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I think impact-absorbing ability would be better with the cones than with other materials I've looked at. They're pretty soft, particularly when the lip is cut off, and I think they would be shatter-proof, even when they're cold. They should be able to handle low-speed scrapes like curbs and steep driveways better than harder materials, I would think. It would be nice to have them made from dark colors so every little scrape didn't turn bright orange where the paint got rubbed off.
I would probably mount them with screws and maybe some small washers so they could pull off over the heads if they got tangled in something on the road, without imparting too much stress to the sheet metal.
Once they fell off, I think they'd be less dangerous for other roadway users than, say, plastic airdams and OEM molded mudflaps and such that seem to be made from harder materials. Certainly not as bad as shredded chunks of semi-truck tire.
I like your idea of having pre-defined weak points to control how fairings would break in an impact. That's something that I've thought aftermarket body kits should have so when they get hit lightly they don't unnecessarily damage the underlying structure.
I suppose the best solution would be to make mounts for them that bolted securely to the car and provided suitable mounting points for the cut cone. That way if the you ran over something in the road, the cone could peel off the mount without doing any damage, and you could just cut and mount another cone. I probably won't go to that much trouble on mine. Maybe if I had a more popular vehicle so that I thought I could make and sell a few sets.
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