ThrillRide! Special Features

The best thing about Hurler these days is that it's right next door to the Drop Stunt Scream Passenger 57 Money Train Tower Zone.

There was hardly any line, so we rode it twice in the space of about 15 minutes. It's so weird; these Intamin Giant Drop vehicles feel like they have more "dead weight" than other freefall carriages, like they drop "harder," which makes no sense at all, but anyway, Giant Drops ROCK.

The two things we absolutely, positively could not miss at Carowinds were the big Beemers, Timmy and Afterburn.(And let's give Carowinds another shiny gold star for going with Afterburn instead of Flight Deck, when they had to give up the "Top Gun" license. I still find "Flight Deck" to be one of the most head-scratchingly passive and inert names ever given to a thrill ride. It's preposterous, I tell you.)

Afterburn may not be Montu-awesome, but it's pretty damn awesome. You've got some of the standard inverted coaster elements, like the super-tight teardrop loop....

...and the Immelmann...

...and the Zero-G Roll, which is always crammed full of win.

But then there's also the Batwing, and a bit of a camelback as we do some "flathatting" over the station.