In that first photo, it almost looks like they've got actual people in the back car...
That's because they are! I guess testing is going really well, because several people have told me they've already seen actual riders.
Brad Thomas made it pretty clear that the spinning is merely governed by the mag disk. It is not induced at any point except by the forces of the train going through the curves. From what I've seen of the videos, the cars are still turning as they pull into the unloading area. I assume they have something there to stop them and hold them in place while people get off. The cars seem to be free to spin from the moment they leave the station, but other than a slight wobble there's nothing to really make them start turning until they hit the base of the dive loop.
I've seen some discussion on the drop. Some are reporting that the drop is pretty heavily trimmed (meaning braked) so that only the back cars actually experience the full drop. The official video looked like it had some trimming to me, but not a lot. That might be something they are still adjusting and we'll just have to see what it's like on opening day.
I've probably posted about this before, but I think this ride is going to fall into a weird place for a lot of people. It doesn't seem like it will really be as crazy as it looks or sounds, but good luck getting anyone on it that isn't a thrill junkie. There's going to be a lot of people writing it off as too intense while others are disappointed at how little intensity it actually has. Most people will appreciate that it is really fun though, I'm sure. I'm certainly glad they didn't go all out with the thrill factor because we have Outlaw for that and most of us can only take a couple laps of that at a time.
We'll see what it really feels like though. Only 85 days!