The Bugatti Veyron-beating roller coaster

Rita launches forwards so fast you can’t help but pull a face, and it’s not surprising Alton Towers choose this moment to take your picture

Visit the Alton Towers theme park and you can hit 62mph in 2.2 seconds, and you don’t even need a driving license.

With this in mind, Andy Goodwin headed to Staffordshire to experience its quickest ride.

View more pictures of Rita - Queen of Speed

When the Bugatti Veyron was launched news filtered through of its unprecedented power and speed.

Could a road car really accelerate from 0-62mph in 2.5 seconds?

The road tests all proved it could, and test drivers and motoring journalists tried to contain their excitement as they were catapulted to the national speed limit and beyond in record time.

But what does it feel like to accelerate so fast?

We headed to Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire to find out.

Rita – Queen of Speed is the latest big ride to be added to the park, officially opened in 2005. Its main party trick is its huge acceleration from a standing start to just over 60mph. Perfect.

As you queue for Rita – Queen of Speed (it took us just over 30 minutes) you will notice its racing theme, as the whole ride is based on a make-believe rally.

Between rock anthems booming out of the speakers there are even comedy ‘interviews’ with flamboyant racing drivers.

Take a seat and lock the harness into place and you will see the light gantry overhead and hear the tannoy bark into life.

“Keep your heads back and hold on tight, we’re counting down! ...go go GO!”

The red lights count down one by one as they turn green it’s time to swallow the lump in your throat.

Rita launches forwards so fast you can’t help but pull a face, and it’s not surprising Alton Towers choose this moment to take your picture.

At the peak of acceleration passengers experience around one and a half times the force of gravity – and it’s at this point you notice a fairly sharp corner is approaching and Rita isn’t slowing down – at all.

As Rita comes to a halt in its starting position its nervous occupants clamber out and a new batch climb aboard.

And when the ride operator presses the ‘launch’ button again a huge amount of stored energy in the hydraulic system shoots the small launching car and the train to its maximum speed.

The small car and its cables then stop and return to the starting line as the train continues around its track.

Rita – Queen of Speed cost £8m pounds to buy and can give up to 1,150 passengers the Bugatti Veyron experience each hour.

It's manufactured by Intamin AG and is called an Accelerator Coaster. Its name is a backwards acronym of ‘Alton Towers Intamin Rocket’.

The roller coaster is built around Intamin’s launch system consisting of a huge winch and hydraulic turbines. This technology forms the basis of 13 Accelerator Coasters located as far away as Japan, Australia and America.