Indianapolis 500 Pinball Machine

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While out for a drink in downtown Toronto, we stumbled across an Indy 500 pinball machine. Wow…who even knew such a thing existed. Indy Car was super popular back in the day.

Produced by Bally Manufacturing (the same people who now make slot machines for Vegas) the pinball machines were released in June 1995.

The artwork has plenty of elegant mid-90s Indy Cars, and while actual sponsors have been removed from the artwork, it’s hard to miss Bobby Rahal’s all-red Budweiser Indy Car. And although the Dominos Pizza name has been picked off, there’s no mistaking the blue, white and red of Arie Luyendyk’s Indianapolis 500 winning car from 1990.

We tried playing the game, buy it is complicated. While clacking on the flippers, each point accumulated advances your position in the ‘race’. When a special Lite-Up is activated, a video game similar to the old Atari game Pole Position, shows up on a screen, and the flippers are used to steer a video-game car around debris.

The Indianapolis 500 pinball machine really is a work of art. Illustrations of vintage and modern race cars, a small-scale model and a lit-up Borg Warner Trophy share space with bumpers and slingshots on the playfield.

This is actually quite a rare item, with only 2,249 produced nearly 30 years ago. It’s unknown how many of these machines remain in existence today, but their estimated value ranges from $5090 to $5910 for models in top shape. Or, you can head down to The Pint 277 Front St W in Toronto and drop a couple coins in their pinball machine.

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