Thunder Road, from Wikipedia
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Thunder Road is a wooden roller coaster located at the Carowinds theme park in Charlotte, North Carolina. It opened to much media attention in 1976.[citation needed]
Thunder Road is a racing roller coaster, featuring two individual tracks that parallel each other. The design of the ride was based upon Rebel Yell, another wooden racing coaster at the Kings Dominion theme park in Doswell, Virginia.
The coaster is built across the Carolinas state line. The coaster begins in South Carolina and then crosses into North Carolina.
History
The ride was named and originally themed after the 1958 movie, Thunder Road. NASCAR celebrities, Bobby Allison and David Pearson, along with major newspapers from around the country were at Carowinds for the grand opening. It opened in 1976.
Thunder Road was originally painted red, white, and blue. Two moonshine stills were originally placed at the entrance but have since been removed.
The ride originally featured trains from the Jetstream, a roller coaster at Chicago's defunct Riverview Park. Upon arriving at Carowinds the trains were themed to resemble a Sheriff's car and an Outlaw's car, in accordance with the coaster's original theme. The Riverview trains were retired in 1980 and replaced with new, higher capacity Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters trains.
Thunder Road's trains all faced forward until one side was reversed in 1995 to run backwards. This was mainly due to the fact that at one time in the mid 1990's it was said that Thunder Road would be no longer. During the off season in 1995-96 The air conditioners in the waiting area were removed, the decorative memorabilia from years ago was removed, and over time the coaster would become a ghost of its former self as it diminished in grandeur. At the time Paramounts Carowinds was moving forward with bigger, better built roller-coasters and during that time Thunder Road started to look like a liability of sorts with its aging wood frame that required constant maintenance. Ride attendance plummeted as the new roller coasters in the park took attention away from Thunder Road. At one point in the late 1990's you could easily stay on the ride in the same seat as no one would be waiting in line to occupy the car. Thankfully those lean times are over, and the current ownership has taken steps to renovate the coaster to its once glorious past. In 2008, all trains were turned to face forward once again.
In 2008, Thunder Road faced about two months of downtime during the summer, due to track maintenance and testing. During testing in late June-early July, it was run with test dummies in the seats. It is now open and running much more smoothly.
In 2009 Carowinds is rebuilding more sections of Thunder Road again this winter. Last year the majority of the work on Thunder Road was spent rebuilding the two large turn-arounds at back end of the ride and a little bit of the return track half way back. Now they have completely removed the old track in between last year’s rebuilt sections which will make a nice long new smooth section of the ride to enjoy.
Ride Layout
The brakes release the trains and the riders are taken on a gentle downward turn. The turn goes back under the brake run and meets with the backward- or forward-facing train. The chain soon latches on and the trains are carried up 93 feet. As you are lifted up the hill, there are four signs that make the sentence "Grit your teeth, bear the load, enjoy your ride on Thunder Road." The drop of 88 feet is followed by several small to medium-sized "bumps" giving riders the feeling of air-time. Following the small bumps, a large hill with a turn begins the train's journey back to the station. The tracks diverge and cross more small and medium-sized bumps. A tunnel covers the last drop and hill, which is immediately followed by a long brake run where the tracks meet up again.
Construction data
500,000 board feet (1200 m³) of treated wood
60-70 tons of nails, bolts, and track
5,500 US gallons (21 m³) of paint (most parts with paint have been replaced)
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