Anybody who has been to a large fair has probably seen this tough to handle Larson International made abomination. Ring of Fire (aka. Ring of Rust,) is the quintessential ‘major’ carnie ride, and also the model White Trash Carnie Ride…Ring of Fire has the look that all other white trash rides strive to accomplish.
Basically, Ring of Fire is a large steel ring with a small train that is attached to a moving track. The track is sort of like a steel conveyor belt that spans the entire inside of the ring. The track is moved by hydraulic motors and rolls along rollers positioned all along the inside of the loop. Those rollers make the Ring of Fire’s characteristic clanky roaring sound.
During setup, the loop structure unfolds from the trailor and is then fastened at the top. Cables span the structure of the loop to keep it structurally sound. If the carnival wants to make it look cheesy, they can put those little multicolored pennants along the cables.
The Ride
Hey! Multicolored pennants!
A ride on Ring of Fire truly is horrible. I’m not saying that to make this review more humorous either; it really is awful, terrible, and even a bit disgusting. This is the account of my first, and probably last, Ring of Fire ride:
In July of 2005, I went to the Meadowlands Fair in East Rutherford, NJ with two of my cousins. After a day of rides, my cousin and I decided to ride Ring of Fire (the same exact one in the photo.) I mostly wanted to ride it because I heard it was terrible, and wanted to experience it first hand out of morbid curiosity. This particular Ring of Fire actually looked pretty decent with a new blackfinish and withat least 80%of the lightsworking with coolsequences.
We walked up the ramp, showed the ride op our handstamps, and proceeded to one of the seats. When I got to the seat, I was surprised to find that the compartment was about 3 1/2 feet wide, and about 2 feet front to back! It was smaller than hell! We crammed ourselves into the seat, and then waited like 10 minutes for all the other riders to load. During the 10 minutes, we noticed the total obliviousnous that people had to the 2 riders per seat rule, even though ride op and numerous signs had made the point clear. We also noticed the stagnant water smell that permiated the car, which of course means that someone had puked there in the not so far past.
The actual Ring of Fire in the story
Finally, the ride up closed the restraints, which are these giant padded lapbars that close downward. Once closed, the 2 steel bars that hold the bar in place are seriously no more than 8 inches away from your face. The op then closed the doors, pinning us in our cell for the next few minutes.
The train rocked back and forth quite a few times in attempt to complete a loop. To my absolute surprise, the ride was fairly smooth! During one of the final swings, some person’s pants button hit me in the face. I grabbed it somehow, and held onto it, contemplating what to do with it. After a couple of loops I simply chucked it into an unoccupied section of parking lot; hell it wasn’t mine so why care! I then started to get a bit nauseous; I had to close my eyes eventually so I wouldn’t get sick. Luckily the ride ended quickly, and I sort of stumbled out of the car because it’s damn near impossible to get out of that tiny seat in one clean motion.
Other Info
The evolution of Ring of Fire ride is as follows:
For the exception of the last two, the other 3 creations have one thing in common…they are all White Trash Carnie Rides!
Information found at: http://www.larsonintl.com/about.htm
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ive ridden the fireball b4 and its like an o.k. ride but i perfer the zipper lol and sometimes when you go on and they like hold you upside down for like 15 secs or so you start to black out lol but its an ok ride so watev
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I like the ring of fire, minus the feeling of falling out of my seat, and my head nearly hitting the roof. The fire ball is much better though, because the harness eliminates the falling out and the open roof allows for a better view.
The first time I went on it no one else wanted to so I was all by myself. When the restraints came down I tested them. They came up. I used the middle buckle but still it came up enough that I could possibly fall out. I kept testing them right until it took off and still, it gave. What I realized from riding it again at another fair later on is that the restraints don’t lock until the ride starts moving. Unknown to me at the time I spent the whole ride in terror, holding on as tight as I could to lord-knows-what and bracing my body in a way I hoped would keep me from slipping to my death.
I`ve never riden that, I`d like so much too, but here in Brazil, only one park has one: Tupã in Porto Alegre and other cities in RS. Here where I ive I can`t find it.
I think it`s lke an Enterprise (the way it spins), could be delightful.
I rode the Super Loop once by myself, back in the 70′s when I was a kid. I was fine until it stopped at the top for several seconds, I seriously thought I was going to fall out. I don’t think the old one had as much stuff to keep you in it like the new model. I just remember straining to hold on to the lap bar when it stopped upside down and praying that the operator would move the damn thing. I remember hearing change falling out of people’s pockets and hitting different parts of the ride. People used to say the carnies stopped it upside down on purpose so they could shake all the change out of peoples pockets and then pick it up after closing. Of course I don’t believe that now, but I did when I was a kid. I also remember thinking it looked flimsy like a gust of wind could knock the whole thing over. It had a bunch of cables to keep it stable. I’m suprised that ride is still around.
Oh no, you were correct. The carnies most definitely try to shake loose the change… You’d be suprised how much stuff is found on rides. People get so wiped out and can’t wait to get off these things and they totally forget to check for lost items.
yep, it is an o.k ride. I have rode it 3 times, the first time i was on it with some drunks, i just knew it was gonna happen the one behind me threw up, luckily it missed me. I liked hanging upside down for those 15 seconds though.
For one reason or another (one reason being that I first encountered this ride when I was about seven and chickened out of riding it), I’ve never actually been on one of these, but I’ve always had a morbid fascination with them. My tolerance for unidirectional spinning has sadly declined over the years, but I am determined to cross this one off the list. No doubt I will pay dearly for my earlier cowardice, as this contraption looks like it would rate very high on the vomit index.
You’re not really missing too much; it’s really just like any looping ride only it has a slight rattle from being on a track along with horribly tight riding compartments. But I understand the appeal of getting on one; it’s kind of like how I want to get on a Rotor even though a Gravitron pretty much trumps it.
BTW, it’s nice to see you around! Too bad TPC is basically a ghost town nowadays.