Rita: The 25-Second Ride That Broke the Secret Weapon Tradition

Rita: The 25-Second Ride That Broke the Secret Weapon Tradition

Zero to 61mph in 2.5 seconds. More G-force than Oblivion. Over in less than half a minute.

Rita is the shortest major coaster at Alton Towers and arguably the most intense opening at the park. Here's her story — including the day she was renamed after Camilla Parker Bowles.

The Stats

| Opened | 1 April 2005 | | Original name | Rita – Queen of Speed | | Renamed | March 2010 | | Manufacturer | Intamin | | Designer | Werner Stengel | | Type | Accelerator Coaster | | Cost | £8 million | | Height | 21m | | Length | 640m | | Top speed | 61.1mph | | Launch | 0–61mph in 2.5 seconds | | G-force | 4.7 | | Inversions | 0 | | Duration | 25 seconds | | Capacity | 1,150 riders per hour | | Height restriction | 1.4m – 1.95m | | Location | Dark Forest |

She Broke the Secret Weapon Chain

Genuinely notable: Rita was the first thrill coaster at Alton Towers since 1994 not to use a "Secret Weapon" codename.

Nemesis was SW3. Oblivion SW4. Air SW5. Then Rita arrived in 2005 with no codename at all — before TH13TEEN resumed the sequence as SW6 in 2010.

She was also Europe's first Intamin hydraulic launch coaster, and Alton Towers' first launched coaster since the Thunder Looper was removed in 1997.

The Speculation Was Wildly Off

In September 2004, fences went up around Ug Land and the area was stripped — the UG Bugs, Bone Shaker and Lava Lump all removed, leaving only the Corkscrew and UG Swinger standing.

Rumours ranged from a booster bike to a wooden coaster.

What arrived was a hydraulic launch coaster nobody had predicted, built essentially on top of the existing Ug Land, with parts painted green to camouflage the structure among the trees.

Construction ran late. She missed the start of the 2005 season, opening on 1 April.

The Camilla Stunt

One week after opening, on 8 April 2005, the ride was temporarily renamed "Camilla – Queen of Speed" as a PR stunt marking the marriage of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker Bowles.

It's a genuinely strange piece of theme park history, and exactly the kind of thing mid-2000s marketing departments did without hesitation.

How the Launch Actually Works

Rita uses a hydraulic launch system — the technology Intamin pioneered and that the manufacturer is best known for, covered elsewhere on this site.

Rather than a chain lift dragging you up a hill, hydraulic pressure accelerates the train from a standing start via a catch car and cable. The result is instant, brutal acceleration with no build-up.

Brake fins line the launch track with hydraulic pistons, designed to slow the train safely in the event of a rollback — where insufficient launch force leaves the train unable to complete the circuit.

At 4.7G, Rita pulls more than Oblivion's 4.5G. For a ride widely dismissed as minor, that's worth knowing.

The Layout

The train races forward from the station, hits 61mph in 2.5 seconds, then negotiates high-speed corners and airtime hills in a figure-of-eight layout before reaching a brake run parallel to the station.

No inversions. No lift hill. Twenty-five seconds, start to finish.

From Drag Racing to Dark Forest

Rita opened themed loosely around drag racing, as the centrepiece of "Ug Land and the Thunder Rock Rally" — a genuinely odd pairing of prehistoric theming with motorsport.

In March 2010, Ug Land became Dark Forest to match the arrival of TH13TEEN. Rita dropped the "Queen of Speed" suffix and received a retheme covering the entrance, queue line, station, control room and cars.

Her story changed with it: no longer a drag racer, but an abandoned drag racer serving as the escape cart from the Dark Forest.

One enthusiast account of the retheme is memorably unimpressed, describing it as involving two cans of 1974 Ford British Burgundy spray paint, twelve mutilated artificial Christmas trees and a glue gun.

She received significant TLC in 2016.

The Launch Cable Incidents

Worth including honestly: Rita's launch cable has snapped during morning testing on at least two occasions — in 2005, and again on 24 July 2012.

Both incidents occurred during testing with empty trains, before the ride opened to guests. Launch cables are a known wear component on hydraulic launch systems, which is precisely why they're tested daily before operation.

Is It Worth Queuing For?

Honestly, that depends entirely on the queue.

The case against: 25 seconds is genuinely brief. Capacity is 1,150 riders per hour — lower than most major rides at the park. Queues can feel disproportionate to the payoff.

The case for: the launch is the single most intense two and a half seconds at Alton Towers. Nothing else at the park does instant acceleration, and at 4.7G she out-pulls Oblivion.

Practical answer: ride her when the queue is under 20 minutes. Otherwise, prioritise longer rides and come back later.

Practical Tips

Height restriction: 1.4m minimum, 1.95m maximum — genuinely worth noting for tall riders.

Front row for the clearest view into the launch.

Back row for the strongest snap off the line.

Fastrack available.

Ride early or late — the low throughput means queues build fast in the middle of the day.

The Verdict

Rita is a one-trick ride, and the trick lasts under three seconds.

But it's a genuinely excellent trick, and twenty years on, nothing else at Alton Towers replicates it.