Pull down your safety restraints: Geauga Lake's Double Loop yellow coaster car lives on

It was once one of the most iconic amusement park rides in Northeast Ohio and all of America, for that matter.

The Double Loop roller coaster at Geauga Lake was a record-breaking thrill ride that literally turned the amusement park industry upside down when it opened in 1977.

The famed coaster, which was the first ever to send riders upside down twice, is back and once again turning heads.

After the park was closed in 2007 by then owner Cedar Fair, the coaster and all of its track was sold for scrap to Streetsboro Recycling.

The coaster cars were thought lost.

The coaster's purple train lead car was acquired by Chagrin Falls-based Blazing Auctions and resurfaced when it went up for auction to raise money for for the Alzheimer's Association a year ago.

What happened to Geauga Lake's Double Loop yellow car?

Like the purple coaster car, the roller coaster's yellow car also ended up in a scrap yard.

It was there that Doug Wilka, who owned a hauling and scrapping business in East Cleveland, spotted it and decided to buy it.

The purchase surprised his family.

His daughter Bethany Summers said her dad brought the coaster car to the family's home in Chagrin Falls with a dream of someday making it a street legal car like the Euclid Beach Rocket Car that makes its rounds around northern Ohio in the summer.

Bethany said her dad, who passed away in March, was always tinkering with projects.

For a long time, the coaster car sat in the garage where her dad would work on it from time to time.

The first task was coming up with a frame to put the car on.

He chose a 1975 Dune Buggy and then came the arduous task of everything needed to make it legal to drive on the streets.

Bethany said much of the coaster car is just the way it was when it whizzed down the track at Geauga Lake, right down to the original seats and shoulder restraints.

He did have to remove the floor and make room for a steering wheel, along with a stick shift.

Doug completed the transformation a few years back, but Bethany said he was a rather quiet man and pretty much just showed it off to close friends and acquaintances.

It did make a couple appearances at a car show or two, but for the most part, the coaster car remained in storage in Geauga County.

After Doug passed away, Bethany said the family decided it was time to share his labor of love and brought it out to the Solon Auto Show where it took Top 10 honors.

The appearance of the long-lost piece of Northeast Ohio history was a hit.

"People were like 'holy (expletive)' when they saw it," she said. "People are just mind blown when they see it."

The plan is to take the car, which can sit four people, out for more appearances.

But Bethany said it was a much smoother ride at Geauga Lake and one best moved on a trailer.

"It is an uncomfortable ride now," she said. "It is pretty tight with the steering wheel. You even have to sit on pillows to reach the steering wheel.

"It is a bit scary."

History of Geauga Lake's Double Loop roller coaster

Geauga Lake's famed Double Loop roller coaster opened with much fanfare and anticipation in 1977.

Built by Arrow Dynamics, it cost some $1.3 million and was the first coaster in the world to boast two consecutive vertical loops.

Thrill seekers waited in long lines to ride the coaster.

It had a top speed of 36 miles per hour and reached a height of 95 feet.

It took about a minute and a half to traverse the 3,246 feet of track.

While it was a record breaker at the time, other coasters quickly surpassed the Double Loop's then impressive stats.

By comparison, Cedar Point's wood and steel Steel Vengeance roller coaster has a top speed of 74 mph, reaches a height of 205 feet and has four inversions.

The original color scheme for the Double Loop coaster trains was red and yellow and was changed to a darker shade of yellow and purple after Six Flags acquired the amusement park in 2000.

The coaster closed for good along with the rest of the amusement park on Sept. 16, 2007.

The steel coaster reportedly was sold for scrap for $23,000 after the park was shuttered and that's when Doug Wilka found the lead car of the yellow coaster train sitting in a scrap yard and acquired it.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Pull down your safety restraints: Geauga Lake's Double Loop yellow coaster car lives on