American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) is a non-profit organization focusing on the enjoyment, knowledge, and preservation of roller coasters as well as recognition of some as architectural and engineering landmarks. Dues-paying members receive the quarterly magazine RollerCoaster! and bi-monthly newsletter ACE News. Amusement parks have also invited members to exclusive ride events at amusement parks as well as sneak peek events at new roller coasters under construction.
The organization maintains an online database of roller coasters including ride specifications and archives of published news articles. The club also recognizes historically significant roller coasters with ACE Coaster Classic and ACE Coaster Landmark statuses.
History
Organization founders Roy Brashears, Paul Greenwald and Richard Munch met at a roller coaster riding marathon event promoting the 1977 movie Rollercoaster at the Rebel Yell roller coaster (now called Racer 75) at Kings Dominion amusement park in Doswell, Virginia. The three discovered they shared the same passion for roller coasters and decided to form a club that would allow others that shared the same interests to join. They organized Coaster ConI the following year at Busch Gardens Williamsburg theme park in June 1978. On the final day of the event during a business meeting, the name American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) was chosen as the club's name. Coaster Con events have been held annually ever since.
Structure
The organization is almost entirely run by volunteers, with the exception of an independent contractor who runs certain day-to-day operations regarding mailings, receipt of event payment/membership dues and merchandise. ACE members are required to pay annual membership dues that are available in individual, couple, family and corporate packages. The organization fulfills one of its primary goals of providing education through its publications. Other goals include promoting the conservation, appreciation, and enjoyment of roller coasters and their place in history as architectural and engineering landmarks.
ACE is governed by an executive committee of five officers and seven directors. Four of the officer positions are directly elected and one indirectly elected by the club's membership. These officers are the president, vice president, treasurer, secretary and immediate past president. The seven directors are appointed by the president and approved by a majority vote of the remaining officers. The region director oversees a system of ACE regions, which sponsors events and publishes regional websites and email newsletters.
ACE Regions
California Northern
Canada (except British Columbia)
Eastern Great Lakes (Ohio and Michigan)
Europe
Florida
Heart of America (Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and southern Illinois)
Mid-Atlantic (Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia)
Midwest (Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia)
New England (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont)
New Jersey
New York
North Central (Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota)
Northwest (Alaska, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington)
Other Countries
Pacific Southwest (Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada and southern California)
Pennsylvania Eastern
Pennsylvania Western
Rocky Mountain (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming)
South America
South Central (Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas)
Southeast (Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee)
Western Great Lakes (Wisconsin and northern Illinois)
Events
The national organization sponsors the annual Coaster Con convention, international tours, seasonal conferences, and a conference focused on coaster preservation.
Coaster Con
Coaster Con, usually features one to as many as six theme parks where exclusive ride time is made available to members on selected coasters outside of times when the park is open to the public. Coaster Con also features photo and video contests, carnival games competitions, as well as an annual business meeting, banquet (with presentations, awards, industry keynote speaker, and auction to benefit ACE's funds), workshops, discussion groups, displays, and memorabilia sales tables.
The ACE Coaster Classic award was developed in the early 1990s at a time when changes and modernizations in the design, equipment, and operation of wooden roller coasters threatened to replace the traditional wooden coaster experience. The award is given to coasters that continue to adhere to the characteristics of the classic wooden coaster while providing a safe ride. To be eligible for ACE Coaster Classic status, a coaster must meet the following criteria:
Traditional lap bars that allow riders to experience so-called airtime, the sensation of floating above the seat, must be installed. Individual, ratcheting lap bars do not meet this requirement.
Riders must be able to slide from side-to-side in their seats. A coaster with any restraint or device that restricts this freedom, like seat dividers between riders, does not meet this requirement.
Riders must be able to view upcoming drops and thrills. A coaster with headrests on every seat or the majority of seats that restrict this view does not meet this requirement.
Riders must be free to choose where they sit. A coaster where riders are assigned seats before boarding does not meet this requirement.
The amusement park or theme park operating a roller coaster that is recognized as ACE Coaster Classic is usually presented with a custom plaque. The plaque typically states:
THE AMERICAN COASTER ENTHUSIASTS RECOGNIZES THIS COASTER AS AN ACE COASTER CLASSIC.
ACE salutes this park for maintaining this coaster as an American treasure in its purest form. We congratulate you for the use of traditional materials, methods and equipment, which are fundamental to the classic wooden roller coaster experience.
ACE commends this park for operating this coaster in the traditional manner so that future generations may enjoy its classic thrills and its enduring popularity.
It has been noted, however, that most wooden roller coasters usually have disqualifying ratcheting lap bars, seat dividers, headrests and seatbelts to prevent people from trying to stand up during the ride. For example, Rolling Thunder at Six Flags Great Adventure had traditional one-piece buzz bars which met the Coaster Classic requirements, but it is not a Coaster Classic because of headrests and seat dividers being added in 1981 to prevent people from standing up during the ride, and seatbelts were added to the trains later in 2009. It also had seat-specific gates on the platform, which also does not meet Coaster Classic criteria.
Although the Coaster Classic award is traditionally given to wooden roller coasters, there is one steel roller coaster that has been awarded Coaster Classic status, Montaña Suiza at Parque de Atracciones Monte Igueldo. This roller coaster follows the characteristics of a traditional scenic railway, but because the track is constructed of metal rails bolted to a concrete trough, it is classified as a steel roller coaster.
