2019 -
New Attraction - Rumor - (8/11/18) Six Flags Great America has posted the second part of their Road to Glory racing themed teaser as we follow the guy from the first part climbing into a drop pod slide, and being told at the bottom that "You can do better." They then show off a stopwatch with a 2 second time.
If they are playing a numbers game with us, then in Part 1 the fellow gets sprayed down with cans of "SPF 1,000" before being sent to the slide tower, along with an awkward holding of one can by the girl with the only speaking role so we can see the logo while they gaze at the tower.
Despite the waterpark background, are we looking at a new launched coaster concept here? The fastest coaster in the Six Flags chain is Kingda Ka which hits 128mph in 3.5 seconds... but there was once a launched coaster in the US that had a much more extreme launch sensation. It wasn't as fast as Kingda Ka, hitting only 80mph, but it did it in 1.8 seconds and just felt completely out of control. I'm talking about the former Hypersonic XLC coaster that ran at Kings Dominion from 2001 to 2007 from S&S, back with S&S was pushing the concept as their "Thrust Air 2000" coaster concept, using compressed air to power the launch and actual rubber aircraft tires on the coaster train itself. The king of all Thrust Air coasters was built in Japan as Dodonpa... now remodeled and renamed as Do-Dodonpa, which features a 111.9 mph launch in just 1.6 seconds.
To date, no Intamin launched coaster that I know of has been able to match the raw power of the S&S launch system, with I believe their best being between Xcelerator at Knott's Berry Farm which hits 82mph in 2.3 seconds, and Stealth at Thorpe Park that hits 80mph in 1.9 seconds.
While Intamin seems to have retired their Hydraulic launch system for the time being, S&S has quietly been building newer versions of their Air launched system across China over the past decade onto more traditional looking coaster systems. None have attempted to match the speed of Do-Dodonpa, but most report launch speeds of 83mph (Extreme rush, Bullet Coaster, OCT Thrust SSC1000) and the Launch Coaster that is expected to open later this year at Sun Tzu Cultural Park in China
that will launch to 83.9 mph. Unfortunately I've been unable to find any documentation on the time of these new launch systems. So this does make me wonder if we could be seeing a new launch coaster from S&S come to SFGAm next season as it could easily take the record for fastest acceleration in North America. Just a thought...