i did post this before ..on another thread.....back in 2008 a stoned girl in her Prius in LA hit me hard from behind , i guess she did not see the red light ahead.Front of her Prius was total goner ..i drove away ..she had to get tow truck........here is a pic on my 911 bumper .Just had to replace one bumper shock and realign it Not even scratch to the paint....if i would have the euro type or none ,there would have been mucho damage...;-)http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736007981.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736008107.jpg

Why did I ditch mine? It started with nonfunctional license plate illumination which turned out, in part, to stem from rusted out bits inside the bumperette. They were a mess inside and I didn’t really like them anyway so they got ditched. Ended up using some LED bolt things to stay legal with license plate illumination and the back end looks much cleaner now.

Lucky it wasn't a F150, millions of them on the road. I would say in my neighborhood of 100 houses and roughly 200 cars, 190 of them would impact me at the decklid or rear reflector. So what good are those bumperettes in this day and age?

Many 'no ones' among us...
But as I said before: Tastes and colors are not up for discussion.

Bumpers did their job.

Would have done the same for more than 50% of the vehicles on the road extrapolating from this list.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736023083.jpg

Small cars don't tend to do well hit by any of the "man-sized" behemoths commonplace these days, say your goodbyes if it's a Cybertruck.

Luckily, on the open roads or the hills, not as many there .... however ... if one does show up in your rearview mirror, that simply means you're not driving fast enough ;)

That's where driving the 911 is the most enjoyable anyway and where the 911 spends most of its time unless you happen to be someone in LA.

I'll keep the bumpers.
As the OP pointed out, good place for beer and tools as well.

They are over 14 lbs together way out on the back of a rear mounted engine car. Reason enough for me and I don't like the look of them.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736031391.JPG

I like the look. Mine looks just like a new one did back when I was in high school. It would look naked without the bumperettes.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736032553.JPG

The black makes a pretty good contrast on this one (1989) too. To me, it looks just like it is supposed to look.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736033132.JPG

Looks fine on this 356 as well.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736035764.jpg

In contrast, this plastic rear cover aka bumpers below are just massive and high and seems to getting more so in each new generation ... IMO of course !

I do get why though ... the aforementioned rolling behemoths.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736038702.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736038460.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736038560.jpg

1981 911SC ROW - I kept the small bumperettes on.

1987 930 - I removed the bumperettes, because the hot turbo was melting the left one.

1986 911 - leaving the bumperettes on.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736041235.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736041044.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736041288.jpg

Man, I wish it was still 2008.

Alas, the landscape has worsened, dramatically, in the ensuing sixteen+ years...

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/g60385784/bestselling-cars-2024/

Besides, I don't think getting hit by a current Accord, Camry, Subaru, etc will be THAT much better than all the pickups & SUVs on the road these days.

If one is intellectually honest about driving our funny little German cars in modern traffic, we are dancing with elephants (including the Accords & Camrys) at all times, save for, perhaps, the queue on the way into Luftgekühlt.

Plastic bumper covers aside, the actual bumper heights of opposing vehicles is largely unfavorable...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736161998.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736161998.jpg


If your bumperettes save you in a rear end collision, don't bother going out and buying a lotto ticket that day as you've already used up all your luck.

The trend is certainly not a friend of our little cars however ... average age of vehicles on the road is 12-13 years and the bloating seems to have gotten a lot worse only in the past couple years so don't count them out yet.

That lowering them is common practice doesn't help !

Here's my Targa at what I believe is factory height ... it still has a good fighting chance, relatively speaking ...
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736216010.jpg

just like this one here ...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736047383.jpg

the tubes absorb the hits. the extra fatness of the butt ugly-ugly butt units would be marginally better, it anything.

I love the delete look and its on my to do list. But, I do like the ability to sit on them from time to time.

https://i.imgur.com/hudHtxVh.jpg

I had two rear ending experience in SoCal traffic back in the 1990s. The first one was minimal damage as the hit squarely at roughly the same height. All was good, save some scuffing. In the second one, I had my foot off the brakes and the small car hit me pretty good. I got out and met the driver at the rear of the car and she was happy that my car was not damaged. We walked to the front of my car and found that she had pushed me under the pickup in front of me...the one with a metal bumper and trailer hitch with ball. That truck took out both front fenders, hood and front bulkhead. She almost cried. Insurance wanted to scrap the car, but I talked them out of it. I still have it, although it has been backdated now.

My take is that the big fat rear bumperettes "might" help in the right situation. I never liked that heavy look of the 1980s cars (mine is an 85). When I removed all that mess to backdate the car. I couldn't believe how much it all weighed...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1736283900.jpg
Here my version. The side rubber is made from the Frontbumper rubber. The lights are standard.

The other trend, apart from a small handful of holdouts, is that these cars are no longer daily driven / commuted in.

Perhaps people will start raising ride heights and adding bumperettes across the full width of the bumper? 😉

This thread is exactly like the thread about the same topic that occurred 5 years ago. I think it's the same commenters (including myself) too. lol

I got T-Boned by a F150 doing over 70 in my968, I still feel it,