Fact Check: Did Six Flags Replace the Demon Roller Coaster with Rakshasa?

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Six Flags Great America extinguished the demolition rumors on August 15, 2024, when park officials pulled back the curtain on Rakshasa. The attraction was announced not as a replacement for an existing coaster, but as an aggressive expansion into an underutilized parcel of the County Fair section.

Designed by Swiss engineering titans Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M), Rakshasa was engineered to claim the site previously occupied by the retired interactive water splash attraction, Buccaneer Battle. By utilizing this existing open area near the Demon’s neighboring paths, Great America shoehorned a massive footprint into the park without displacing its historical neighbor.

The ride’s specifications immediately set it apart in the competitive Midwest thrill corridor:

• A maximum elevation reaching 171 feet into the Gurnee skyline.
• A world-record 102.9-degree beyond-vertical cliffhanger drop, angling riders back under the structure.
• Peak speeds hitting 67 miles per hour across 3,238 feet of precision steel track.
• Five high-intensity inversions, including an innovative 140-foot-tall inverted roll.

While both rides trade heavily on underworld mythology, Rakshasa draws its namesake from shape-shifting demons found in Hindu literature, the engineering philosophies behind them could not be further apart.