(4/27/18) Who's ready to know what Carowinds has up their sleeves for the 2019 season? As I said before... no... this is not the transformation of Vortex into a Floorless coaster. And no... this is not the conversion of Hurler into another Twisted Timbers style hybrid coaster experience... though I'm sure that particular plan may still be in the works for a future season. Oh... and no... this is not a new wooden coaster either.
According to Screamscape's exclusive sources, Carowinds will be getting a brand new launched steel coaster experience unlike almost anything else in the country. Yes, I did say launched... and I'll say it again, because this will be a DOUBLE LAUNCHED monster of a coaster that is expected to be from the geniuses at Mack Rides.
This is somewhat new territory for Cedar Fair, who hasn't worked with Mack very much on the coaster side of things thus far, but Mack Rides has really been rising up to become a major player in the coaster scene in the last few years following the creation of Blue Fire Megacoaster at Europa Park in 2009. To date, I think the only launched Mack coaster installed in the US was the family friendly Manta at SeaWorld San Diego, but in the past three years they've installed some incredible rides elsewhere around the world like Helix at Liseberg, Star Trek: Operation Enterprise at Movie Park Germany, Capitol Bullet Train coaster at Motiongate Dubai and very soon Icon will open at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.
So I'm happy to report that Carowinds will be the next step in this legacy of awesome coasters... but wait... there is more. Would you believe that I believe we have a drawing that should show a fairly close rendition of the 2019 coaster's layout? While I'm not sure exactly where in the park it will go, I took into consideration the removal of the old White Water Falls ride last season, mixed with the current demolition taking place to remove the Sand Dune Lagoon kiddie pool area from the waterpark. Mix this new open land in with the remains of the former Thunder Road station area and you've got a pretty good size piece of land that can perfectly hold this new coaster, placing the station and queue area in the same general area where Thunder Road's old station was. Take a look at Screamscape's exclusive concept art and overlay of the layout over an aerial image of Carowinds and see what you think.
As far as the ride goes, it is difficult to know where most of the inversions are located, other than a pair of vertical loops that lie at the end of each launch track, but there also appears to be a large and tall tophat looking element that I believe would rise up and over the new queue/entrance area next to the Plants vs Zombies building. So far I'm just guessing... as this could also be some kind of inversion, but I get the feeling this may end up being more like a tophat style or overbanked hill element, kind of like the one right after the launch on Blue Fire. Also, as weird as it seems, the track almost appears to perform a little barrel roll inversion as soon as it leaves the station itself, before rounding the corner the first launch... not unlike what Hydra does at Dorney Park before the lift hill. I see a couple of other locations where inversions may also be possible, so my best guess is that this coaster will have somewhere between 4 and 6 inversions.
For all the latest information, please keep checking Screamscape as we will be covering this project as it develops.
