Wildcats Revenge is an astonishing ride at Hersheypark. This ride was originally known as Wildcat, and was made by GCI, or Great Coasters International. This was the company’s first roller coaster that they ever manufactured, costing 5 million dollars. The ride opened in 1996 and was a success for the park. It was known as a “twister” coaster because it consisted of a twister type layout rather than your normal classic layout that consists of a turn and airtime hill. Wildcat had a height of 106 feet and reached speeds of 50 miles per hour. This was a world class ride for Hershey, however this wouldn’t last very long.
As the years went on, the ride started to become very rough. This was due to the fact that GCI used PTC trains, which are very heavy trains, because the company didn’t have their own trains yet. This caused the structure of the ride to weaken quicker than anticipated. In 2007 the park purchased new Millennium flyer trains from GCI, which were lighter trains. This helped the ride age slower than before, but it was still rough. In July of 2022 the park announced that Wilcat would be permanently closing Wildcat July 31st of that year. Park goers started to speculate that the ride would be re-done by RMC, also known as Rocky Mountain Construction. Until then, people waited and waited for an announcement until November came.
On November 2, 2022, Hershey announced that RMC would be converting Wildcat into Wildcat’s Revenge. This company takes old wooden coasters and uses some of their existing structure to save cost on the ride. They use their I-Box track and engineering to improve the ride’s smoothness and make the ride great again. The ride was said to be 140 feet, go 62 mph, and have a track length of over 3,500 feet. The ride opened June 2, 2023, and was a game changer for the park. I rode this a couple days before opening to the public and I was shocked. It was a very smooth ride and a successor to the original Wildcat. First came the drop out the station and a little pre section before the lift hill. After the 82 degree drop came the step up underflip, after that inversion came a massive airtime hill giving excellent ejector airtime. Then came a step up into a huge wave turn that leads into a stall giving great hangtime. Then came another wave turn that was close to the ground, up into a sideways double-down that leads into a tight downwards zero-g roll. That leads into a high banked turn right into another tight zero-g roll under the previous one. Then there’s a half sideways airtime hill that leads up into the break run. This ride is the best at the park and is even considered a top 10 ride in the world.