#schwarzkopf

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Whizzer at Six Flags Great America!

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Opened: 1976 Manufacturer: Schwarzkopf Height: 70 ft (21.3 m) Speed: 42 mph (67.6 kph) Length: 3,100 ft (944.8 m) Place in my rankings: #86 (landing between Tigris at Busch Gardens Tampa and Demon at California's Great America)

Kicking off this batch of coaster posts talking about the new rides I rode at Six Flags Great America, we have this classic park original coaster! Whizzer was one of the coasters I missed during my first visit to Great America in 2024, since it was closed all day during that visit, so I was eager to get on it this time around. I really didn't know what to expect in terms of ride experience for this one, since I've never really done anything quite in this style before haha.

Overall, I thought Whizzer was a lot of fun and is basically a perfect family-thrill coaster! It's bigger and more dynamic than most family coasters, but isn't too big and scary to drive away younger kids who are looking to take their next step up to a bigger ride. In fact, with a height requirement of only 36 inches, that leaves Whizzer open to a ton of younger kids to ride it. Whizzer has a lot of things to it that make it a very satisfying ride for what it is as well. It starts off with en electric spiral lift hill, which is something you rarely come across on coasters these days. It's a long, slow spiral up to the top but the novelty of it makes up for that. It also provides a nice view of the trees that surround the whole ride, and the surrounding park once you get to the top.

The rest of the layout mainly consists of long, shallow drops, twists and banked turns that stay mostly low to the ground. This allows Whizzer to show off what I think are it's two best qualities: its speed and its forces. While that first drop is pretty shallow in terms of angle, it's so long that it allows the train to pick up some good speed by the time it hits the bottom and swoops along a banked turn right up along the ground. I rode Whizzer in the back car, and since the cars are set up in a bobsled style seating arrangement and I was sitting by myself, there was a lot of room for me to move around back there (while still safely in the car of course). So as the ride went zipping around its turns and dips, I got tossed around a lot in a way that was pretty funny and I thought that gave the ride a lot of character lol. To me, the ride felt like riding a mix between SooperDooperLooper at Hersheypark (another Schwarzkopf coaster) but with the bobsled style trains and forces of Reptilian at Kings Dominion lol.

Like I said, speed and forces are Whizzer's bread and butter here. Really all of the banked turns that hug the ground give a solid amount of positive Gs. Nothing overly crazy or like, gray-out level of course, but I was surprised at how strong they felt compared to what I was expecting. And then the ride has a very nice feeling of speed to it, mainly since the whole layout is surrounded by trees and is partially over a pond. I think it's really nice that Great America kept all these trees around the ride, since it makes it feel a bit more secluded despite being smack in the middle of this huge park lol. I also thought the ride ran pretty smooth for it's age, which is always a plus. Apparently for the park's 50th anniversary this year, a number of track sections got replaced, which led the ride to reopen in June rather than at the start of the season. So I'm glad it reopened by the time I went in July, and I'm happy to see that the park is taking such good care of the ride.

It really is great that Great America has kept Whizzer around for so long. It's an absolute classic of a ride and is actually the last of it's kind still around. This Schwarzkopf Speed Racer model was one of four built, with the others being at California's Great America, Worlds of Fun and Six Flags Over Texas. Texas's closed in 1979, was relocated to Six Flags St Louis but was never rebuilt. California's closed in 1988, and Missouri's closed in 1997 before being relocated and reopened at Parque del Café in Colombia before closing last year. Even Whizzer itself here nearly got axed about 20 years ago. When the park was looking to build Superman - Ultimate Flight, they had initially announced that Whizzer would be removed for it. But that announcement drew so much public backlash that the park changed course and ended up removing their Arrow MegaLooper Shockwave and building Superman in the front of the park instead. Whizzer has lived on ever since and remains a Great America staple.

Der Polyp // Dreßen Schwarzkopf Monster 3 model (1983) Spring fair, Stuttgart, 2026

𝐋𝐈 𝐘𝐈𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐆 李一桐 — 𝐈𝐧 É𝐧𝐧𝐮𝐬𝐡 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓 𝐒𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠/𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬

📍: Schwarzkopf Livestream Event | 🗓: 06-06-25

Katapult - this one was thunderlooper. Also it was the first shuttle loop made opening, as King Kobra and featuring a weight drop launch. It is also the most traveled ride having served in three different countries.

Golden loop - the fastest operating shuttle loop, reaching speeds of around 92 kph. not a weight drop exclusive thing as katapul only reaches 85.

Montezooma - the shuttle loop that has spent the longest in one location (has never been moved). also the first flywheel model

Shuttle loop - likely the only shuttle loop to never change track colour scheme. when mont reopens itll be the only flywheel model to never undergo major refurbishment (in the same way turbine and mont have)

Bullet - The last and only portable model of the shuttle loop, look it up! Funny layout huh. (its… actually been sbno for a while so err… hope that reopens)

Turbine - i could say the flywheel to lim conversion or enclosed ride but you know that already, but if you look closely to your right as the train is moving to the launch you can see some remaining parts of psykes theming! Additionally (if you dont count king kobra not changing name between its first two parks) its also the ride to have switched names the most.

The Coolest Kai Havertz DFB Team Themed Toiletries Bath Set Shower Gel And Shampoo From Henkel Fa Men Schwarzkopf Schauma Boy A Euro 2020 Special Fan 🇩🇪⚽😍✨

Source: Gallery Images From Pinterest.