ThrillRide! Special Features

And the big fighter jet is quite rad, too.

"Bogey at 10 o'clock!"

It's a tight, fast, action-packed course, just a really solid, unique machine. I'd add this to the list of pleasant surprises but Afterburn was no surprise at all. We were led to believe this was one of the Southeast's best coasters, and that's exactly what it turned out to be.

Which only leaves: Very Pleasant Surprise No. 3:

We knew that B&M's Intimidator was going to be a good ride. It's a Bolliger & Mablliard hypercoaster; I mean, come on. But it was really, really, really good, with all the super-floaty airtime you could ever want.

It's hard not to think about Kings Dominion's Intimidator when you're waiting for the green flag to drop, but you know better than to expect a ride that is anything like that Intamin giga-coaster.

This 'Dator is one big, honkin' camelback hill after another, designed only to raise spirits and buttocks as high, as often, and for as long as possible, which it does with compulsive vigor.

From 232 feet up, the high-RPM fun begins. (Because 232 feet is very high, still, even if hypercoasters are now like Taylor Swift's ex-boyfriends, which is to say, all over the place, and how's that for jumping on a joke bandwagon that's already over capacity?)