Which roller coaster packs more chills: the one that launches you down the track at 128 miles per hour or the one that sends you up a 310-foot hill with only a lakefront view and your fellow riders’ screams to keep you company?

For the squeamish, either option is terrifying. But for coaster enthusiasts, these are tough questions that sometimes need to be settled in a battle, like the one starting on Sunday with “Insane Coaster Wars,” on the Travel Channel. It pits one twisty thrill machine against another, and, in a kind of “Coaster Idol,” asks its audience to decide the winner.

The channel has featured big drops and fancy loops in various roller coaster shows, but this time it turned to experts, like a physics professor who developed a device to measure riders’ heart rates and the G-forces exerted on a coaster, and Robb Alvey, who has fashioned an entire career out of coaster riding.