29/04/2026
More celebration of our 60 years! In 1980 we built the Tornado, a basic powered coaster, and two years later we brought a team together to create an improved version, the Dragon Coaster.
Antonio Zamperla Senior felt the ride should fit on the space that represented a standard fairground ride size. That became the key design constraint.
“We kept the curves into and out of the station from the Tornado and re-designed the rest, said Gianni Cicchelero, a longtime Zamperla employee. “We built the hill first as our tallest point and worked out the rest of the design from there. It was more design-as-you-go than how we do things today. First the outer rail was built on scaffolding, then the inner rail, and finally we fabricated the supporting structure,” he recalled.
The Dragon Coaster, now called the Powered Coaster, is still sold today. Some of our most recent installations are at Gyeongju World in South Korea and Dreamworld in Australia.
Photos
1) Dreamworld Australia, Australia
2) Gyeongju World, Korea
3) Valleyfair Amusment Park, USA
4) Drayton Manor, UK