Family Leisure Centers, a newly formed partnership of the Taft Broadcast Company and Top Value Enterprises, formed in December 1974 and purchased Carowinds, at a cost of $16 million, only a month later. At the time of the purchase the park only had one roller coaster, the Carolina Goldrusher, and the late purchase wouldn’t allow the owners to add anything larger than a family wooden coaster, Scooby Doo, that year, but they knew they needed a bigger draw. The owners drew some influence from Carowinds’ sister parks owned by Kings Entertainment Company (KECO), a subsidary of Taft, who had just added the Racer to Kings Island in 1972 and Rebel Yell to the recently opened Kings Dominion in 1975; now it was Carowinds turn.

Opening on April 3, 1976, Carowinds introduced its own take on the wooden racing coaster concept with Thunder Road. Built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company at a cost of $1.6 million, the project required the use of over 500,000 board feet of specially treated lumber, 60-70 tons of nails, bolts, and track, and 5,500 gallons of paint. Thunder Road was named after the Robert Mitchum movie of the same name about moonshining in the Carolina mountains. The area was famous for moonshing during prohibition, in which moonshiners would “soup-up” cars to outrun the law, and the adjoining Route 9, running north from Atlanta, GA, became known as “Thunder Road.” For its debut, NASCAR stars Bobby Allison and David Pearson were on hand to join the first riders of the new coaster.

To complete the themeing, the original trains for Thunder Road, brought over from the defunct Jetscream at Riverview Park Chicago, were modified with car-like front ends to represent each the “moonshiner car”/Outlaw (yellow) and the “revenuer”/Sheriff (blue) Two moonshine stills, both confiscated from the North Carolina mountains were also donated and placed at the coasters entrance and exit. After the 1980 season, these trains were retired, and Carowinds bought four new three-bench trains from Philadelphia Toboggan Company (PTC).

The ride starts off with a steady jog out and around to the opposite end of the station, at which point the trains make their climb to the top of the 93 ft tall lift. From here, the trains drop down to the ground, reaching speeds of 58 mph. On the “out” leg, the train flies over two low bunny hills, followed by a much taller floater hill, before popping up one last time into the high, flat turnaround. On the “back,” or return, run, riders encounter a series of 4 more bunny hills of varying height before one last rise through a partial tunnel into the coaster’s long brake run, ending the 3800 ft romp across the NC-SC border.

After Paramount’s takeover, they had all but decided to remove the coaster; most of the themeing and memorabilia decorating the coaster and wait area were removed, and Paramount was moving forward with other projects that were less of a liability than an aging wood structure that required maintenance. Nevertheless, things changed some, and in 1995, one of the trains was turned around and run backwards. Over the years, like many aging racing coasters, the system which synchronized their release was removed in favor of releasing each side individually, effectively ending the racing element.

With Cedar Fair taking over the park in 2006, the new ownership began a five-year, full rehab of the ride, in which various sections of both the track and structure were rebuilt during each offseason. In 2008, the “backwards” train was returned to its forward-facing position. Though the racing element has not been returned, some operators attempt to release the trains as close as possible.

“Grit your teeth, Bare the Load, Enjoy your Ride, on Thunder Road”