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<\/p>\nThe other day, I drove my Boxster from home to Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, to attend the Porsche Track Experience held at the former Nanki-Shirahama Airport site. Meanwhile, my husband and daughters headed there in the Panamera.<\/p>\n
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The distance from home to Shirahama is about 180 km. The day before, when I met some moms from the kindergarten, they said, \u201cYou\u2019re going again tomorrow, right? Be careful,\u201d and I replied, \u201cYeah, but it\u2019s not as far as Fuji, and Shirahama is pretty close this time.\u201d <\/p>\n
They responded, \u201cNo way\u2026 Shirahama is still quite far (-_-)\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s when I realized my sense of distance was starting to drift from reality (lol).<\/p>\n Although 180 km is relatively close for our long-distance trips, I had never driven that far in the Boxster before, so I was a bit nervous. But after actually driving that distance, I was reminded:<\/p>\n The Boxster is a car that\u2019s great to drive anywhere.<\/p>\n Whether on the highway, mountain roads, or regular streets, it\u2019s a joy to drive.<\/strong> The ride at low speeds isn\u2019t uncomfortable, the highway cruising is smoother than I imagined, and it\u2019s a stress-free car no matter where you drive it.<\/p>\n I\u2019d also heard the rumors, but the fuel economy isn\u2019t bad either. On the way there, there was a huge traffic jam on the Hanshin Expressway, forcing me to crawl in first gear for about 2 km between Ebie and Awaza. But including the highway cruising afterward, the overall fuel efficiency on the way there was 10.2 km\/L<\/strong> (9.8 l\/100 km)<\/span>.<\/p>\n Not bad at all!<\/p>\n Last month, when I went to Fuji in the BMW 320i, I often got cut off or couldn\u2019t accelerate as I wanted, which was stressful. Of course, the 320i is a great car with excellent highway stability, but I couldn\u2019t help comparing it to the Porsche\u2026 With the Boxster GTS, a little throttle input brings smooth, powerful acceleration, making highway driving truly comfortable.<\/strong><\/p>\n That said, highways in the Kinki region often have two-lane sections or heavy traffic (it narrows to one lane for a while after Arita IC)<\/span>, so I mostly drove safely without pushing the Boxster\u2019s limits. On the other hand, on wider, less busy highways like the Chugoku Expressway on weekdays, I realized I need to be very careful not to overdo it.<\/p>\n Even when forced to crawl slowly on the highway in the Boxster, just downshifting a bit or switching to Sport Plus mode to enjoy the engine sound made it fun. (Since my husband was driving the Panamera ahead, I wasn\u2019t tailgating anyone, lol)<\/span><\/p>\n Being able to add variety and keep things interesting while driving<\/strong> helped me stay fresh and not get tired on the roughly 180 km drive to Shirahama.<\/p>\n This trip made me think again, \u201cI\u2019m really glad I learned to drive a manual.<\/strong>\u201d Of course, automatics shift smoothly, can be faster, and are easier to drive, and you can still enjoy driving them.<\/p>\n But with a manual, even though I\u2019m still not great at shifting and fuel economy is definitely worse than an automatic, you get the real feeling of driving with your own skill<\/strong>, which is the true joy and appeal.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also rewarding to feel yourself gradually getting better at the controls.<\/p>\n Before driving a manual, I thought, \u201cShifting in traffic jams is such a hassle.<\/strong>\u201d But actually, that\u2019s where the depth and fun lie.<\/p>\n I\u2019m also glad I bought the BMW 320i. If the Boxster was the only manual car in our family, I probably would still be too scared to drive a manual and never have learned (lol).<\/p>\n Readers have often advised me, \u201cWhy not practice driving manuals in a non-Porsche manual first? You\u2019ll improve faster that way.<\/strong>\u201d I thought, \u201cThere\u2019s no way I could make a manual my daily driver,<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cIf I\u2019m going to practice, I\u2019d have to buy one myself.<\/strong>\u201d After discussing with my husband, I finally took the plunge and bought a manual car.<\/p>\n By practicing daily in the 320i, I got used to manual operation, lost my fear of the Porsche manual, and now I can drive the Boxster normally. I feel like I\u2019m opening a new door in the world of driving.<\/p>\n At first, I was full of anxiety, but I\u2019m really glad I took that step, and I\u2019m grateful my husband accepted adding another manual car to our family as a replacement for the Golf.<\/strong><\/p>\n Now, I purely want to get better and better at driving.<\/p>\n I used to have no interest in cars at all and even thought they were useless, but now I feel like, \u201cWow, over the years, I\u2019ve been completely brainwashed by my husband…<\/strong>\u201d these days (lol).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Driving the Boxster to Wakayama The other day, I drove my Boxster from home to Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, to attend the Porsche Track Experience held at the former Nanki-Shirahama Airport site. Meanwhile, my husband and daughters headed there in the Panamera. The distance from home to Shirahama is about 180 km. The day before, when I met some moms from the kindergarten, they said, \u201cYou\u2019re going again tomorrow, right? Be careful,\u201d and I replied, \u201cYeah,...","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/?p=15688"},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_5873-1280x960.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nManual Transmission Is Fun<\/h3>\n
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