Hellcat at Clementon Park is one of the few S&S wood coasters. Designed by Alan Schilke, this coaster has a really nice layout, but the ride experience is hellish between the trim brake and roughness. Find out what you can expect if you ride it in the near future!
Video Credits
Avalanche POV (Sean Flaharty)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzbsBLr-eJY
Hellcat POV (New Jersey Coasters)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbxSbHJb1Pc
J2 Trimless (Coaster Jeff)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRAu7NqZcTs
Timberhawk Off-Ride (Airtime Thrills)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HciK9fSr0Tw
Background Music
Trailer Cinematic Epic Music by Infraction [No Copyright Music] / The Serious Things- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHn_PTt-pWM
22 Comments
The website advertises that:
Hellcat is back and better than ever!
False advertising?
I was lucky enough to ride this twice in 06 on the way home from KD and Williamsburg (convinced my parents it was "right off the highway" and not 45 minutes out of the way lol) and had a very different experience from what you describe.
The first airtime hill had 4 really hard kinks in the track, each with some ridiculous ejector airtime (like SFNE cyclone or Coney Cyclone before the refurb). Its a shame to hear its just mild floater these days because it was a genuine "i think I'm going to die" element back then.
The horseshoe turn had really awkward banking and the trains banged and scraped their way through it, not sure if that was ever fixed.
The helix had the strongest positive Gs I've ever experienced on a wood coaster. It was rough, but the sustained positives felt like a good steel coaster helix and was close to gray out level.
The last two bunny hills had good floater, but nothing really remarkable. The turn in between however had some of the strongest laterals I've ever felt, up there with Legend and TGE Comets last turn. This was another one that the train banged and scraped its way though. I think they were outside of the articulation limits of the PTCs several times on this ride. The rise up to the brakes also had a hard jerk which had strong ejector even in the back seat. Wish I had gotten to try it in the front.
The ride overall was like a mini Voyage as far as intensity and how it maintained speed. But where Voyages trackwork has been tweaked to perfection over the years, this rides track was nonsense and did a lot things the train and rider wasn't happy with, but in a good way. I will never revisit this place so long as those four brake calipers line the first drop, I really don't want to ruin my memories of those two rides I had on it.
very nice review!
Man I missed Silver Comet in June and now Hellcat is open… Guess I'm renewing my IB season pass to potentially ride these woodies
My favorite review so far! I grew up a 5 min drive from clementon, my true home park. I went back this summer for the first time since I was in middle school, when Hellcat was J2. Absolutely surreal to be back. This ride is a riot though. I rode row 4 and thought I legitimately unaligned my spine on that first valley. Front row was really fun.
Possible video on hellcat in Wisconsin dells? I remember riding it as a kid and its still probably the roughest ride ive ever been on
Wow! I have a lot of respect for your analysis of coasters, so it may have been a blessing that Hellcat was closed for me. It sounds like I did ride the best coaster in the park after all, as Dragon Coaster was enjoyable. I had a feeling that Hellcat might be too rough for me. I was planning to not ride the back at all. I would get my credit in the front row and move on. I probably won't go back to the park unless they get Hellcat running well. I was surprised to see that parking was free. I'm not sure if that's normal or if it was because of the time or day I visited (Tuesday 3pm).
Omg! At 4:06 in this video, the coaster train, as it starts coming up the hill, hits a major pothole/dangerous angel transition. I'm surprised nobody at the park saw this?
As a former union carpenter, fixing that would not be a big deal. Couple hundred in lumber, and re use the track steel and possibly the attaching hardware for the steel.
Oh man, while I do think this is a nice aesthetically pleasing coaster, I could tell I would rather snag a ride on Go-Gator – the kids coaster at the carnival that looks like an Aligator.
Construction along, you can tell things were really off on this ride. I can see one of my college roommates "Double D – a construction major at EMU" just yell at this video hahhaha,
This coaster, this is a bad one.
Hey this is two minutes from me!
I hope it gets the rmc treatment
I finally got to ride this when it reopened this year. I am in the minority, as I really enjoyed it. I didn't find it unbearably rough and would love a ride in the back.
It is fascinating to me that, at one point, three John Miller-designed coasters named Jack Rabbit were lined up in such close proximity to one another. Sad that Clementon retired their Jack Rabbit, but hopefully Hellcat can get track-work on those problematic sections.
Maybe they could put titan track on this?
I just noticed the logo for the ride. It's so dumb 😆 cat plane. This needs to be a meme.
Imagine how good this would be with a complete titan track or wood track GCI refurb. Oh and trims gone. I mean it would literally be incredible.
The year, I rode this coaster 10 times the same day as riding el toro 10 times, and needless to say, my neck was feeling it the next day lol
I'm probably crazy, but I really enjoyed the ride. It was so incredibly rough, but that's what made it fun for me lol. The layout was actually pretty good too
It looks like it needs a FULLLLLLLL retrack by Gravity Group or GCI or SOMEbody cuz god dayum does that look an unholy experience lol. Also would help to get rid of those trims once that retrack would be done, make it more exciting.
I want that back row ride.
Fake Title: "Hellcat is a Amazing Layout But… reputative damages to the Bandori fans reputation LOL"
!!! SPOILER ALERT !!!
To be fair, "hell" is in the name!