Coasters awarded
As of September 2026[update], there are 28 coasters worldwide with ACE Coaster Classic status, 19 in North America, 8 in Europe, and one in Australia. 22 of them are currently operating.
Another 17 coasters were awarded ACE Coaster Classic status, 15 in North America and 2 in Europe. However, the awards have been rescinded due to subsequent changes to the roller coasters that caused them to no longer meet the Coaster Classic criteria. In such a situation, ACE notifies the park that the coaster's award has been revoked.
In 2000, ACE established the Roller Coaster Landmark program to recognize coasters of historic significance. Since then, Roller Coaster Landmark status has been awarded to 56 coasters; 52 in North America and 4 in Europe. As of September 2026[update], 48 of them are operating.
The first Roller Coaster Landmark status was awarded in May 2002 to Leap-The-Dips at Lakemont Park, which was the world's oldest operating roller coaster at the time. In 2023, Rutschebanen at Tivoli Gardens became the first roller coaster outside North America to be awarded Roller Coaster Landmark status.
A roller coaster that has been awarded Roller Coaster Landmark status may or may not meet the requirements for ACE Coaster Classic status. As of September 2026[update], there are 10 operating roller coasters that hold both Roller Coaster Landmark and Coaster Classic statuses.
The amusement park or theme park operating a roller coaster that is recognized as ACE Roller Coaster Landmark is presented with a custom plaque detailing the ride's history, characteristics, and historical significance. Parks often display the plaque in front of the awarded roller coaster.
It is not unusual for multiple roller coasters in the same park to receive Roller Coaster Landmark designation; Cedar Point, Kennywood, and Six Flags Great America each have three roller coasters that have been awarded this status. In addition, seven other parks each have two awarded coasters.
ACE Roller Coaster Landmark status and the associated plaque are permanent recognitions, even if the awarded roller coaster were to be closed and/or demolished at a later date.
In 2025, ACE introduced the Centennial Coaster award to celebrate operating roller coasters that have reached the age of 100 years, counting from the date the ride first opened to the public.
The amusement park or theme park operating a roller coaster that receives the Centennial Coaster award is presented with a custom circular plaque, featuring the name of the roller coaster and its opening year, and the text "Centennial Coaster – Over a Century of Thrills" along its rim.
ACE Centennial Coaster designation is awarded to any roller coaster that meets the age-related criterion, regardless of whether the roller coaster holds Roller Coaster Landmark and/or Coaster Classic status. As of September 2026[update], there are 9 operating roller coasters in the world that are at least 100 years old.
The Golden Age Coaster award was established to recognize significant roller coasters built during the 1920s—the so-called "golden age" of roller coaster construction. In 2000, the recognition was renamed the Roller Coaster Landmark award, enabling ACE to also recognize historically significant roller coasters that were not built in the 1920s.
↑Coaster Con 43 events were delayed one full year due to COVID-19 pandemic. A virtual Coaster Con known as "Coaster Con at Home" was held on the same dates.
12345678910Standing but not operating; i.e. the roller coaster is existing and constructed at the park, but not open to the public.
↑Hullámvasút was built in 1922, but did not open to the public until 1926.
↑Starliner closed after the 2008 season; it was sold and dismantled in 2010, and its parts were placed in storage. The remains of the coaster were subsequently sold to a new owner who planned to rebuild the ride at its original location in Panama City Beach; however, this never happened.
↑Zippin Pippin originally opened in 1923 at Libertyland. After the park closed in 2005, the roller coaster stood unmaintained until 2010, when it was deemed unsalvageable. The original ride was demolished, and a replica based on the original blueprints was built at Bay Beach Amusement Park; it opened on May 21, 2011. Zippin Pippin's Coaster Classic status was already rescinded during the Libertyland era. The new trains installed on the Bay Beach replica—featuring individual lap bars, seatbelts, and seat dividers—also rendered the coaster ineligible for the award.
↑ACE approved Big Dipper's Roller Coaster Landmark status in 2009, at which time the ride was closed to the public. As the ride did not reopen before its demolition, the award was never presented.
↑Blue Streak closed in 2019. Prior to the coaster's demolition in 2022, ACE took possession of its Roller Coaster Landmark plaque. In 2023, the plaque was donated to the Conneaut Lake Area Historical Society, which placed it on display in its museum next to the surviving original Edward Vettel coaster car.
↑ACE approved Matterhorn Bobsleds' Roller Coaster Landmark status in 2003, but since the park is reluctant to display the Roller Coaster Landmark plaque, it has not yet been presented.
↑Montezooma's Revenge underwent an extensive refurbishment between 2022 and 2026. The ride's original trains, launch system, and track were replaced. The roller coaster reopened on August 6, 2026, under a new name.
12Munch, Richard (1982), Harry G. Traver: Legends of Terror, Mentor, Ohio: Amusement Park Books, p.176, ISBN0-935408-02-9
12Cartmel, Robert (1987), The Incredible Scream Machine, A History of the Roller Coaster, Fairview Park, Ohio: Amusement Park Books, p.191, ISBN0-87972-341-6
↑Ringas, Elizabeth (August 2020). "Coaster Con at Home: A Huge Success in Connecting ACEers While Apart". ACE News. XLII (6). Grand Prairie, Texas: American Coaster Enthusiasts: 15.
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