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The screams reverberating on amusement park midways are generated by the thrills that passengers experience as they hurtle along at bone-crushing speeds on roller coasters. Today's mechanical behemoths are faster, taller, crazier – and just plain more thrilling – than their predecessors. How thrilling? Well, check out some of the stats on the country's most extreme coasters.

This coaster will throw you for a loop – and at 160 feet, it is the world's tallest. Using electromagnetic motors, Full Throttle screams out of the station, hits a full-throated 70 mph in no time flat, and immediately sends passengers racing around its crazy-tall inverting loop. It comes to a halt in a tunnel, launches backwards, then rockets forwards and soars – right side up this time – on the outside of the loop.

Another launched coaster, Wicked Twister catapults out of the station and up a twisted, 215-foot-tall tower until it peters out. With a track shaped like the letter U, the train then freefalls backwards and climbs a second twisted tower on the other side of the station. Wicked Twister repeats the cycle a few times while revving up to 72 mph and delivering some potent G-forces. There are similar impulse coasters at other parks in the USA, but none reach the heights or speeds of Cedar Point's thriller.

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This unusual ride features an elevator lift inside a darkened, 208-foot-tall silo followed by a 70 mph drop into an underground tunnel at a freaky 116 degrees. That's 26 degrees beyond straight down and the steepest coaster in the USA. If that's not wacky enough, Cannibal then, um, eats at you with four upside-down inversions including a massive 140-foot-tall dive loop.

Ride fans refer to the negative G-force, out-of-your-seat sensation that coasters deliver as airtime. I have never experienced so much violent (in the nicest possible sense of the word) airtime as I have on the wooden coaster, El Toro. And that's no bull.

Known as a dive coaster, Valravn is the tallest and fastest of its breed. Its floorless trains climb 223 feet, hit 75 mph, and include head-over-heels inversions. But the really nerve-rattling part? It's when the single-car train slowly nudges over the edge of the 90-degree drop, stops for a few knee-knocking moments, and allows riders to contemplate the dive that awaits them. The country's other dive coasters, Griffon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg (Va.) and SheiKra at Busch Gardens Tampa, are essentially similar but slightly smaller and slower.

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One of the most extreme, and certainly most thrilling, coasters on the planet, X2 takes riders to the next dimension by independently rotating the seats on a separate axis as the train navigates the track. And by rotating, I mean complete 360-degree forward and backward flips. That'd be outrageous enough, but the flip-flopping, face-planting acrobatics take place on a ride that rises 200 feet and reaches 76 mph. Ominous onboard audio featuring heavy metal music adds to the chaos and disorientation.

The world's first full-circuit coaster to break the 300-foot threshold, Millennium Force ushered in a new age of amusement park thrills. Hitting 93 mph and delivering considerable G-forces, the Cedar Point ride is a perennial fan favorite – at least for brave-hearted fans. Themed to Dale The Intimidator Earnhardt, the NASCAR legend's nickname is an apt description for the menacing Intimidator 305. A giga coaster like Millennium Force, it boasts similar height and speed stats. But its layout and elements, which feature banked turns that toss riders to and fro, are different. The coaster, which races at a NASCAR-worthy 90 mph, never lets up from the moment passengers hear, Gentlemen, start your engines!

Carowinds upped the giga coaster ante and thrills in 2015 when it unleashed the even taller Fury 325(325 guesses how tall it climbs). At a scorching 95 mph, it's also among the world's fastest thrill machines. The wild ride, which travels over 1.25 miles of track, greets visitors as they enter the park.

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Most coasters climb a poky lift hill before hitting wild speeds on the first drop, but Six Flags' groundbreaking ride uses electromagnetic motors to blast passengers 100 mph in mere seconds out of the loading station and up a 415-foot tower. Oh, did I mention that riders face backwards for the launch? Or that they experience prolonged weightlessness as they freefall back to earth?

The similar rides, known as rocket coasters, use hydraulic launch systems to sling their trains to dizzying heights and speeds (456 feet – the tallest coaster in the world – and 128 mph for Kingda Ka, 420 feet and 120 mph for Top Thrill Dragster) 90 degrees up and 90 degrees down top hat towers. Before passengers have a chance to say, What just happened? they are back at the station removing the bugs from their teeth.It's time to shine the spotlight on another oldie-but-goodie. This week we journey back to 1978, the year before Magic Mountain became Six Flags Magic Mountain. I always find it interesting (though somewhat depressing) to look at parks as they used to be, before all of their charming little quirks and idiosyncrasies got swallowed up by the ever-expanding wave of corporate chain ownership (a.k.a., conformity...yawn). Magic Mountain certainly had its share.

In the interest of preserving this lovely nighttime panorama, I decided to adopt a different approach for scanning this brochure cover. The world's first modern vertical-looping coaster certainly makes for a stunning centerpiece, no? Turns out it was about to be joined by yet another revolutionary coaster, but more on that in a minute. As the right panel describes, the Magic Mountain of 1978 was about more than just rides. It also offered a plethora of entertainment options, including performances by various television stars and recording artists. If you were lucky enough to visit during the summer season, you could also enjoy fireworks every night.

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The fine print on the left panel reveals Magic Mountain's original owners: Newhall Land and Farming Company. Boy, nothing spells theme park know-how like farming! But in all seriousness, they did a pretty darn good job by the time it was all said and done. (I'm sure the assistance they received from the folks at SeaWorld didn't hurt, either.)

Oh, come on--You were all thinking it too! 'Tis the roller coaster that the Griswold family made famous. But honestly, it didn't need them. Colossus did just fine on its own, opening as the world's largest dual-tracked wooden coaster in 1978. Unfortunately, as with many ests of the wooden variety, it also delivered its share of rider discomforts, which led to a number of reprofiling efforts in subsequent years. For better or worse, only those park patrons who rode this behemoth during its opening season got to experience the original Colossus.

And now for some more of those charming independent park idiosyncrasies. Before Bugs and the gang took over the joint, there were the trolls. That furry little critter in the upper right-hand corner (who apparently went by the name of Bloop) was one such inhabitant of Trollywood--not to be confused with that other famous place in California. According to this brochure, there was also a wizard lurking around somewhere. Something tells me he probably spent most of his time hanging out in Wizard's Village, one of two unique children's areas at the time.

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For those families who wished to inject a little history lesson into their vacation, there was Spillikin Corners. Based on this description, I'd say it was Magic Mountain's version of Colonial Williamsburg. Oh, and did I mention the petting zoo? Magic Mountain had one of those too. You know, in case you got bored with their many great rides and shows. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

I always have to laugh when a California park advertises that it is X number of minutes from any other California attraction. If we all had private jets, maybe! But perhaps the gridlock of 1978 really did allow for a 25-minute commute from Hollywood. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Sounds like it would have been worth the trip either way, though, with all of the other nearby attractions and activities listed here. Perhaps Clark Griswold should have worked some of those into his vacation plans!

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