On the recommendation of a poster to a Porsche forum I frequent, I bought some LED dash light bulbs for my 944. Haven't tried those yet but on a whim, I also bought a pair of 1157 style LED bulbs for the '55 coupe, just to see if I could a) get some more light out of my taillights and b) reduce the amount of heat being radiated to my 50 year old taillight lenses. The "bulbs" I bought appeared to be actually fairly well designed, with not only an array of LEDs facing straight back, but also another array behind the circuit board to supposedly fill in to the sides and rear. Well, I put one in the driver's side and left the old 1157 in the passenger side, pulled out the hazard flasher switch, and guess what? Not only is the LED "bulb" dimmer than the 1157 when viewed straight on, but it's even more pathetic when viewed from the side. I will say that they had a nice red color but that's about it. Just had to spend the $10 or so to find out for myself. It really looks like the LED "bulb" would have been acceptable had it used higher output LEDs, but it didn't, so it isn't.
If anyone wants 'em to play with, drop me an email...
Oh well, 1157s work...
nate