Thunder Run SFKK

l. I've been saying for several years that Thunder Run did not receive the recognition it deserves. It's in my top 10 among woodies.
2. Hurler at Carowinds is a mirror clone. Tr drops and breaks to the left, while Hurler drops and breaks to the right. Once you reverse the entire layout, it's identical in design. But the resemblance stops there. Hurler is much rougher-- it tends to cause lower back pain, which I think is dangerous. The tracks are not well maintained.
3. An engineering journal a few years back did a study of wooden coasters. While its other statistics (83 ft high, 78 ft. first drop, 53 mph top speed, 2850 ft. length, 1:39 time) are no match for some of the other top woodies, in one category they rated it number one. Thunder Run has the highest sustained speed of any woodie in the nation. All the others slow down in places, and some even have a midride second lift hill. Their top speeds may hit 65, but their average speeds drop to around 40-45. Thunder Run from first drop to brake run averages 50.5 mph.
4. SFKK doesn't market Thunder Run well. It could promote it the way PKI does The Beast and HW does Raven and legend. But you cannot buy pins, shirts or anything with Thunder Run on them.

Interesting statistic about Thunder Run's sustained speed, though it certainly doesn't surprise me. This coaster may be one of the most underrated woodies of today. I wish there were more coasters designed by Mr. Fetterman.

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-Mike Buscema

'No matter how skilled the designer is, every time we push the envelope we learn new things about coaster design.' --Dana Morgan
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I would also agree that TR is much better than Hurler.
I found it to be my most enjoyable ride at SFKK and would agree that it is very under-rated and suffers because it is in a subpar park even for SF standards. Now if this coaster was in a first class park it would get much more recognition that it now does.

Yes it would be interesting to see views on Thunder Run if it were located at a higher profiled park like CP. Definitely proof that bigger, taller, faster, etc. isn't always better.
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Nashville needs a theme park!

Thing about Thunder Run is that it was OK when it opened, but by the time ACE had an event at Kentucky Kingdom (circa. 1994), its (red) trailered train had been equipped with Mean Streak-style headrests, and had torn the track up worse than Raging Wolf Bobs. It ran like absolute crap.

A couple of years later, Kentucky Kingdom got rid of the trailered (red) train, replacing it with the current (yellow) articulated train, which also has soft seats. They strengthened the ride, retracked it, did a little reprofiling, and turned it into an absolutely amazing ride. :)

The improvement was comparable to the improvement in Kings Island's Flight of Fear from 2000-2001.

Then they ripped out the footers that had already been poured for the storage track and transfer table, meaning we may never see 2-train operation on that thing. :(

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

do we really need to see a 2 train operation with the length of the line, while I thought it was good, I wasn't blown away by it, after the first 3 hops the thing losses all of its power in my opinion, too bad though because that first 500' is mind blowingly good, tons o' air on thos 3 hops.

Trekker Park said "4. SFKK doesn't market Thunder Run well. It could promote it the way PKI does The Beast and HW does Raven and legend. But you cannot buy pins, shirts or anything with Thunder Run on them. "

Actually this year SFKK has Thunder Run t shirts for sale in the gift shop by the park entrance gate (or at least they did last Saturday). I couldn't resist and bought one. On the back of the shirt it has a storm cloud with lightning and the Thunder Run logo...then underneath it says, "Feel The Thunder of This Woody" hehe.
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Nashville needs a theme park!

coasterkid, other than a small skyride across the road (not likely), 2-train op on TR *would have been* the most beneficial thing the park could have done....IMO. It really is a great coaster, and for me at least, is the signature ride at SFKK.

bill, bummed by Dave's mention of footers that would have permitted such a great move....:(
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Tact is for people not intelligent enough to comprehend sarcasm...;)