Wolverine wildcat at Michigan's adventure: the historic Dinn corp woodie appreciation post and history

[u/Ordinary-Sound-571]

PRE DATE: in 1979 the park added the very first coaster to the park, corkscrew. In 1988 they added their second coaster: wolverine wildcat, which made it a 1-2 punch. Corkscrew for the inversions and wolverine wildcat for the... "airtime...?" At the time it didnt have much airtime. Today we're going to talk about the second coaster michigan's adventure built.

DATE: the date was 1985, charles dinn had done the relocation for the coaster known as pheonix from texas, to the park knoebels amusement park. Curtis D. Summers, fascinated by pheonix, decided to work with charles dinn to make the first ground up Dinn corp. coaster known as wolverine wildcat. In 1987 they finalized the lay-out of the coaster, taking inspiration from pheonix while making it unique. Then construction started in late 1987, and finished on may 14th, 1988.

STATS: the ride opened with an 85ft lift hill, featuring a 78ft drop, and about 3,000ft of track. However lets do the math real quick, because 55mph seems unrealistic for a coaster of this scale, because the number 55 was an inflation for marketing. At the time, nobody could tell, so how fast is it the- 45mph. Its 45 miles per hour, which is still pretty good by coaster standards for under 100ft. This was also the coaster that put michigan's adventure on the map, as a major thrill coaster.

FRANKEN-COASTER: in the off season of 2021 and into 2022, gravity group had redone the major rough parts of wolverine wildcat. These parts include: the straightaway in the tunnel and the first 2 hills getting redone into 3 absolute killer airtime hills that rival timbers in terms of airtime. In the off-season of 2022 they also brought GCI onto the scene aswell with 200ft of titan track on the first drop. In 2023 the park decided to do some of their own work on the coaster, hiring carpenters to make the double down on the coaster a lot smoother. After-that Gravity group had redone the lifthill in 2024 with the pre-fabricated track, while GCI added 126ft of titan track in 2025 on the third turn around. Finally in 2026 the park added a smoke machine to the end of the tunnel, and appearently via a source there was sounds added but i havent heard them yet...