Timber – here comes Walibi’s new woodie!

Some ingenious lumberjacks have been scratching their heads figuring out how to cut wood quickly and easily in the forests around the French amusement park Walibi Rhône-Alpes, or so the story goes. This coming spring they will be get the ultimate weapon, courtesy of the Gravity Group.

Timber! will be the park’s first wooden coaster, flying through the woods at up to 56km/h. The 446m-long (1,464ft) ride will feature a first drop of 16/7m (55ft), maximum banking of 59o and 11 moments of airtime plus interaction with surrounding rides including the wild mouse coaster Scratch. Two 12-passenger Timberliner trains will be provided on Timber!, each with a rotating blade on the front as part of the ride’s eye-catching theming.

Walibi Rhone-Alpes’ Luc De Roo (left) samples the new train alongside Korey Kiepert from the Gravity Group

“It will offer a combination of a twister coaster and out-and-back,” Walibi Rhône-Alpes director general Luc De Roo tells Park World. “It’s a good compromise between thrill ride and family ride, and will offer a lot of different sensations for our visitors. We chose the Gravity Group because of the unique layout that Korey [Kieppert] offered to design for us.”

De Roo adds that Timber! represents the start of a new period of growth for the Compagnies des Alpes (CdA) operated park, which is located between the city of Lyon and the French Alps.

“Attendance was up 10% last year, and with this we expect a bit more, but we are being conservative because the political situation is still a little stressed at the moment in France.”

Timber! will be the anchor attraction of a new Canadian-style adventure area launched for 2016, where it will be joined by a new food & beverage operation, shop, photo booth and Zamperla Barnyard ride. Theming will be completed in-house by the design department of CdA.

Catch up with the ride’s progress on Walibi Rhône-Alpes’ official Facebook page