Carolina Cyclone is an

Arrow Dynamics Arrow Dynamics was an American manufacturing and engineering company that specialized in designing and building amusement park rides, especially roller coasters. Based in Clearfield, Utah, the company was the successor to Arrow Development (194 ...

roller coaster A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are o ...

located at

Carowinds Carowinds is a amusement park located adjacent to Interstate 77 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The park straddles the North Carolina-South Carolina state line, with a portion of the park located in Fort Mill, South Carolina. However, it has an of ...

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

. The coaster is located in the Carolina Boardwalk area of the park. Built in 1980 by world-renowned (and now defunct) coaster manufacturer

, it was the first roller coaster to have four inversions, two loops and two corkscrews.

History

On June 21, 1979, Carowinds announced that they would be building a new roller coaster for the 1980 season. It would be called Carolina Cyclone and be the first roller coaster to have four inversions. Carolina Cyclone officially opened to the public on March 22, 1980. The ride was originally painted with red-orange track and black supports, and later bluish-green track with black supports, and later with blue track and dark gray supports. For the 2010 season, a new paint job was applied. The supports are light blue along the entire ride. The track in the final brake run, station, and from the station to the top of the first drop, is also painted light blue, but the inversions are painted yellow and the track on the first drop, turn between the corkscrews, and final helix are all painted orange. In late 2021, the ride received yet another repaint. Multiple colors were put on the track to see how they would look. The supports are white and the entire track is turquoise blue. After the 2019 season, Carolina Cyclone received new trains from another Arrow Dynamics looping coaster, the defunct

Vortex In fluid dynamics, a vortex ( : vortices or vortexes) is a region in a fluid in which the flow revolves around an axis line, which may be straight or curved. Vortices form in stirred fluids, and may be observed in smoke rings, whirlpools in th ...

Kings Island Kings Island is a amusement park located northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, United States. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the park first opened in 1972 by the Taft Broadcasting Company. It was part of a larger effort to move and expan ...

Ride experience

The train exits the station, makes a sharp left turn and ascends a lift hill. A small pre-drop and turn follows, which leads into the track's drop. This is followed by two

vertical loop The generic roller coaster vertical loop, where a section of track causes the riders to complete a 360 degree turn, is the most basic of roller coaster inversions. At the top of the loop, riders are completely inverted. History The vertical ...

s and a small hill with a banked turn. As the train makes its way over the walkway, it flips riders twice in a double

corkscrew A corkscrew is a tool for drawing corks from wine bottles and other household bottles that may be sealed with corks. In its traditional form, a corkscrew simply consists of a pointed metallic helix (often called the "worm") attached to a hand ...

. The finale is a helix that winds low to the ground and raises back up into the brake run before returning to the station.

References

External links

Carowinds' Official Page For Carolina Cyclone
{{PCW Coasters Roller coasters in North Carolina Roller coasters operated by Cedar Fair Roller coasters introduced in 1980 Carowinds