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http://www.charlotte.com/images/charlotte/charlotte/8226/67673285630.jpgParamount's Carowinds kicks off its new season with a new roller coaster, Borg Assimilator. From left: employee's Shane Cloninger, Boyd Herron, Irin Pratt and Ira Trexler all give the ride a test drive Wednesday. The park opens for the season Saturday. LAYNE BAILEY/STAFF PHOTO
Carowinds' new coaster flies up, up and away
HOWIE PAUL HARTNETT
Staff Writer
The ground races closer and closer until you can almost see individual blades of grass when suddenly you pull heavenward.
YES!
If your arms aren't already outstretched, they will be as you go through a barrel roll placed, it seems, to help you celebrate your defiance of gravity.
But at 50 mph, there's little time to dwell on your feat. Within seconds you're spinning, looping and screaming some more.
The allure of BORG Assimilator, Paramount's Carowinds' latest roller coaster, is simple. Everyone has dreamed of flying like Superman.
Assimilator makes it a reality -- with help from some strong harnesses, 2,781 feet of steel track and a computer system sensitive enough to detect even the slightest glitch.
The more than $17 million ride built in 2000 for Paramount's Great America in California makes its Carolinas debut Saturday when Carowinds opens its 31st season.
It's the most obvious addition to the 105-acre theme park on the border between the Carolinas. But it's not the only change.
Inside the newly renovated Paramount Theatre, visitors can use props to help fill in the special effects holes of blockbuster movies at Paramount's Magic of the Movies Live.
Younger visitors will get a chance to see all the Nickelodeon characters on one stage at "Meet the Nicktoons."
Those looking for slightly older entertainment can check out "Turn it Up," a show featuring the hits of Country Music Television stars.
If you'd rather use a boogie board than boot, scoot and boogie, then "Beach Party" will be your bucket of saltwater. The tribute to surf life will feature danceable favorites from summers gone by.
On top of the new shows and rides, grounds crews have improved the park's landscaping, replaced worn signs and renovated restrooms.
Change is the one constant in the amusement park business. People need a reason to keep coming back, and park officials have decided one of the best ways to do that is to give them recognizable brand names.
In coming years, more rides and attractions will carry familiar monikers, spokesman Scott Anderson said.
This year Chick-fil-A returns to the park. The old Sunset Cafe will become the CBS Cafe.
And, of course, there's Star Trek. Though the more than 30-year-old franchise doesn't have the heat it once did, the name still has worldwide name recognition. The BORG theme comes from a race of half-humanoid, half-robot aliens bent on conquering the universe.
"Everyone has at least seen a show or movie," Anderson said. "Like Top Gun, in 25 years people will still know it."
People should be attracted to it because of its uniqueness. There are only a handful of "flying" coasters in the world. The closest is in Atlanta.
Also, Assimilator -- called Stealth when it was in Santa Clara -- is the world's first Star Trek-themed coaster. It just beats out Top Gun as the park's tallest coaster at 115 feet.
You feel the height most when climbing the first hill. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
The experience begins when you board. Once seated, a technician straps you in a chest vest. It's heavy, like the lead vests you wear at the dentist's office during X-rays. A second harness locks your legs in place.
When the harnesses are set, the seats are lowered so your back is parallel to the track.
It feels vaguely awkward lying there like a roach on its back with everyone looking at you.
But once you pull away from the station and see the bright blue sky straight up, all your inhibitions fall away.
At the top of the first hill the coaster rolls the train over and you are off and flying.
When the ride opened in California in 2000, designer Anthony Esparza told the Contra Costa Times newspaper the design team watched science-fiction movies and interviewed pilots to create the track.
"It's kind of like a greatest hits: dive, soar, barrel roll," he told the paper. "We tried to do one of everything you've heard of."
They come in quick succession. One roll leads to another. The dives -- probably the best part of the ride -- quickly turn into gut-wrenching ascents. Then there is the loop, the one guaranteed blood-rush-to-the-head moment of the nearly minutelong ride. It's no wonder officials force you to take everything out of your pockets before boarding the ride.
Then it's back to the station on your back. Hard-core coaster fanatics may wish it was faster or longer.
But for the rest of us, it's a sweet little ride that boldly goes where only birds and morally upright men in tights have gone before.
BORG Assimilator
Length:
2,781 feet.
Height:
115 feet.
Inversions:
Eight.
Max speed:
51 mph.
Train capacity:
24 people.
Ride duration:
About a
minute.
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The area's largest entertainment park kicked off its new season Saturday, and those who showed up early at Paramount’s Carowinds were among the first to take part in a new attraction.
The tallest roller coaster in the park is now a tangled track of metal called The Borg Assimilator.
Taking its theme from the Star Trek television series, the $17 million roller coaster has more than 2,700 feet of steel track and travels at speeds of up to 50 miles per hour.
Riders are suspended horizontally below the track and begin the trip staring at the sky while the coaster starts a slow climb to 115 feet.
Just after the summit, the coaster flips to the right, and the riders continue the high speed ride face-down, looking at the ground.
Carowinds is a 105-acre park with rides and a water park straddling the North Carolina-South Carolina state line.
Scott Anderson, of Parmount's Carowinds, said attendance is more than 1.8 million people a year.
http://www.news14charlotte.com/media/2004/3/20/images/01_20-theborg.jpgSebastian Horacek alias Coasters
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