20 Greatest Roller Coasters In England
15. Oblivion - Alton Towers
Opened: 1998
Manufacturer: B&M
Type: Dive Machine
Alton Towers, the UK's most visited park, isn't the best park in the UK since Thorpe Park and Blackpool Pleasure Beach are both better, but it is still very good overall and has a very strong coaster line-up, one of which is this world-first.
Oblivion was the first B&M dive coaster - a steel roller coaster whose main feature is a huge vertical drop - ever built. In the time since B&M have built many other Dive Machine coasters and while nearly all of them (the exception being a clone of Oblivion in Taiwan) are taller, faster and have more complicated layouts, Oblivion still holds up to this day.
No matter how many times you ride it, the brilliant vertical drop down into an underground tunnel is still a heart-in-mouth experience, while the locking mechanism at the top of the drop (which keeps the car stationary for a few seconds and forces riders to look down) was a stroke of genius.
Oblivion is a very short ride, but it still packs more thrills into its short, minute-long ride experience than many roller coasters do in two or three minutes.