(All of my experience was with the Z-Force in Gurnee, never rode the one in SC)....
I remember when they were first building this ride, they had taken out the Whirligig and the Ferris Wheel and put up a construction sign with Bugs Bunny and a Hard Hat. Going past the construction site made me wonder what type of ride was operating.
I also remember about a month before "official opening" while they were testing the ride watching it in operation. At that point I couldn't wait to ride it. (I got my chance at a Postal Employees Union day in August..I believe it opened in July.)
One thing that always fascinated me about this ride was that it appeared that the loading station was "in-between" sections of the ride, and the cars would pass both over and under, so you could actually watich people on the ride while waiting to ride. (Heightened the anticipation.)
I believe that Z-Force was only capable of running one or 2 cars at a time, but loading time for one car was incredibly "SLOW". In fact on the first day I rode it it happened to be raining at the park. I went back for the ride and saw a time for wait of "3 hours"
As it was the only ride operating it was time to "call it a day". I think I remember asking someone why the ride was taken down, his answer was that "it tended to break down when it got cold" (meaning the ride was only good for summer months, Chicago was having some less than normal temperatures in the spring and fall. I think this might have been one of the reasons)
One other question, the Z-Force commerical shown on TV was for the one in Santa Clara... Exactly how did this one differ from the one in Gurnee.. I know the first hill wasn't the same as the one in Gurnee had to go straight down from the lift hit before banking into the first turn.
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