It's the final pick in my Ultimate Car List Top 5 mini-series. Today's car will likely be a surprise to most. Course with the list we have so far, #5 could be just about anything. I went round and round with this one. Lots of cars made the short list for various reasons. Here are a few that I gave serious consideration to:

• 928 S4 - A Porsche super car from my teenage years. I still love these cars and regularly think about buying a nice 928S or 928 S4. I consider the 928 series to be Porsche's grand tourer.
• 944 Turbo - Another iconic car for me. My "first time" Porsche experience was in a 944. A buddy of mine had an awesome white 944 that I absolutely loved. In that vein, I've always wanted a 944 Turbo. Very fast and very affordable. Red would be the only color to consider.
• 2000 or later 911 Turbo - This would be an awesome "everyday" car. Maybe even a Cabriolet. I love the 2009 root beer colored one with the burnt orange interior they have out our local Porsche dealership.
• Mid-80's 911 Turbo Look Slantnose - Another iconic Porsche for me. Some day I WILL own a slantnose. A Turbo Look would provide the looks with plenty of power, but less complicated maintenance overall. Midnight blue, like the magazine cover I featured a few months ago, would be the ultimate color.
• 959 - I thought about throwing caution to the wind and choosing a second Porsche super car for the list. Ugly butt and all.

Enough of that though.  My final pick for my Ultimate Car List Top 5 is a Gemballa Avalanche. As much as RUF has always been my favorite aftermarket Porsche tuner shop, Gemballa has always struck me as the most in-your-face. The Avalanche and Cirrus creations of the 80's were so out there that you couldn't help but kind of love and want one.

Why a Gemballa Avalanche? Aside from the in-your-face looks, the interiors of the Gemballa cars are always unbelievable. They represent as stark of a contrast against a stock Porsche as the outside does. The quality and attention to detail has always drawn me in. Add in the performance characteristics of the cars and I can't help but love these creations.

The hard part now, is determining what year. My initial choice would be a 1980's white Avalanche (pictured to the right). These had crazy styling, both in and out, and were vintage Gemballa. They're tough to find though. If that wasn't available, I'd go for a later model Avalanche GTR 650 Evo like the orange one pictured in the middle of this post. Again, some amazing styling and unbelievable performance.

A Gemballa Avalanche would round out the garage of 5 cars pretty nicely. You'd have a potential every day driver, with the performance and wow factor of a super car. I know this one is a love it or hate it car, but I just can't resist parking it in my Ultimate Car garage.

Ultimate Car List Top 5:

1. 356 Speedster (1950s)
2. 911 Turbo/930 (1978/79)
3. RUF Rt 12 (2009)
4. Carrera GT (2004-2006)
5. Gemballa Avalanche (1980s White or Orange GTR 650 Evo)

[Source Gemballa.com]

It's Day 12 of Paul's big Epic Journey. Turns out Paul has hit the Porsche jackpot in Franklin (no idea what state…Tennessee maybe?). Within only a couple of hours of getting there, he'd already spotted 6 Porsches. Here are 4 he was able to capture pictures of.

"As we were leaving our hotel to go to dinner, we saw this pearly colored coupe pulling out of the PF Changs parking lot. Sandi acted as quick as we could to get most of the car in the shot. The guy looked at her with that 'why are you taking my picture' look."

"Then about a mile down the road on the expressway, an older brown convertible turned off on a country road going away from us and I snapped this shot."

"It was at this point that a silver convertible came down the other direction, but I was driving and it was going the other way, and it was just too fast to snap."

"In downtown historic Franklin, TN, we parked right across from this guy, and caught it with my iPhone."

"And as we ended our walk for the evening, I spotted this black Boxster kind of down around a corner from us, and Sandi scooted down half a block to take the photo."

"On the way back, we saw yet another cab, but it was dark and we had put the camera down…..but that was #6."

That's it…I'm moving to Franklin. No matter what state it's in!

Just a quick note for those of you who live in the Portland, Oregon area and drive a Porsche (or an Audi actually). Arrive in your Porsche, and you get free valet parking at Bridgeport Village in Tigard.

If you live in the Portland area, then you know about Bridgeport Village. Consequently you also know that parking SUCKS at Bridgeport. We were just driving through there last night trying to get to the Apple store. I finally gave up, left my wife and son in the car in the 10 min zone and ran in for what I needed.

Take the Porsche, though, and your parking problems are solved. Pretty sweet deal sponsored by Sunset Porsche.

Read more about it here: Bridgeport Village

I would have to say, and I'm venturing to guess that pretty much everyone will agree with me, that the next best thing to actually DRIVING the Porsche of your dreams like a GT3 RS is driving a gaming version of the car. For me, though, one of the rubs of playing racing games is the wonky controllers you have to use that don't even come close to replicating the driving experience.

