I Removed My AT-Only Restriction in 2015

To be able to drive the Boxster GTS (MT), I lifted my AT-only license restriction three years ago. After many ups and downs, there was a time I almost gave up, thinking “Manual driving is just impossible for me.” But last month, when I drove it again after a long break, I started to get a feel for the MT. So last weekend, my husband and I went out for another driving practice session.

By the way, since the Boxster is a two-seater, we asked my mother-in-law to watch the kids.

When I first started practicing with the Boxster, I could only manage to drive very slowly through quiet, flat residential streets with almost no traffic lights. But recently, we’ve been practicing on the Royu Driveway. That said, since our home is on a hilly road, my husband drove us to the Royu Driveway (though honestly, I should be driving from home for proper practice),

and we switched drivers in a quiet parking area.

Honestly, before, I was overthinking everything and couldn’t even properly feel when the clutch engaged. I was so scared of stalling that I eased the clutch too slowly, sometimes taking over 30 seconds just to start moving. This time, I cleared my mind and focused on “listening to the car’s sound (voice) instead of the tachometer,” and operated the clutch by feel… and for the first time, I was able to start smoothly!

Aha!!

Finally, I could sense where the Boxster’s clutch engages by sound and feel!

Feeling confident, I suddenly pressed the accelerator hard, determined “I’m not going to let the Boxster get the better of me today!” but my husband stopped me with,

“Wait, no need to speed like that! Just take it slow!”

When I said, “But every time you say the Boxster looks like it’s about to tip over, so today I wanted to prove you wrong,” he advised,

“That doesn’t mean you can treat the accelerator and clutch roughly. It’s important to be quick but gentle.”

Taking his advice, I focused on smooth, careful operation, and he praised me, saying, “You’re getting the hang of it.” Then we practiced shifting between 3rd and 4th gears for a while: “Okay, 3rd gear, now 4th, back to 3rd.”

An Incident from 5th to 4th Gear

Then, as we approached a long straight, my husband said,

“Alright, now shift into 5th gear.”

What?! 5th gear (；ﾟДﾟ)！？

I’d never shifted into 5th before, so I nervously managed to get it in and kept driving. Then, seeing a curve ahead, he said,

“Now shift down to 4th gear.”

Nervously, I pushed the gear lever down hard, and suddenly the engine sound went weird.

No! That’s not 4th gear! That’s 2nd gearヽ(`Д´)！！

my husband said.

“Ah! Really? (*_*) Sorry!” I panicked and quickly corrected the gear to avoid trouble, and he explained,

“When shifting from 5th to 4th, you don’t need to force it. Just lightly pull the lever down; it will return to neutral by itself, then push down again to get 4th.”

From then on, we practiced repeatedly shifting 5th→4th→3rd→4th→5th→4th→3rd.

The Boxster’s First Roar!

As I got more comfortable, my husband said,

“You’re slowing down too much when downshifting. It’s okay, but if you blip the throttle to match revs during downshifts, you get a smoother shift and a cooler sound.”

I said, “No way, that’s too advanced for me right now (-_-),” but he replied, “Then just switch to Sport Plus mode. It blips the throttle automatically. It’s noisy in the city, but this is a mountain road.” and turned on Sport Plus mode.

At this point, fuel economy was the last thing on my mind (lol).

Later, accelerating and shifting into 4th gear, when he said, “Now 3rd gear!” I downshifted, and the Boxster roared!

“Vroooom!!!!”

I exclaimed, “Wow!! The Boxster roared for the first time! What is this?! It feels amazing!!!” and my husband smiled, saying,

“See? It’s fun, isn’t it? (￣ー￣）”

I got carried away and kept shifting, hearing the Boxster’s roar with every downshift,

So exhilaratingーー(*ﾟ∀ﾟ)!!(Old expression)

I even heard the backfire sound when easing off the accelerator — a “bubababa-parabara” (hard to describe) — and was thoroughly satisfied.

After stopping the car, I practiced hill starts and hill backing a few times, and for the first time in my practice, I didn’t stall once (I know, low bar lol) and finally thought, “Driving a manual is fun!”

That said, I got pretty tired after driving for so long, so I switched with my husband and he drove us home.

Before, I would have thought “How does he drive such a hilly road in an MT?” while sitting next to him, but this time I thought,

“There are lots of hills, but even if I stall, the engine will start again on its own. And I can always use the handbrake manually. If I stay calm, I think I can handle it.”

So I feel I’ve made real progress. I hope to be able to drive from home to Royu on MT before the end of the year!