulder level to prevent riders from being injured during moments of strong lateral forces.

The wooden track is approximately 4400 feet (1341 m) in length, and the height of the lift is approximately 181 feet (55 m). Instead of carpenters cutting, shaping, and laying down the track on site by hand, the track is laser cut in a factory. This means that the track is manufactured to a higher degree of precision than could be achieved by hand. The "Plug and Play" aspect of the coaster speeds its construction, since track does not have to be completely manufactured on site. In addition, because of the speed of construction, the costs of building the coaster are lowered due to fewer man hours spent on its construction. The riders are subject to a coaster whose track is as smooth as steel. El Toro is the first Intamin "Plug and Play" (Pre Fab) wooden roller coaster in the United States and one of four in the world. The other three are Colossos at Heide Park in Germany, Balder at Liseberg in Sweden, and T Express at Everland in South Korea.

When El Toro debuted, it broke records as the second tallest and fastest with the second longest drop of a wooden roller coaster in the United States. as of 2023, El Toro is the third fastest wooden roller coaster in the world with a maximum speed of It is also the third tallest with the second longest drop among wooden coasters.

After suffering a malfunctioning lift motor in early August 2013, El Toro was closed for several weeks. The motor was sent to Intamin's American headquarters in Maryland for repairs. On June 29, 2021, a train partially derailed after the rear car's up stop wheels—which sit underneath the train and below the track—moved out of place to the top of the track. The cause of the incident was not released publicly (as the information was considered "proprietary"), but all riders were able to safely exit the ride. El Toro was closed for most of Six Flags Great Adventure's 2021 operating season, pending the outcome of an investigation from Intamin. In early 2022, it was announced that El Toro would reopen on April 2, 2022. On August 25, 2022, a malfunction occurred near the end of the ride, causing minor injuries to 14 riders, with five taken to a nearby hospital. The park closed the ride indefinitely, pending an investigation into the incident. An anonymous ride operator alleged that issues from previous incidents had not been fixed, saying in an interview with WCBS TV: "The employees keep telling them that there is an issue with the pothole and maintenance has done nothing about it." In September 2022, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) said El Toro was "structurally compromised", which would force El Toro to remain closed indefinitely. The DCA said it would also conduct an engineering review of El Toro and consult with Intamin. and it reopened on June 17, 2023.

When the ride debuted, it ranked 3rd for "Best New Ride of 2006" in the Golden Ticket Awards.