[Dukeis#1]

True you are but if you did more research you would found of that the vertical loops were added in 1980 so actually CC was the first to open that year i guess before the others did.

Umm.. You don't seem to understand. The Demons re-opened in Spring 1980. Carolina Cyclone opened in Spring 1980. The Question is, which opened first?

(The two Demons operated from 1976 until 1979 as The "Turn of The Century", with two Corkscrews on each ride. In the 1979/1980 Winter, Two Verticle Loops replaced large the Camel Back Humps just after the lift Hill and First Drop. This gave each ride four Inversions. Upon this, MGA renamed the two rides "The Demon".)

Whatever it is, Carolina Cyclone was obviously Demon-Inspired. Somebody at Arrow probably liked the plans for the redesigned Turn of the Century, and thought it would make a good clone. So, Carowinds got a mirror image of the Demon/TOTC without Mid-course Brakes.

[Houston Thrills]

<!--QuoteBegin-montumax+--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (montumax)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> I don't recall seeing Ricochet. Might have missed it. [/quote]
Ricochet falls in at 151 under the "Fav Wild Mouse" category.

[CaRoWiNdSrUlZ]

Well ITS gooD tO seE tOp gUn up There. I hAVe to AgreE that MontU IS betTer but It's STill FUN.

[Houston Thrills]

Well ITS gooD tO seE tOp gUn up There. I hAVe to AgreE that MontU IS betTer but It's STill FUN.

Please don't do that.

[Trev32]

Well ITS gooD tO seE tOp gUn up There. I hAVe to AgreE that MontU IS betTer but It's STill FUN.

Please don't do that.

he has a keyboard problem or somthing.

[KenB]

From everything I've read, Carolina Cyclone was the first of the 1980 four-inversion coasters to open. While it may have been somewhat inspired by the Demons, it was the first Arrow looper constructed without the trusses to support the inversions - even the 1980 Orient Express had those, and the Demons still had them on the corkscrews - so Carolina Cyclone was somewhat of a unique design. It's possible that CC was planned first and someone thought it'd make a good modification to the ToTC twins - who knows?

It'd odd to think that in 1980, Carowinds had one of the best coaster lineups on the planet with a Schwarzkopf shuttle loop , first four-inversion coaster, one of the larger wooden coasters in Thunder Road, plus a kiddie woodie and a good mine train. For example, at the time Cedar Point had just one more coaster than Carowinds. Of course then Carowinds goes and doesn't put in any coasters for 12 years and falls way behind. This shows you where Paramount has really stepped up during their time - now Carowinds will have 12 coasters, tied with PKI and PKD and I think a few Six Flags parks, behind only PCW with 13 and SFMM and CP with 16 each. Of course it does suck that they're tied for third in the country for most coasters - and the tallest one is only 115 feet tall :angry:

It was good to see Top Gun move up in the rankings - especially since I didn't get my steel ballot in this year - and I rank it very highly. It just fits what I like in a steel coaster about perfectly - only Kumba does it a *bit* better. As much as I like the hypercoasters height, speed, and airtime - I still find I like inverteds better. TG is the best of the 5 I've been on, squeaking by Raptor with some killer rides during Scarowinds. After those I rank them Batman at SFOG, Alpengeist, and Montu.

I never got the big deal about Montu during my rides about 2 years ago - I rode it before I had ridden much of anything except what's at Carowinds, and hearing that it was a "bigger, better Top Gun" made me think it was going to be great - and it was mostly forceless, with none of the whipping in the inversions that Top Gun has. It wasn't just the braking, as it felt slow before the brakes. Must've caught it on a bad week. Of course I didn't find Kraken to be all that great on that trip either, and it gets ranked highly. Kumba blew me away, though, so that trip wasn't a total waste. Hopefully they'll have some deals this winter and I can check all of them out again while I'm waiting on Carowinds to open back up