Vertical Velocity

Vertical Velocity, marketed at launch as "V2," opened on May 18, 2001, as part of a two-coaster expansion Six Flags Great America unveiled to mark the parent company's 40th anniversary, debuting alongside the now-removed Vekoma boomerang Déjà Vu. Manufactured by Intamin as an Impulse coaster — a format using linear induction motors originally adapted from NASA propulsion research — V2 fires a single train from the station using LIM launches, sending it up a 185-foot spike tower, back down through the station, and up a second spike where riders experience one of the era's few fully vertical 360-degree twists.

The launch technology let Intamin skip a traditional chain lift entirely: two LIM boosts accelerate the train to a peak of roughly 70 mph within about four seconds, compressed into just 630 feet of U-shaped, twisted track suspended over water. It was one of only four Intamin Impulse coasters built in North America at the time, alongside siblings at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Cedar Point's Wicked Twister, and Valleyfair's Steel Venom, though V2 remains distinguished by its fully vertical second spike.

In 2022, as Six Flags Great America reworked its Yankee Harbor area into a new DC Universe zone, the park rebranded the ride as The Flash: Vertical Velocity, tying its rapid launch to the DC speedster's super-speed powers. Mechanically unchanged since 2001, it remains one of the most distinctive launch coasters in the Chicago area, prized by enthusiasts for its rare combination of a fully vertical twist and dual LIM acceleration.