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Carowinds, the dream of developer E. Pat Hall, opened on March 31, 1973. Initial attendance was encouraging but it dropped after a gas crisis hit. Hall sold the park to Family Leisure Centers, which also operated the Kings Island theme park in Mason, Ohio, and Kings Dominion near Richmond, Va. One of Family Leisure’s first decisions was to build Thunder Road – almost a duplicate of the Racer at Kings Island, which opened in 1972, and the Rebel Yell at Kings Dominion, which opened in 1975.
The ride’s first cars came from the closed Jetstream coaster in the Riverview Park in Chicago. Designer Dan Holbrook created two fronts for the trains, one based on a 1955 Chevy and one based on a 1957 Ford.
Thunder Road opened on April 3, 1976. Among the first riders were NASCAR drivers Bobby Allison and David Pearson.
When the ride opened in 1976 the sign simply said “Thunder Road.” To complete the moonshine theme, two actual stills were procured from North Carolina officials who had seized them. One still was allegedly capable of producing 120 gallons of corn liquor and the other 1,000 gallons of apple brandy,
In 1981 Thunder Road got a new set of trains.
A new sign was installed in 1996: “Fast as Lighting Thunder Road.”
From 1995 to 2008 one of the trains faced backward, the other forward.
