Am I the only 2012 Turbo S owner that dreads scraping the front bumper everywhere?
 

So I've been driving my car for a few weeks now this season and have had it for 4 years, now that the weather is great again and warm. I plan to drive it all summer and into the fall, hardly ever using the Mercedes, unless I have to chauffeur friends around or take my bicycle somewhere on the weekend (most Sundays). I adore the 997 Turbo S but I notice that it regularly scrapes a sharp angled driveway or a parking lot where it's a bit more of a severe raised or lowered area than expected. I'm SO careful as to not to scrape but it occasionally does.

The bottom of the bumper scrapes and it crushes my soul a bit when this happens. You can't see the scrape marks that much when looking at the car so I'm grateful for that. I can't for the life of me figure out why people would want to lower their cars. Mine scrapes so easily... wouldn't a lowered car scrape even more easily? Then what's the point? You could only drive the car on perfect, flat roads, right?

I'm afraid to let anyone park my car in their parking lot, or even drive my car somewhere since the front end is so low, they won't know to back in correctly, or drive into a garage on a serious angle so VERY slowly so as not to scrape the precious front bumper. They just wouldn't know.

I guess there's simply no way to avoid this then, right? I can't "higher" my car, right? Of course not...I drove into the parking lot of a shopping center the other day and man did it scrape ever so slightly. The angle didn't seem severe at all but I guess it was. Arghhhhh... I try to keep the car so perfect, but it's impossible. Even on the RDS Road Rally last year near Philly, the 3 hour course was so much fun, trying to find the clues on the list with a partner, and then all of a sudden, we drove down a hill, and when I made the right hand turn, the front bumper dramatically scraped due to the sharp angle. There were so many other Porsches, McLarens and nice cars on this drive. My car has the XPEL stuff on it so when it scrapes it's rough on the bottom of the bumper and it compromises the plastic coat stuff. It basic looks rough when I look at it closely from underneath. Dang.... Thanks for letting me vent. The quality of my problems, today. Not too bad I guess.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...4d24be8d28.jpg

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...119ec74567.jpg

I had thought about lowering mine. My previous Carrera's and Cayman all got lowered with H&R springs. However I agree with you, the turbo bumper with the splitter is so deep it catches in lots of places. I think if I lowered it, the splitter would catch everywhere!

I understand. Mines lowered and scrapes on everything. Plus, it rides way to harsh on the H&R coilover suspension. It’s so bad, I’m in the process of returning everything back to OEM. Love the look but want to enjoy driving it.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...1ee32667b.jpeg

i found it gets better over time. I have had my 997TT for 6 years now, and I am on my third lip. Not bad in my book.

:cheers:

I haven't gone through the science or math of this but it's my belief that if I negotiate at a diagonal (one wheel at a time) it seems to have more clearance

( I could be totally wrong about this and if it wasn't raining I'd go out and check my hypothesis)

I am probably wrong - https://www.quora.com/Why-is-driving...r-for-your-car

This is not a Porsche part, but an option, (cups) anyone try it? I might, I need to add coilovers anyway
https://www.stanceparts.com/

Unfortunately mine just sits in my garage with a cover on it so I haven't had that problem lately - time to sell I think.

no scientist either, but I agree with you

Despite those Quora "answers" I'm not sure you're wrong, and in my experience it seems to work. I've also seen videos of guys in stance culture (cars .5" off the ground) and they swear by the diagonal method for speed bumps, driveways, etc.

no question that traversing down a hill (which is what MexicoBlueTurboS describes) limits the impact of an elevation change like the seam where a drive approach meets the street. Again, no science...just a little intuition.

If you are just scraping the front lip, I wouldn't worry about it. That part is essentially a consumable. If you were scraping the bumper, then that would be another story.

In the limited time the Quora link was visible (wanted me to login with Facebook to continue..) I think the answers were geared towards speed bumps.. an inclined drive is a whole different animal, and approaching at an angle def helps.

No problem here and mine is even lowered...the front lip is a consumable item so just have one or two as back up and it is easy to install over a couple of beers. :to_order: