SFX Coasters are a model line of high-technology steel roller coasters designed and offered by Dynamic Attractions. Aimed to mix a thrilling roller coaster experience with complex and highly innovative show sequences, the coaster was signed off for various park projects, although only Mission Ferrari at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi has managed to open to date. A highly costly development led to multiple projects either being left in limbo or outright cancelled, driving Dynamic Attractions towards bankruptcy.
Development
Dynamic Structures first entered the amusement park industry in the 1990s, providing the systems for various attractions at Disney and Universal Studios parks. The 2000s saw the latter construct Revenge of the Mummy, a pair of indoor roller coasters at Universal Studios Florida and Hollywood in 2004 that was subsequently followed by a third at Universal Studios Singapore in 2010. Manufactured by Premier Rides, the attractions featured linear induction motor (LIM) launches and high-speed switch tracks to change paths or directions, the latter of which were installed by Dynamic Structures themselves. Using the idea as a foundation, their amusement ride business was spun off into Dynamic Attractions in 2011 and the following year began development of the SFX Coaster, which sought to combine a thrilling roller coaster experience with immersive show sets and storytelling.
Dynamic Attractions officially unveiled the new attraction offering in June 2014 at Beijing's Asian Attractions Expo, after which it subsequently received an IAAPA Brass Ring award for Best Concept. Soon thereafter, various SFX Coaster projects were quickly snapped up by Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, 20th Century Fox World Malaysia, and Evergrande Group, with track being fabricated by China's Guangdong Qiguang Group. Velocity Magnetics meanwhile, a well known magnetic braking supplier, would provide the Linear Synchronous Motors (LSM's) at the same time that they were working on Lightning Rod at Dollywood.
Engineers invested the equivalent of 500 person years developing the SFX coaster, which included the design and commissioning of four groundbreaking features; the Gyro Table, Slide-Side coaster track-on-top-of-a-track, Track Drop, and Tilt & Drop seesaw. Each of these increasingly complex innovations were individually tested at their factory, but troubleshooting could only be done at their coaster construction sites. The developments proved costly, with a concoction of testing problems and budget overruns eventually pushing Dynamic to the financial brink. In the meantime, rival manufacturers began to design and implement similar models of the product with far less difficulty; Intamin began to introduce their own "Multidimensional Coaster" line with different train configurations and stunt elements while ART Engineering implemented a successful sliding track on Primordial at Lagoon in 2023.
Dynamic Attractions officially entered CCAA protection in March 2019, with the intent of a financial restructuring in order to pay off its creditors. According to Forbes, "During the engineering, design and construction of the Coaster Projects, [Dynamic Attractions] experienced significant cost overruns that exceeded USD$21,000,000 and [was] forecasted to lose a minimum of USD$20,000,000". The onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic also lead to quarantine restrictions hampering their project personnel as well as increased costs for virtually all raw materials, shipping, labour, and subcontractors. The company was eventually sold in May 2023 to Hong Kong-based financial services firm Promising Expert Limited (PEL) for US$2,000,000.
Projects
Mission Ferrari - Ferrari World
In November 2014, Dynamic Attractions announced at the IAAPA Expo in Orlando, Florida that Ferrari World Abu Dhabi would receive the first SFX Coaster, in a bid to strengthen their attraction offerings. The coaster would replace their short-lived V12 Enter the Engine flume ride, include two "world's-first" elements, and intricate show scenes.
Although construction began in 2015, Mission Ferrari wasn't able to open to the public until January 2023. The enormous delay was attributed to the complexity of the ride system, concurrently-running research and development, prototyping of the entire coaster hardware, testing difficulties, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Dynamic Attractions' unstable financial standing. Although the contract had initially necessitated a lump sum of $18.2 million USD, costs ran far over budget to $28.3 million. To date, Mission Ferrari is the only completed and operational SFX Coaster.