A Change of Heart Triggered by Royu

The other day, after participating in the “Sunday Morning Gathering at Royu Driveway”, I experienced a big shift in my mindset. The “me who had absolutely no interest in cars until a few years ago” and the “me who chose an automatic-only license without hesitation 19 years ago at driving school” — I never imagined a day like this would come… and I’m the most surprised of all.

I truly feel, “you never know what life will throw at you.”

…But since that sounds vague, let me get straight to the point:

I’ve decided to buy an MT car myself.

…What,

Whaaaaat (ﾟдﾟ)!!!!???

I can almost hear people saying, “Hey Mina, did you hit your head or something?” but honestly, without any lies or exaggeration, this is exactly what I’m thinking right now.

What Driving an MT Opens Up…

As I briefly mentioned in my recent Royu article, the kind owner kindly offered me to drive their 718 Boxster GTS (MT), but my husband stopped me before I could.

“Mina, it’s impossible for you. You’ll break the clutch, so don’t even try.”

At the time, I understood perfectly — “It’s their precious Porsche, and I’m not confident enough with MT driving yet, so that’s only natural.” But as five, ten minutes passed, frustration started to well up inside me. Watching others confidently handle their MT Porsches and drive off with style only made that frustration grow bigger and bigger.

If I could drive an MT car without problems, I would have had the chance to drive the 718 Boxster GTS on that day. The 718 Boxster GTS is such a rare model that even asking for a test drive at a dealer is usually impossible.

A long time ago, there was an English school slogan that said, “If you can speak English, you can talk to a billion people,” and the same applies to MT driving.

If you can drive an MT, you can drive almost any car in the world (except large trucks and such).

Surely, your world expands dramatically. Yet here I am, missing out on so many opportunities. Or maybe it’s just my stubborn competitive streak kicking in, haha.

A Woman Who Masters Porsche MT Cars

Lately, I’ve started thinking this way:

“I want to become a cool woman who confidently drives a Porsche MT.”

Looking around, there aren’t many women who can handle MT cars well. So if I could drive a Porsche MT with style on the Royu Driveway or cruise through town handling an MT car (though no one around would even realize it’s an MT), that would be incredibly cool.

I think this desire comes from my contrarian streak that likes to do things differently from others.

Back in elementary school on a field trip to Itsukushima Shrine in Miyajima, Hiroshima, everyone was buying the famous souvenir “shamoji (rice paddle),” but because everyone was buying the same thing, I deliberately bought a “pasta server” instead. (Like this one↓)

*Image source: Amazon PRO SERIES Wooden Spaghetti Server Standard

When I gave it to my mother after returning home, she immediately said,

“No, no, Miyajima means ‘shamoji’! And besides, we hardly ever eat spaghetti at home!”

I still remember how strongly she reacted. I guess I was a bit odd (-_-).

Anyway, back to the point: because I have a contrarian streak that likes to do things differently, and because there are so few women who can drive MT cars, I want to be one of those women who can drive an MT car.

My Porsche MT Car

You might say, “If you want to drive MT so badly, why don’t you just practice more?” but our Boxster GTS is a two-seater.

That means if I want to practice driving with my husband sitting beside me (I’m still too scared to go alone), I have to arrange for someone to watch the kids, like when we went to Royu Driveway recently and my mother-in-law looked after them.

Thinking about it, unless I have an MT car that can seat four or more people so the kids can ride along, it’s tough to practice MT driving regularly.

Plus, since the Boxster is my husband’s cherished first Porsche that fulfilled his childhood dream, I can’t help but worry about scratching it, crashing it, or messing up the clutch. So I can’t just practice carelessly.

Before I knew it, time passed without me practicing MT driving at all (totally just an excuse, I know, haha).

My husband says,

“Why don’t you just slap a beginner’s mark on the next GT3 Touring (MT) and practice? No one will come near you, haha.”

But honestly, I don’t think that’s a good idea, and besides, a GT3 is a two-seater too… I’d be even more nervous than with the Boxster.

While reflecting on my frustration at Royu Driveway, an idea popped into my head:

Why not just buy a Porsche MT car myself?

Saying “just buy it!” sounds easy, but honestly, I don’t have that kind of money, haha. Still, if it’s my own Porsche, I wouldn’t have to worry about “someone else’s precious car” and could drive it as much as I want.

So I started searching used car sites right away, but Porsche MT cars are expensive (of course, haha). Even when I found something that looked cheap, it usually had very high mileage or was an older model, and my husband said, “Even if you buy it cheap, maintenance will cost a fortune.”

So it seems like jumping straight into a Porsche MT car is impossible for me right now… (-_-)

If I just want to practice MT driving, maybe I could buy a cheap Japanese MT car, but in the past, I was “good at driving the comfort car at driving school but totally lost it in the Boxster,” and even when I drove my brother’s Subaru Legacy (MT), he said, “You’re getting the hang of it,” but when I got home and drove the Boxster again, I was still no good.

So I want an MT car that feels as close to a Porsche as possible.

…That means a Volkswagen Golf, huh…

I started browsing online for “Golf” and other promising MT cars. When I consulted my husband, he said,

A Golf GTI MT that’s not heavily modified would be good, right? Also, a BMW 3 Series FR MT would be great for learning the basics. Honestly, I kind of want one myself, haha.

So maybe that’s the way to go. But to be honest, since I’m a woman, I’d rather spend money on removing facial spots and whitening first.

But if I keep thinking like that, I’ll never become the cool woman who confidently drives a Porsche MTヽ(`Д´)ﾉ!

So while keeping my goal to “buy a Targa someday” (though there’s no Japanese-spec MT Targa right now…), I’m seriously thinking about getting a “used MT car with four or more seats” (so the kids can ride too) sometime this year.