Fury 325

Fury 325 opened in 2015 as Carowinds' answer to the giga-coaster arms race, claiming the titles of North America's tallest, fastest, and longest giga coaster the moment its first trains rolled out of the station. The 325-foot lift hill sits almost on top of the state line, so the ride's 81-degree first drop and the 190-foot barrel turn that follows both cross between North and South Carolina within the span of a few seconds.

The layout is built around sustained speed rather than airtime pacing: after the first drop, trains carry momentum through a 91-degree overbanked horseshoe turn above the park's front entrance, duck under a pedestrian bridge in the "Hive Dive," and then thread a second wave of high-speed banked curves and camelback hills on the way back to the station. At 95 mph and more than 6,600 feet of track, it remains North America's longest steel coaster.

In the summer of 2023 a guest's video showing a large crack in one of the lift structure's support columns went viral, prompting an immediate shutdown and a state investigation by the North Carolina Department of Labor. B&M fabricated a replacement column, and after roughly six weeks of repairs, inspections, and more than 500 test cycles, the ride reopened in August 2023 with a new certificate of operation.

More than a decade after opening, Fury 325 is still the coaster most associated with Carowinds itself — the ride most non-enthusiast visitors mean when they say they're headed to "the big one."