So long Intimidator 305 and Project 305. Say hello to Pantherian.
The 305-foot-tall roller coaster at Kings Dominion will debut its new name for 2025 season, along with a jungle cat theme and new black-and-orange paint scheme to fit into the Doswell, Virginia park’s Jungle X-Pedition area.
In a Facebook post, Kings Dominion said:
Our world-class giga coaster is evolving in 2025! During your trek through Jungle X-Pedition, you’ll discover Pantherian, a shrine dedicated to the sleek, stealthy jungle cat. As with the other shrines and temples in Jungle X-Pedition, within Pantherian is a mystical steel contraption built by the ancients. Anyone who enters will take on the mythical beast’s most defining characteristics: speed, agility and raw power. The ride’s transformation comes with new paint colors for the support columns and track.
Intimidator 305 in April 2022 (Theme Park Tribune)
The Intamin-built coaster, which sports a top speed of 90 miles per hour over its 5,100 feet of track, opened in 2010 as Intimidator 305, named after legendary race car driver Dale Earnhardt. That name was suddenly dropped before the beginning of the 2024 season due to Cedar Fair, then the park’s owner, losing the rights to use Earnhardt’s name. The coaster was then temporarily rechristened Project 305 for this year.
Pantherian isn’t the only coaster joining Jungle X-Pedition in 2025. That section of Kings Dominion will also be the home of the park’s first all-new coaster in three years, Rapterra, a 145-foot-tall, 3,086-foot-long launched wing coaster.