Green Lantern roller coaster arrives at Six Flags Magic Mountain

What I’ve dubbed the “most anticipated new roller coaster of the summer” has arrived at Six Flags Magic Mountain” href=”http://arstechnica.netblogpro.com/travel/deals/themeparks/six-flags-magic-mountain/”>Six Flags Magic Mountain --and I’m already salivating.

Magic Mountain took delivery this week of the rocking and spinning Green Lantern coaster trains, which join portions of the emerald green track already on site at the Valencia amusement park. (Watch the concept video of the Green Lantern.)

Ground clearance is currently under way for the first-of-its-kind ride in the U.S., with vertical construction expected to begin in March in advance of a scheduled Memorial Day weekend unveiling. Crews still have to add the Green Lantern symbols and throwing-star designs to the sides of the five trains before on-track testing begins in late spring.

The Green Lantern’s vertical zigzag track will sit on a compact footprint near the Batman and Riddler’s Revenge coasters. The new-concept, fourth-dimension coaster, similar in style to X2 but much tamer, will reach a top speed of 37 mph over 825 feet of serpentine track during the two-minute ride.

Upon boarding a train that straddles the track, eight riders per car face in two directions, forward and backward. A chain lift carries each car up an inverted curved section to a height of 107 feet. From there, the suspended trains rock back and forth on the straight-aways and rotate head over heels as the cars plunge over freefall drops.

The Intamin ZacSpin coaster is making its U.S. debut at Magic Mountain. The Grona Lund theme park in Stockholm added an identical ZacSpin called Insane last year, with smaller versions of the ride also operating in Spain and Finland.