#intamin

the first full circuit roller coasters to go 200 ft, 300 ft, and 400 ft are all in this photo

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Flash: Vertical Velocity at Six Flags Great America!

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Opened: 2001 Manufacturer: Intamin Height: 180 ft (54.8 m) Speed: 70 mph (112.6 kph) Length: 630 ft (192 m) Place in my rankings: #101 (landing between Possessed at Dorney Park and Wicked Twister at Cedar Point)

The last of the cloned rides at Great America I'll be covering, and this is perhaps the most straightforward of them all (literally lol), so this post will probably be the shortest one for awhile lol.

As the third of these Intamin Impulse coasters I've ridden after Dorney Park's Possessed and Cedar Point's Wicked Twister, I knew what to expect going in with this one. While Wicked Twister was bigger, Flash is pretty much an exact clone of Possessed, which I've ridden dozens of times since it's at my home park lol. And even though it shares the name, don't get it confused with Flash: Vertical Velocity at Great Adventure! That's a totally different ride hehe.

But in general, these Impulse coasters have never really been my thing. I've never really found them to do a whole lot for me, beyond having a decent launch and a cool sense of height as you go up the backwards vertical spike. Like the other Impulse coasters with a vertical spike on the back end, Flash has a set of brakes on there (they're sort of visible in the second and third images above) that would hold the train there for a brief second before releasing it and dropping back down towards the ground. Neither Flash or Possessed have had their holding brake functional in years, and currently Valleyfair's Steel Venom is the only Impulse coaster where that feature still works. I remember not really liking it on Possessed when I was younger, but now that it's gone, I wish I could have appreciated it more while I still had it lol.

As for the rest of the ride experience, again it was pretty much what I expected. Going back and forth along the U-shaped track, up the twisted spike at the front end and the straight spike on the back end. For whatever reason, the initial launch on this one didn't feel quite as instantaneous or punchy as the one on Possessed does, which is why I ranked it behind that ride. And even though Wicked Twister was the larger ride, I like the vertical backwards spike on this one more than the twisted back spike on that one since this one felt like a smoother transition and gave a better vantage point for seeing how high off the ground you got on those backward passes.

The last two things I'll mention with Flash are 1) it's location, and 2) the colors/presentation of the ride. One thing I hadn't realized with Flash before I rode it is that part of the ride is actually built over the water for the park's log flume rides. In particular, that back vertical spike hangs over the water, so when you're staring down at the ground, you're above the water which I thought made for a cool visual. Then the colors of the ride are super vibrant and really pop in the sun. As much as I don't care for the slapped on DC Comics theme and would prefer they'd kept the old V2 or Vertical Velocity name, at least they made the ride look pretty for the re-theme haha.

And with that, we only have one more coaster to cover from Great America! That'll be coming tomorrow!

An updated full body drawing of my Th13teen oc! (That I also did on the flight..)

Her design is mostly based off the girl from the advert, just a bit more green. I will make a lore up for her soon, just wanna enjoy my holiday first so I will most likely update this post eventually :v