!Viva la Zinger! Toasting the Zambezi Zinger, a Worlds of Fun classic

When word hit yesterday that yet another beloved Kansas City institution is being sold off, I couldn’t help but think about another time fun itself was put up for sale. Back in 1997, Words of Fun exiled the great Zambezi Zinger roller coaster, the ass-kickingest thing we could ever get my mom to ride.

A circling, snaking blast, the Zinger

started slow — lifting riders 75 feet above the trees of “Africa”

in an easy, teasing spiral — and then whipped them down in a 40 mph

burst, screaming through curve after curve in and out of the trees.

At a thrilling sharp angle, it skimmed you along at what felt like just a

foot or so above the ground, which made it seem twice as fast as it really was. Finally, it hurled you into tunnel whose

roof felt so low that I never found the courage enough to keep my arms up.

(See, the older boys on my block all claimed

to know someone who’d lost his hands. They also used to tell me that

passing helicopters were Communists looking to gun down kids.)

In short, the Zinger was smooth, fast and just scary enough.

Even after the towering Orient Express

opened, I always preferred

the Zinger, partially because the jerky Express always felt like a

brain aneurysm waiting to happen, but also

because it simply seemed more exhilarating.The way it whipped you in

and out of the trees was always a better jungle adventure than Fury of the Nile.

Via shitty video, here’s a taste after the jump.