Viper (Darien Lake) 3.14

Viper is a steel looping roller coaster located at Darien Lake Amusement Park near Buffalo, New York. This was the first large ride at the park and the first roller coaster of its type anywhere in the world to have five inversions. The ride was built by the newly merged Arrow Huss. It opened in 1982, and still operates to this day. The coaster opened with the potential of running three trains at once, but only one or two trains are necessary for maintaining a steady operation of the coaster. The coaster's trains include seven cars; riders are two across with two rows in each car. The track was originally all black, but it was repainted to a green track with black supports when Six Flags took over Darien Lake. In 2010, Darien Lake painted the Viper all black again.The trains on Viper were once color coded blue, red, and yellow. In 2013, the trains were given green vinyl wraps. One train had an orange stripe, and another had a blue stripe. The third train was disassembled and used for spare parts for the two other trains. Currently, Viper only runs with one train with the two trains switching out every year. Viper at Darien Lake was the first coaster in the world with five inversions, succeeding the previous record holder, Carolina Cyclone at Carowinds. The ride had the most inversions of any coaster in the world until 1987 when Arrow Dynamics built Vortex at Kings Island.