Carowinds today announced that it has closed three rides, including its Vekoma Flying Coaster.
Nighthawk joins Scream Weaver and Drop Tower in exiting the park, which has announced a Camp Snoopy expansion for its 2025 season. The Carolinas theme park also has announced a "record-breaking" water ride for 2026, as part of Six Flags' billion-dollar investment across the company's parks over the next two years.
Nighthawk opened in 2000 at California's Great America as Stealth. It was the first Flying Coaster from Vekoma - a model line that culminated with the acclaimed F.L.Y. at Germany's Phantasialand. Then-owner Paramount Parks moved Stealth to Carowinds in 2004, where it operated as Borg Assimilator for three years, becoming Nighthawk when Cedar Fair obtained the chain and dropped Star Trek and other Paramount-controlled IPs.
"We know that saying goodbye to beloved rides can be difficult, and we appreciate your passion," Carowinds said in its announcement of the ride closures. "These changes are an important part of our growth and underscore our commitment to elevating the park experience. We’re excited about the future, and we can’t wait to begin this journey with you at Carowinds."
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I rode Nighthawk for the first time this summer - they were running one train at a time so the load took awhile, and the ride was extremely unpleasant. It is one of the very few coasters where I wanted it to end as soon as it began. Excited to see what is to come!
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The only surprise here with Nighthawk is that it lasted this long, these things were godawful. This one was probably the worst as well, I rode it at PGA and did not ride again when visiting Carowinds even though it was operating. I don't think I ever met anyone that actually liked this ride. I did kind of like the name and theme "Borg Assimilator" though, that was pretty unique.
It wouldn't surprise me at all to see Batwing removed from SFA (or maybe they are just going to run it for another year and close the whole park after that).
As a teenager I worked on the Schwarzkopf Enterprise and Intamin 2nd Gen Drop Tower at SFGAm and thought both were really great rides that were pretty popular, especially considering the small footprint they take up. Considering their locations at Carowinds are separated in a way that makes it not conducive to a new attraction, this seems like a budget cut, which is a huge disappointment with no replacements.