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Most coasters don't demand that you have a partner to ride but if you want to ride the Thunderbolt you have to have someone to ride with.



Like The Jack Rabbit and Phantom's Revenge Thunderbolt was built using some of Kennywood's hillside terrain.



The ride starts and finishes by diving down into a ravine but the reason that one needs to have a ride partner in order to take the Thunderbolt for a ride is due to the extreme lateral forces designed into the helix part of the ride.



The Thunderbolt's stainless steel art deco trains that came from National Amusement Devices do not have seat dividers and with the heavy lateral forces on the down side of the helix a single rider would get thrown all over the place.



As a result the Thunderbolt makes you have a partner and the larger person has to sit on the left side.



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Paul B. Drabek