A history of the IMPACT BUMPER 911

Once controversial, now instantly familiar, we chart the long career of the G-body Porsche 911

- Tim Pitt

After the giddy heights of the 1973 Carrera 2.7 RS, Porsche entered the following year on much shakier ground. The oil crisis was deepening, sales had plunged by 40 per cent, and the US had introduced stringent new safety and emissions legislation. However, Stuttgart makes a habit of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat – and so it proved with the ‘impact-bumper’ 911.

The new US-compliant bumpers, introduced in 1974, had distinctive plastic bellows that could compress by 50mm to withstand a 5mph impact without any damage. Designed by Wolfgang Möbius, they were controversial at first, yet soon became a familiar part of the 911 silhouette, enduring for 15 years until the 964 debuted in 1989. Technically, the term ‘G-series’ refers only to 1974 model-year cars, but it’s widely used to describe any 911 with impact bumpers. 

The changes for 1974 stretched well beyond crash protection, though. The former hierarchy of T, E and S was replaced by a 150hp base model known simply as ‘911’, the 173hp 911S and 210hp Carrera 2.7. The latter was powered by the same MFI engine found in the ’73 RS. Sadly for US customers, only the Carrera 2.7 destined for overseas territories got the RS engine. Due to US emissions rules, the US-spec Carrera got a strangled version with a different engine, and so it isn’t as sought after among collectors today.