Whizzer is a unique family coaster at Six Flags Great America.
This Schwarzkopf speed racer wonderfully winds its way through the woods. The ride is a classic;
however, it almost met its demise 2 decades ago. Find out why in this review of Whizzer.
Schwarzkopf produced a series of jet star and jumbo jet coasters.
These were compact rides featuring unique inline seating and highly banked turns. Schwarzkopf
would build 50 of these coasters and many of them were relocated throughout their lifetime.
But the company built 4 extended jumbo jet coasters or speed racer models in the 1970s.
Marriott opened two new amusement parks named Great America in 1976.
One was in California and the other was in Gurnee, Illinois. Both parks would feature a
speed racer coaster from day one named Willard’s Whizzer in honor of park owner Willard Marriott.
The two rides would be identical, standing 70 feet or 21 meters tall and featuring
3100 feet or 940 meters of twisted track. But as Schwarzkopf went out of business, these
rides became trickier to maintain. It’s sister in California was removed after the 1988 season.
Only two speed racers remain. One is Montana Rusa at Parque Del Café in Colombia which is the
relocated Zambezi Zinger from Worlds of Fun. The other one is Six Flags Great America’s Whizzer.
This is the last one in the United States, but it was almost torn down after the 2002 season.
Six Flags Great America was set to receive Superman- Ultimate Flight for the 2003 season,
a Bolliger & Mabillard flying coaster. And it was to be placed on Whizzer’s plot. After the
park publicly announced Whizzer would be closing in August 2002, the park received so much backlash
from parkgoers that they reversed their decision. It also helped that they had another removal
candidate. Shock Wave opened as the world’s tallest and fastest looping coaster,
featuring a record-breaking 7 inversions. But this coaster had very high maintenance costs and
low ridership due to its intense and uncomfortable ride experience. Superman would instead be placed
on Shock Wave’s plot and there haven’t been any whispers of Whizzer’s removal ever since.
Whizzer is still one of the park’s most popular coasters. The ride regularly pulls 30-45 minute
waits most days. The ride features 4 car trains seating up to 24 riders. Each car has 3 sections
where two riders can sit inline. This is an awkward riding position unless it’s a couple
or a parent with a child. Unlike log flumes where you can have some space between riders, you need
to be pressed all the way back into your riding partner due to the seatbelt. As a result, Whizzer
is often dispatched at less than full capacity. But this simple restraint system allows the
coaster to have a super low height restriction of just 36”. This makes Whizzer a great candidate
for a kid’s first major coaster. I would have loved to have a coaster of this quality with a
height limit this low near me growing up. Most family coasters have 42” height requirements,
so this allows younger guests to experience Whizzer an extra year or two early.
When I’ve visited Great America, Whizzer typically runs just 2 trains. But it can run up to 3.
In its early days, the ride ran up to 5 trains simultaneously. But the ride had
2 station collisions in its opening year. And the version in California was even more problematic,
as that version had 12 station collisions between 1976 and 1980. The final one was fatal.
This one led to the ride’s problematic braking system finally being updated.
I’m surprised it took so many incidents for changes to finally take place.
But that final accident led to the ride only being able to run 3 trains at once.
While this reduced the ride’s capacity, Whizzer has run safely ever since.
This also is when the ride received the seatbelts it has run with ever since.
In terms of seat selection, I like the back best since you get a little extra whip.
If you have a young kid, I’d consider waiting extra for the front since the low seating
position can make it tricky to see what’s coming next if you’re on the shorter side.
Once dispatched, you ascend the rare electric spiral lift hill.
It takes a while to reach the top, so hopefully you’re comfortable with your seatmate.
Once at the top, you navigate one of the shallowest drops on any roller coaster. I
believe this ride only has a max angle of descent of 35 degrees. This causes the drop to feel like
an extended ramp and the way you gradually build up speed is different than most coasters. It feels
like a Mack launch to be honest. This drop is sizable though at 64 feet or 20 meters tall.
The drop is immediately followed by a sharp pullout and a fast 180 degree turn,
both of which pull some good positive Gs. The ride has a max speed of 42 mph
or 68 kph, but it feels even faster because of the proximity of the trees.
You then ascend a shallow hill and slowly navigate a 180 degree turn.
Then the train navigates a curved drop around a tree. It’s another fairly shallow one,
but the back gets some whip since you have some speed going into it.
The low turn at the bottom again delivers nice positive Gs.
This is one of Whizzer’s biggest strengths in my opinion.
You then rise up another shallow hill and twist around the lift structure. You have
more speed on this turn than the prior one, so when you crest the subsequent drop, those in
the back will get an itty bitty pop of airtime. This drop gradually twists down and to the left.
You then rise up meekly and gradually twist towards the ride’s finale,
which is a 540 degree helix. The element has moderate positive Gs throughout
and I love how its surrounded by trees. This leads into the final brake run, ending the ride.
In terms of smoothness, Whizzer is pretty good. Some of the transitions after the
drops are pretty sharp, so you do need to be careful you don’t smack your elbows.
But the ride is otherwise smooth and comfortable. In terms of pacing, Whizzer is fine for a family
coaster. There are a lot of slow points on the turnarounds, but the drops and turns are good,
especially since you’re surrounded by trees. This hides the sprawling layout
and also enhances the ride’s speed, particularly on the low turns following the drops.
Oh and I have to mention that this ride has an awesome name too.
So what would I rate Whizzer? I would give this classic Schwarzkopf a 7 out of 10.
This is a good family coaster between the super low height restriction and approachable ride
experience. The ride isn’t too extreme, but the high speed turns and helixes do offer some
positive Gs to appease the more daring riders out there. And then everyone can appreciate
this ride’s nice setting and smoothness. Those are my thoughts on Whizzer at Six Flags
Great America. What are your thoughts on this Schwarzkopf? Are you glad this coaster was saved?
Let me know what you think down in the comments. If you enjoyed this review, I’d appreciate it
if you gave this video a like and you considered subscribing since there will be a lot more roller
coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!