Carowinds · Operating · 1980

Carolina Cyclone

95 ft · 41 mph

Photo: See Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Arrow Dynamics95 ft · 41 mph

Carolina Cyclone opened in 1980 as the first roller coaster in the world with four inversions, a title Arrow Dynamics and designer Ron Toomer set out to claim on purpose. Two back-to-back vertical loops and two barrel rolls send riders spiraling above the midway before a 450-degree uphill helix closes the circuit at up to 41 mph. Friends on the ground can walk directly beneath the final two inversions, making it one of the more spectator-friendly classics still running from the park's early years.

Specifications

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Ride profile

Scaled against Carowinds's operating coasters

Steel

Park intensity

Height

95 ft

#5 of 14 at Carowinds

Height95 ft

Speed41 mph

Length2,100 ft

Inversions4

Ride experience

First drop65.00 ft
Looping
Steel

Ride details

Min height

Drop

65 ft

Specs from sixflags.com

Learn more

All guides

Dive coasters

A held moment on a vertical edge, then a steep release — signature B&M dive machines.

Floorless coasters

No floor panel under your feet — open views and a different sense of exposure.

Flying coasters

You start seated, then tilt face-down into a flying position for much of the circuit.

Inverted coasters

Trains hang beneath the track so your feet dangle — B&M made the style famous.

History

Sourced timeline and background for Carolina Cyclone.

Timeline

1980
Carolina Cyclone opens
Arrow Dynamics looping coaster designed by Ron Toomer debuts as the first roller coaster in the world with four inversions.
Source
2022
Trains and restraint system refreshed
Carowinds equips Carolina Cyclone with a new harness restraint system and a refreshed paint scheme for its ongoing operation.
Source

Background

Carolina Cyclone opened on March 22, 1980, as the first roller coaster anywhere in the world to send riders upside down four times in a single circuit — a record Arrow Dynamics and designer Ron Toomer set squarely out to claim. Newspaper ads at the time promised a ride that had "never flipped riders four times and dived underground," and the park leaned hard into the novelty of a genuinely new kind of steel coaster.

The layout climbs a 95-foot lift hill before dropping 65 feet into two back-to-back vertical loops, then two 360-degree barrel rolls that carry riders out over the midway below, and finally a 450-degree uphill helix back into the station. Friends on the ground can walk directly underneath the final two inversions, making it one of the more spectator-friendly coasters in the park.

More than four decades later, Carolina Cyclone is still running its original Arrow track, having been updated over the years with a modern restraint harness and fresh paint rather than a full retracking. It remains one of the oldest continuously operating looping coasters in North America and a touchstone for the park's early-1980s identity.