4 Reasons We Need a Porsche Pinball Machine

For the New Year, like a majority of others, John and I each made some resolutions. One of John's was to try and cut back a bit on purchasing even more Porsche related paraphernalia. At his current rate of consumption it won't be long before we're challenging Hank Hammer for the largest collection of Porsche memorabilia on the planet. Okay, that might be a bit of a stretch, but you get the idea; we have a lot of Porsche stuff.

Imagine my surprise (not really) when shortly after waking up on New Year's day, John called me over to his computer to look at something "I just had to see". Lately, we've been talking about possibly moving, so I though maybe he found a house we could go look at. Not quite...

As I walk toward John's monitors (he has three of them) the first thing I notice is an image of a 1974 Signal Green Porsche Carrera taking up an entire two screens (this is the latest Porsche he's been lusting after). I've known about this car, so I'm not too surprised to see it here. I am, however, pleasantly surprised to see that there's an image of what looks to me to be the basement of someones home that's been converted to a game room. I thought, "great, we're getting things off to a good start and maybe we can take a drive by this house to check out the neighborhood." Wow, am I naive...

It turns out that what I'm looking at is not an advertisement for a home for sale with a nice game room. Instead, it's a nice home with a game room that includes a Porsche themed pinball machine and said machine is for sale (sigh). It's barely 12 hours into the new year and our resolutions are dropping faster than Tiger Wood's sponsors. For the next few minutes I listen to John explain why we need he wants this Porsche Pinball machine. His reasoning includes:

• "You like pinball, you play our Elvira machine all the time. Wouldn't it be great to have another?"
• "If I buy this machine I won't feel the need to buy another Porsche." (yeah, right!).
• "It's a collector's item and will probably appreciate. Think of it as a good investment"
• "It's a Porsche Pinball Machine!" (I think he believed this to be the most compelling)

Porsche Themed Pinball Machine

According to John, who doesn't want need a Porsche themed pinball machine? What's funny is that until 2 days ago he didn't even know this machine existed. Now that he does, it's a "must have". The first machine he was looking at was found on Craigslist (it has since been removed). How ever, with a little additional digging, he found two of them for sale on eBay. The first one seems quite well priced, but the description, while written to be honest, doesn't really make you want to pull the trigger and purchase it. The 2nd one sounds like it's in much better condition, but the seller isn't bashful with a $2500 asking price.

I think what interests John the most about this machine, besides that fact that it is Porsche themed, is that it has a built in radar speed gun that shows you how fast the ball is traveling. According to the eBay advertisement, it's the "world's first pinball machine with Lasermatic Speed Detection [that] shows the player's speed in the dot matrix display. Dynamic play-by-play commentary tells you the actual speed the ball is traveling. Set a new speed record and hear the crowd go WILD! Multiball comes in a rush and a thrill as the Turbo Booster automatically sends another ball racing onto the playfield!"

Okay, I have to admit that's pretty cool. The question is, do I really want another pinball machine in the game room? And, does he really expect me (or anyone else for that matter) to believe that a pinball machine can take the place of another Porsche in the garage?

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