We need something more akin to what Guitar Hero has done with their controllers. One of my favorite gaming experiences to date is firing up Guitar Hero and playing "I Love Rock and Roll" cranked up through the Bose Lifestyle system. I swear, I feel like a rock star for three and a half minutes. "GOODNIGHT HOUSTON!!!"

Well, for all you racing fans, Fanatec has done it once again. They've upped the ante with their new Fanatec Porsche 911 GT3 RS Wheel Clubsport Edition. This thing looks freakin awesome! So much so, that I'm trying to figure out how to convince my wife we need a Playstation 3 so I can start some "real" racin.

What makes this wheel and pedal setup so amazing? Get this. The wheel itself is covered with genuine Italian Alcantara leather. Just like the real GT3 RS wheel. What's more, the wheel features belt driven Force Feedback, a built-in display and clubsport pedal shifters. Reviews of the wheel mention that when you open the box, instead of smelling the usual plastic and electronics, this one actually smells like a new car!

The clubsport pedals included in the package are made from solid aluminum and offer brake vibration feedback to indicate locking-up tires as well as pressure sensitivity to better simulate brake force rather than simply pedal movement. The pedals are all adjustable in terms of height and distance to match your foot size and allow for the heel-toe technique.

Bottom line this is one amazing setup. It's definitely raised the bar for consumer level setups. The next step up would be into the professional grade products that stretch up into the thousands of dollars.

I've always wanted to make sure my kids knew how to drive a stick shift. One of those life skills that always seems to come in handy at some point. Short of letting them drive the Porsche, or buying a manual transmission car, there really is not much opportunity for them to learn though. I've long thought though that a racing simulator could be a decent way to get the motion down without ruining a transmission. Hey! Maybe that's the angle on the PS3! "Honey, we need to buy the kids a new Playstation 3 so they can be better drivers."

Check out thePorsche 911 GT3 RS Wheel here: Porsche 911 GT3 RS Wheel - Clubsport edition.

Here's a promo video for the Panamera I ran across this last weekend. Pretty well done and feels kind of like an action movie trailer.

I'm not really sure if this is true, but I found this reported about two and a half years ago on a site called myLot.

Glen Fergusson - Sales and Marketing manager for a brand new Californian Porsche dealer. Has lost his job and faces possible legal proceedings as the company strives to reclaim the costs of the 18 Porches given away free under Glen's Opening day "buy one get one free promotion" "I admit I didn't really do the numbers properly on this one" said Glen who told reporters that he had "seen the concept work really well for coffee stores" and in terms of numbers you could argue that Glen's campaign worked. As the new Porsche dealer sold 18 Porches in the first hour of the store opening.

It took the head office a full hour to realise what was going on and subsequently shut the store.

Local man Bruce Stepper took out a second mortgage on his home after getting a promotional flyer in his mailbox. "I am ecstatic - I brought a shiny red Porsche today, got another one free and I have sold just sold it on EBay, all up I end up getting a Porsche 911 for $5000"

Jane Cameron was arguably even more entrepreneurial. The local Janitor purchased a Porsche using the dealers "no deposit finance plan for low income earners", sold both cars, paid off the finance account and walked away with $120,000 profit. The finance plan was another one of Glen's initiatives that has now been cancelled.

A red faced Glen stated "I have never really been too good at Math and I was sure the whole time we were making money - I was initially blown away by the amount of cars we were selling in that first hour. I had seen the "buy one get one free card" work extremely well for the new coffee shop down the road and thought what a great idea I will try it here."

National spokesman for the dealership chain was quoted as saying "We are just glad that the idiot didn’t have time to run with his 'test drive 5 cars, get one free loyalty stamp card' campaign.

Seems a bit far fetched, but can you imagine if it actually did take place?! I suppose stranger things have happened.

[Via myLot.com]

Yep, back-to-back Porsche sightings. Don't you love living vicariously through someone else?! Here's a little bit from Paul on these two pictures:

The black porsche, I noticed as we drove through the town of Princeton, which is located between Frisco and Caddo Mills. Princeton is a very small town on a farm highway in Texas.

This little fella looks dirty and neglected. It's actually parked in front of a cafe and has been there each of the three days we've driven by. I'm not even sure if it's running or not….looks like the makings of a decent car though.

The Epic Journey continues with a Porsche Cayman spotted in Frisco, TX. "The silver Porsche I saw approach the light and grabbed my camera and hoped I'd snag it as it went by at the light in front of us. I had to get a shot off before it crossed in the path of the car in front of me, or I'd miss it." He's getting better at being at the ready for those Porsche spottings!

We don't feature a lot of modern day 911 Targa videos, so I thought I'd change things up a little today and post up a video I found on BroadBandSports.com. The Targa in the video is pretty sweet and I love how the roof opens. Darn near the best of both the Coupe and Cabriolet worlds. Just a heads up, there's a short "commercial" at the start of the video. Stick with it though.