European / ROW rear bumper on a USA 1987 951

[chrischrischris]

I am spending close to a year in Germany and brought my 951 with me so I can experience the local Porsche scene. Of course, I was extremely motivated by the desire to push my car to the limit on the Autobahn.

Also, I thought it would be fun to find a used European rear bumper and have it fitted to my car while I'm here in Germany. This project took some time, but the bumper is now installed and the whole experience was special and memorable because I got to meet one of my YouTube heroes: Johannes of the Greasy Fingers channel. He owns and restores a variety of classic cars and has been posting a lot of great 944 films on his channel.

It was so much fun to meet Johannes and to work together fitting the bumper in his Bavarian workshop. He was very generous with his time and he did an amazing job restoring the bumper and the color match to my car is 100% to my eyes. During the bumper install, he noticed a small rust bubble emerging on my rear fender and did a quick treatment to stabilize the area so it would not spread.

This is just an example of how the classic Porsche hobby enables us to enjoy these great cars but also brings people together and creates great memories.

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[996C438]

First off I like the color of your car . Color match on the bumper is outstanding . And euro bumper is a nice improvement in looks . Well done

[NCGermerican]

Love his channel! I was sorry to hear that his red 944 Turbo is up for sale. He put a ton of time into it! Is he getting another one? He sounded like he wanted to keep a 951 in his collection. I'm sure I saw a white 951 in one of his videos.....

What's keeping you in Germany for a year? I spent much of 2002 living in Heidelberg and spending time with my (distant) relatives southwest of Stuttgart (just outside the Schwarzwald).

[MoeMonney]

Ive always liked the euro bumper. It's how the car was originally designed. Looks much better in my opinion than the US bumper. Both my brother and I have euro bumpers on our cars.

[chrischrischris]

I previously had no problem with the USA rear bumper, but after seeing the car without the impact bumper the Euro style looks like a big improvement. @MoeMonney I am impressed that both you and your brother have the "real" turbo & S2 style bumper, which has a larger rubber strip as well as the hidden towing point built into the driver's side mount.

@NCGermerican Johannes said that he had intended to restore and then sell Waltrout, the red 86 951. Since the car is not equipped with air conditioning, he is reluctant to keep it for himself since the summers get hot in southern Germany. He also has a white 89 951 which will be delivered to the new owner shortly. Both of those cars are in the last photo.

[Black944 turbo]

Super jealous of the euro rear bumper. Looks incredible.

My buddy that lives about 5 minutes from me bought his red turbo that he and his son toured the US in. It’s a very nice car and has had a lot of love put into it. Small world.

[ROB III]

@chrischrischris
Thank you so much for the posting of your new rear bumper. I was unaware of Johannes and Greasy Fingers, and like the overall tone of his posts!

[whalenlg]

We're anticipating your report on the 944 Autobahn performance!

I spent a few years there, mostly driving a Saab 9000, but did get some time behind the wheel of a 928S4 and 964 C4, Would love to run my 951 there now!

I tried to get an aftermarket euro -like bumper to fit, but it just wouldn't work. In the end, someone rolled into my stock bumper after that and I had no damage (just had to extend the shock back to normal).

[chrischrischris]

@whalenlg I used to be into the classic 900 cars before switching my focus to the 944.

If you want to try again, Porsche still makes the Euro rear bumper which you would need to have painted to match your car. It seems strange, but the bumper part number starts with "931." Johannes sent my fuel filler door to the paint manufacturer to create a custom match instead of just using the paint code. He thought this would be better since it would match the color as it exists today instead of how it looked 40 years ago.

The rubber strip is sold separately and is still available new, but the larger/thicker turbo/S2 version is NLA. The cheapest place to buy the mounting brackets in the USA is directly from the online Porsche parts dealers.

[Oringojin]

Ive always liked the euro bumper. It's how the car was originally designed. Looks much better in my opinion than the US bumper. Both my brother and I have euro bumpers on our cars.

Great looking cars! I love those Fuchs style wheels. What size and make are they? The black center ones look very big, 18 or 19 inch?