The Top Thrill Dragster ride will break records for the world’s tallest and fastest rollercoaster when it opens in in Ohio in May.

Passengers strapped into the Dragster at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky will drop 400ft at 120mph.

The rollercoaster will beat by more than 200ft the tallest ride record — 318ft set in 2000 by the Steel Dragon rollercoaster at Nagashima Spaland in Mie, Japan, and will be 13mph faster than the record of 106.8mph set in 2001 by the Dodonpa rollercoaster in the Fujikyu Highlands, FujiYoshida-shi, Japan.

Cedar Point park, with three million visitors a year for its 15 rollercoasters and other attractions on a peninsula jutting into Lake Erie, calls itself the rollercoaster capital of the world and has made building the world’s tallest rollercoasters its trademark. A day ticket for all the rides costs $43.95 (£27.09) for adults, $21.95 for children.

It has beaten the tallest rollercoaster record three times already. In 1978, it launched the 125ft Gemini, followed in 1989 by the 72mph Magnum XL-200, which was 205ft tall. In 2000, it beat the record again by installing the 93mph Millennium Force, at 310ft.

The Dragster is designed to scare even the most vertigo-immune by rocketing its customers 240ft into the air then turning them by 90 degrees until it reaches its full height of 420ft.

At the summit the cars, designed to look like drag racers and each filled with 16 passengers, will face directly towards the ground as they fall 400ft, twisting 270 degrees before completing the ride. The ride will carry 1,500 free-falling passengers an hour.

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