The Amusing Ads Archive - Great Coasters International 1995

"Great Coasters International, Inc. offers the smoothest, most twisted and highest quality wooden roller coaster attractions in the world."

That's from the company's website, and I think it sums them up rather nicely. Great Coasters was formed in 1994, and their first big project, seen in the ad above, was Wildcat at Hershey Park.

I can remember forcing my family to drive past Hershey Park during the winter of '95-'96 just so that I could see this coaster under construction. In fact, I think I have a photo of that:

Sorry, no zoom back in those days!

The coaster was so exciting to watch going up, what with all those curves everywhere - it wasn't like any other wooden coaster than I knew of at the time.

As you can imagine the ride turned out to be a winner, and really helped kick start the lengthening of Great Coasters' resume. A couple years later the first Roar coaster was added to Six Flags America... and there's been no looking back since. Thank goodness.