SheiKra Up-Front Info
- Thrill Scale (0=Wimpy!, 10=Yikes!): 8.5
Diving features; open, floorless car; aggressive speed; 200-foot height - Coaster type: Floorless diving coaster
- Top speed: 70 mph
- Height restriction: 54 inches
- Angle of descent: 90 degrees
- Drop: 200 feet
- Ride time: 2 minutes, 20 seconds
- SheiKra and Busch Gardens Tampa Photo Gallery
- SheiKra Ride Video
Minimal Cars. Maximum Shiekras, er, Shrieks.
Instead of a train of cars, SheiKra uses single cars that contain three extra-wide rows of eight seats each. To accommodate the wide cars, the tubular steel track is also unusually wide. The "floorless" cars have no floors--or sides or backs. The cars are essentially seats bolted to a chassis. The open design leaves riders especially vulnerable for the ensuing dives.
Although the two back rows offer "stadium seating" and afford good views, the front row features the primo seats. With nothing above, below, or in front of them, the dives are all the more terrifying (in a good way) for those in the first-row.
As with other floorless coasters, once passengers are secured and the ride is cleared for takeoff, the loading platform drops away, and a gate in front of the car swings open with a dramatic flourish.
Hey! There's Tampa and...Eeeeeeaaaaahhhhhh!
Then, eeeeeaaaahhhhh! The 90-degree drop reaches a bone-rattling 70 mph and feels all the more bracing with the open, floorless car. SheiKra soars into a huge "Immelman" loop (a diving loop named for a German army pilot who performed acrobatic maneuvers). It then swoops around, soars heavenward, and slows as it approaches a second 138-foot, 90-degree dive. Instead of hanging over the edge, however, it drops without hesitation and enters into a disorienting, fog-filled tunnel. SheiKra then soars up and down before it skids over a pool of water that sends huge plumes of water spray into the sky and onto midway spectators (but does not douse the riders) before it races back to the station.
Hanging...and Hanging, and Hanging
There's really no wiggle room for wimps to gather up the courage and tackle SheiKra. It's an unapologetic thrill ride that coaster lovers will adore and coaster wimps will avoid--especially coaster wimps who wig out over extreme heights. Hanging...and hanging, and hanging 200 feet in the air certainly adds to the ride's drama. But, with SheiKra's unusual cars, thrilling dives, and water-shooting finale, it does provide quite a spectacle for non-riders to behold.
The park says that a SheiKra is an African hawk that dives down for its prey. SheiKra doesn't attempt to incorporate or convey any kind of story; it's essentially just a thrilling coaster. But oh, what thrills. I consider SheiKra to be among parkdom's top steel coasters.
