Nice!!

Close enough. I'm glad I got to ride the Bear Cat .... ONCE ..... when I was a kid. I'm 65 now, and I STILL have fond memories of Sans Souci Park.

What hasn't been burned down in CI?

Rode her many times I wish it were still around 😢

Gci should build this

I understand times change , But it saddens me to know we lost something so meaningful in our lives . We used to attend this Park back when the Rolling Stones played there .

Loved this coaster. Was the one to break my fear of roller coasters. This was the warm-up to the cyclone. Heartbroken when it burned down 😢

I remember this one.

I was never got to see it run but I saw it abandoned rotten away

that’s the cyclone-

I walked that entire track up to the lift Hill when it was abandoned, tried to climb the first hill got pretty much to the top when it started to disintegrate and deteriorate, and I had to crawl backwards down never did get that picture from the top

❤

My Favorite ride of all time! Back in the 60s I use to play hooky from school take the A train to Jay Street then catch the F train to Coney Island I had forty bucks in my pocket spend it all on the Thunderbolt. Subway 15 cents, pizza also 15 cents Always ride on the front seat $2.00 dollars to get on the ride only $1.00 to ride again ride as many times as you want stood on it till all my cash was gone Loved this ride watching this video brings me back The new one is not the same Sure miss this ride 24

I remember going in the little Cottage under the coaster station!! It' was so neat!!!

Many great memories!!!

Hi Bob, I'm featuring this coaster in a video and would love to use some clips from this video. I'd give on-screen credit and link back to the video. Would this be OK? Please let me know, thanks!

In the last year of operation in 1970, a ride on the Bear Cat and Bumper Cars was $.10. The rest of the rides were $.05!

Thankfully the great Cyclone is still running at Coney. Even at 70 years old I still take the subway out there just to ride it once a year.

I grew up within easy walking distance from the park and spent a lot of time there as a kid. After it closed it became a hangout spot for us local kids. Having an abandoned amusement park just down the street was pretty fun too.

Thank you for sharing this. I was too young to ride it when it was still operational and by the time I was old enough, it had been razed.

This is the closest I will ever get to be on one of these rides. I'm scared to death. What year was this?

The 'untraditional' rollercoaster was 'The Bobsled' which I believe was located in front of the 'Tornado.' I'd been on the 'Tornado' many times, but my hands-down favorite was the 'Bobsled' because it didn't ride on tracks once the cars were released from the initial incline. Thank you for sharing this wonderful footage!

Rode and filmed them both in 76.

Amazing video

My dad brought me and my brother there in the 80's! I remember a tree had grown thru the tracks of the comet!

Ive never seen a coaster that wasnt abandond with so much growth arround it. Such a beautiful ride. Wish more people saw coasters as works of art like i do. Less than 200 wood coasters left in the world. Lost 3 century old woodies recently. Geauga lake big dipper, coneaut lake blue streak, williams grove cyclone, and tons of more modern woodies like colosous at magic mountain and mean streak at cedar point. I get mean streak wasnt the most thrilling bit that massive structure of wood and the creeking of the track made the ride feel dangerous which added extra excitment. Steel vengance is great dont get me wrong bit i dont feek scared riding it like i did when it was mean streak.

After the park closed and the rides were all shut down.. One of the rows of cars were left on the tracks.. My friends and i used to climb out to them and sit in them.. Played on most all the rides after they were shut down.. Uses to push the merry go round so that my sister and her friends could ride on the horses and the swan.. That park is engrained in my being..it was my own personal playground growing up.. From the broken down rides to the broken down dam..it was my sanctuary.

Wonderful footage. Thanks!

That last drop must have had some insane ejector in the back seat. Not only is it steep but look how quickly it gets to that slope

Wasn't the Jack Rabbitt a coaster at West View?

takes me back to the best times of my life. thank you

This was my first coaster, and ive ridden the Phoenix at Knoebel's and it wins the award for best wooden coaster every year. But id still say the Comet was the best wooden Ive ever been on. The ravine and the trees just gave it the perfect setting

Omg I love this footage! I wish they’d bring it back!!! Rye play land had the same coaster it was called the bobs airplane coaster. It was demolished in 1957 , it’s the same style. This one was called the bobs then renamed to the tornado.

This was the first roller-coaster I road on. I was so scared but it was fun

a minute masterpiece; the dipper had its own park-like wooded setting.w dramatic views of the mon river valley below - like a park within a park!!!!! its demolition was poorly judged and unforgivable w no regard for anesthetics, kennywood's inherent charm/ character or history..... ..ugh

While I lived in Michigan, all my family was from Wilkes Barre and we went there and also to Sans Souci every summer. I was not old enough to ride the Bear Cat until it's last year or two. It seemed so daunting for a 10-year-old but it holds a special memory in my heart. A simpler time. Thank you for the recreation.

I wish I had a dollar for everytime I wrote the comet I would be driving around a brand new Rolls-Royce

Wow if you watch the back row at 0:12 going down the second hill they are getting heavy-duty airtime.

My Aunt worked the booth that sold the tickets to the rides, some of my best memories from my childhood were spent there.

So awesome

..... the dips/racing whippet captured on a beautiful summer day of the park's final 1977 season: dual pleasure/emotion, for certain!

The two tunnels were a good feature especially the second one. The coaster appeared to have good pacing . Thanks for posting .

This has to be around 75-77 I was living on Gass Rd. in those days we could ride our bikes to WVP. I have some great memories of the park. Highcliff had its school picnics there.😀

Wish they kept this. I never got to ride.

omg. i rodé that many times. what a great little park that was. thanks !

As a kid, I rode this over & over again. Whenever they had stamp-your-hand-and-get-unlimited-rides-all-day, I’d get off & get right back in line to go again, for hours. This little reenactment is nice, but not nearly as intense as the real thing. It seemed higher & jolted you from side to side on every corner at the same time. You had to hold on for dear life. it was not nearly as smooth as this CGI version & you lose a lot of the impact without adding the deafening clacking sounds of the car on the tracks! Trust me… the actual Thunderbolt experience was much more exhilarating! 😉

For one thing it is backwards. When you first leave the platform you made a left turn which took you past where the brakeman was sitting. Soon after that you started going up the chain for the first drop off.

My first introduction into coasters. I absolutely loved this ride.

Nice! I built my version of this in Roller Coaster Tycoon 2!

Awesome!