A chocolate company has built a 55 m launch coaster, run it with 100 golden-ticket winners aboard, and the sources cannot agree how quickly it reaches full speed. Welcome to Brazil’s newest big-ticket theme park.
What happened
Cacau Park, being built by the chocolate maker Cacau Show at Itu, in São Paulo state, has completed the first passenger run on Dreams, the Vekoma coaster the park calls its “queen”. Trade site Panrotas reported in July that the riders were winners of 100 golden tickets hidden in Cacau Show chocolate bars, joined by the company’s founder and chief executive, Alê Costa. The name Dreams was announced the same month.
The park says Dreams is “the largest and fastest launch roller coaster in Latin America”. Vekoma is the manufacturer. The park as a whole is scheduled to open in December 2027, according to Panrotas, so this is a ride in testing, not one you can buy a ticket for.
The detail
| Dreams | |
|---|---|
| Park | Cacau Park, Itu, São Paulo state, Brazil |
| Manufacturer | Vekoma |
| Height | 55 m (180 ft), per the park |
| Top speed | 120 km/h (75 mph), per the park |
| Track length | about 1 km (3,300 ft), per the park |
| Inversions | 4 |
| Launch | magnetic, per Brazilian trade press |
| Park opening | December 2027 |
Not every source agrees with the park. Coasterpedia, the enthusiast wiki, lists 53.5 m (176 ft), 117 km/h (73 mph) and 893 m (2,930 ft) of track. The gaps are small, and may simply be different measuring points or rounding, but we use the park’s figures and label them as such until the ride appears with a manufacturer-confirmed profile.
Acceleration is murkier. One Brazilian report says 120 km/h arrives in three seconds, another says five. That is a near-doubling in the force on your chest, so we have left it out. Brazilian outlets also quote very different investment totals for the whole park, ranging from R$2 billion to R$7 billion, and we have not repeated either.
Coasterpedia also lists two further Vekoma coasters at the park, a sit-down family coaster and a suspended family coaster, neither yet named. We treat that as an enthusiast listing, not an announcement.
What it actually means
Start with the claim. “Fastest launch coaster in Latin America” is narrower than it sounds, but it looks sound on the evidence we could find. Coasterpedia’s South American speed list tops out at the wooden Montezum, at Hopi Hari in Brazil, at about 103 km/h (64 mph), and the fastest steel coaster listed there is a little slower. At 120 km/h, Dreams would beat both. We have not checked every ride in Mexico and Central America, so treat the wider “Latin America” claim as the park’s, not ours.
Now the engineering. A launch coaster replaces the chain lift with a system that accelerates the train along flat track; Brazilian press describes a magnetic launch, which in practice usually means linear synchronous motors, covered in our explainer on LSM and hydraulic launches. One piece of arithmetic is worth doing. Speed squared divided by twice gravity gives the height a train could climb with no friction, and for 120 km/h that is about 57 m. Dreams’ 55 m height sits right next to that figure, which fits a layout where the launch carries the train most of the way up a tall element. That is our calculation, not a published layout, and real trains lose some energy to friction and air.
Four inversions after a launch is the ordinary shape of the modern thrill coaster, and the shapes of those loops matter more than the count, as we explain in how roller coaster loops are engineered.
The manufacturer choice is the more interesting question. Vekoma is busy on several fronts at once: Efteling’s Missie Luminar, the first radar-guided DRX dark ride at Gröna Lund and the first WaveCatcher at Efteling. Our guide to the manufacturers sets out where it sits among its rivals. Giving a new park its flagship ride, plus two more coasters, is a vote of confidence, though the park has not said why it chose Vekoma.
The Dispatch verdict
A first passenger run is a milestone, not an opening. Rides routinely spend months being tuned, and as we explain in why parks soft-open rides, the gap between a test lap and a reliable public day is wide.
Still, a major coaster appearing in Brazil is a story the English-language press has barely touched, and the headline figures are credible. We will check them again once Vekoma or RCDB publishes a full specification.
Further reading: how launch coasters work, a guide to the roller coaster manufacturers, what makes a loop, Vekoma’s Thrill Glider for Efteling, and Vekoma’s double launch coaster for Mexico’s BON.