This is an odd little contraption made by ARM. It is essentially a complete knockoff of the Huss Flipper only with fewer cars; a Flipper has 12 cars while Touchdown only has 6. Touchdown is simply a large circular platform with six, 4 person cars attached to it. The cars can spin, and they spin incredibly easily, the slightest nudge will send them spiraling. The whole platform is attached to an arm that lifts to a pretty steep angle. Passengers are secured by a large bulky lapbar.

The Ride

First the platform begins to spin. It doesn’t spin very fast at all, but it’s enough to rotate the cars so they are facing inward. Next the arm rises into position, and the platform is raised to a 60-65 degree angle or so. I found it really uneasy to be at such a steep angle; it’s just so un-natural. The cars, of course, whip around and spin as the weight displacement gets them moving. It’s kind of like a Tilt-a-Whirl only instead of going up and down hills, the cars are rotating around on a steep pitch.

Other Info

One thing I have to address is the name of this ride; Touchdown. There is football paraphernalia (American football that is) all over the backdrop and lights that surround the ride, even the little artwork in the center of the platform is of football helmets. But what the heck does this ride have to do with football?! How does anything that this ride does represent anything at all in football? A Zipper has zipper shaped cars; a Breakdance has a hectic motion not unlike that of a breakdancer, but Touchdown? I guess it’s just one of those weird names that is slapped onto a ride to give it some sort of theme. Kind of like “Insider” which is a traveling Mondial made Shake that is themed to the movie “The Insider.” I have no idea how a Mondial Shake, or any ride for that matter, would have anything to do with that movie at all.

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