Carowinds · Operating · 2010

Thunder Striker

232 ft · 75 mph

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ExtremeCarowinds Official park siteThunder Road

Bolliger & Mabillard232 ft · 75 mph

This B&M hyper coaster climbs a 232-foot lift hill before a 211-foot first drop at 74 degrees sends it racing through seven shrinking camelback hills at up to 75 mph. It opened in 2010 as Intimidator, a NASCAR-themed tribute to Dale Earnhardt, and ran under that name for fourteen seasons before Carowinds retired the license. It returned for 2024 as Thunder Striker, recast along Thunder Road as a home-built hot rod, with the same B&M layout and trains underneath the new paint.

Specifications

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Ride profile

Scaled against Carowinds's operating coasters

HyperSteel

Park intensity

Height

232 ft

#2 of 14 at Carowinds

Height232 ft

Speed75 mph

Length5,316 ft

InversionsNone

Ride experience

Hyper
First drop211.00 ft
Out & back
Steel

Ride details

Min height

4'6"

Drop

211 ft

Specs from sixflags.com

Learn more

All guides

Airtime hills explained

Shaped hills that pull you out of the seat — the heart of hyper and many modern layouts.

Giga vs hyper — what changes at 300 feet?

Giga coasters push height even further. The feel is still about speed and airtime, not inversion tours.

Out-and-back layouts

Leave the station, hit a big drop, return parallel — the classic speed hill formula.

Tubular steel track basics

Round rail stacked and welded — the default modern coaster structure.

History

Sourced timeline and background for Thunder Striker.

Former names & versions

Thunder StrikerCurrent
2024–present · Bolliger & Mabillard
Intimidator
2010–2023 · Bolliger & Mabillard

Timeline

2010
Intimidator opens
B&M hyper coaster debuts as the tallest, fastest hyper coaster in the Southeast, themed to NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt.
Source
2023
Intimidator closes for retheme
The NASCAR-themed hyper coaster runs its final season under the Intimidator name.
Source
2024
Reopens as Thunder Striker
Ride reopens in the Thunder Road area with a hot-rod retheme, keeping the same B&M hyper layout and trains.
Source

Background

Thunder Striker opened in 2010 as Intimidator, a $23 million B&M hyper coaster named for NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt and built to be the tallest, fastest hyper coaster in the Southeast. Its 232-foot lift hill and 211-foot first drop at 74 degrees put it among the tallest steel coasters in North America, and the out-and-back layout strings together seven camelback-style hills that shrink from 178 feet down to 48 feet on the return leg.

The ride ran as Intimidator for fourteen seasons before Carowinds retired the NASCAR branding at the end of 2023. It reopened for 2024 as Thunder Striker, recast as a moonshine-runner's hot rod built from scratch in "Earl's Garage" along Thunder Road — the same B&M trains and 5,316-foot track, wrapped in a new backstory about outrunning the competition on backcountry Carolina roads.

The rename didn't change the ride mechanically: it's still the same 75-mph hypercoaster that made Intimidator a fan favorite, just with a fresh coat of black paint, lightning-bolt graphics, and a new reason to floor it.

History primarily sourced from sixflags.com. See also our data policy.