By Popular Demand: A Scarier Coaster

Scott Rutherford grabbed for the safety handles.

He leaned into a sharp right-hand curve at 55 miles an hour, pulling 4 Gs and heading straight for a pine tree.

Rutherford was laughing.

The 26-year-old airline agent had come all the way from Baltimore to enjoy this form of terror. He was on the first official ride of Ninja, Magic Mountain’s new roller coaster, which opens to the public tomorrow.

“It’s the fear,” said Rutherford, who has ridden 135 roller coasters across North America and was invited to preview Ninja with a hundred other members of the American Coaster Enthusiasts club Thursday. “The potential for danger is what makes it fun.”

What makes Ninja different is that the cars are suspended from overhead tracks and swing freely from side-to-side.

The ride twists down a series of turns and spirals and, at one point that Rutherford particularly liked, plummets 70 feet to within inches of the ground.

Ninja gives a feel of flying--or imminent death--because there’s none of the security of solid tracks, or anything, beneath the rider.

Rutherford offered an expert’s critique of the 3 1/2-minute, half-mile ride: “The constant swinging close to trees, the drops and the speed, no dead spots . . . that’s what I look for in a coaster.”

Only three other amusement parks--in Texas, Ohio and Virginia--have suspended coasters.

“We thought long ago that we were at a point where you couldn’t go any higher or faster,” said Dal Freeman, director of engineering for Arrow Dynamics, the Utah company that builds these rides. “But customers want more height, more speed. Right now, we don’t see a limit to it.”

Ninja’s computer controlled air brakes, he quickly added, make it just as safe as a more traditional coaster.

Magic Mountain in Valencia is open from 10 a.m. to midnight Saturday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $18 for adults, $9 for senior citizens and children under 48 inches.