Worlds of Fun
Kansas City, Missouri
Halloween Haunt
October 9, 2022
Page Three



To see a larger version of any of the photos in this trip report just click on the photo and a larger version will open up on top of the page for you.



After crossing through Europa into Africa it was nice to see the park promoting the rebirth of the Zambezi Zinger.



They even had the sign up on the queue house from the original ride that is going to be used once again.  For those who do not know the history of Worlds of Fun the park opened in 1973 with a Schwarzkopf Speed Racer coaster called the Zambezi Zinger.  Like The Whizzer at Six Flags Great America, which is the last Speed Racer in North America the Zambezi Zinger featured bench seating, a spiral lift hill and lots of low to the ground high speed runs.  Unfortunately the park made the decision to retire the much beloved ride in 1997 where it was purchased by a park in Columbia where it runs to this day. 

When Worlds of Fun started working on something for the parks 50th anniversary in 2023 they decided to revisit the classics from the past and decided to build not a duplicate of the Zinger but a ride inspired by it.  As a result in 2023 we get a reborn Zambezi Zinger which will be a wooden coaster with some steel track. 



With the Zinger coming next year and Worlds of Fun turning to bringing the story of Around the World in Eighty Days back top the theme of the park there has been a lot of work on little touches around the African section like this mummy statue or how they have painted up some of the retaining wall bricks to go along with the Egyptian theme of the area around Fury of the Nisle.



As insanely good as Mamba was for ACE Around the World earlier this year I was more than a little excited to spend some more time on this coaster.



Worlds of Fun, in the process of maintaining the ride for the long term, had Mamba's ride control systems rebuilt over the winter.  The coaster, when it opened in 1999, used three trains and had the control system programmed accordingly which resulted in the mid course brake slowing the train significantly for the return run .  This had the affect of reducing any airtime.  Worlds of Fun hasn't needed three trains on Mamba in decades so they took this opportunity to program the ride accordingly.  The result is that you clear the lift going a little faster which adds speed to the ride and a mid course brake that barely slows it which gives world class ejector airtime over every hill on the return run.  Mamba went from being a good coaster to really one of the best.  At the least it is a top 50 coaster (I have 560 coasters to my count) and probably a top 20 if I sat down and ranked them all.



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Paul B. Drabek