Dragon Khan vs Shambhala

Vintage is the reversed stat — the older ride wins. Every number here is the same one printed on the card; see /methodology for how Build Cost and Throughput are sourced.

The verdict

Shambhala takes it 4–2, and the 2 Dragon Khan does win are the whole of its case.

Dragon Khan is a steel Sitting Looping Coaster coaster at PortAventura Park, ES, built by Bolliger & Mabillard. Shambhala is a steel Hyper Coaster coaster at PortAventura Park, ES, built by Bolliger & Mabillard.

Both live at PortAventura Park, so this is a comparison you can settle on foot in an afternoon — and one the park itself has to answer every time someone asks which to queue for first.

They come from the same drawing office: Bolliger & Mabillard. That makes the gaps below a question of brief and budget rather than engineering house style.

Both are steel-track, so nothing here is the usual steel-versus-wood argument in disguise.

Stat by stat

• Height goes to Shambhala at 249 ft against 148 ft — nearly double.
• Speed goes to Shambhala at 83 mph against 65 mph — well clear.
• Dragon Khan inverts 8 times against nothing at all from Shambhala — the widest kind of gap there is on this stat.
• Throughput goes to Shambhala at 1,680 rph against 1,200 rph — a long way clear.
• Build Cost goes to Shambhala at 32 $m against 8 $m — in another class entirely.
• 17 years separate them, and because Vintage rewards age it is Dragon Khan (1995) that banks the point, not Shambhala (2012).