Newbie Porsche owner

[ranbar2]

Hello all. I am the proud owner of a 2000 S. This is my first porsche and I am having so much fun with it. It is also the first time I have ever driven a manual transmission, but my neighbor (who autocrosses) threatened to shoot me if I bought a boxster with a tip. And I had to agree with him. This car was NOT made for an automatic. So, I have spent the past couple of weeks hoping that I don't tear up my clutch. But, other then the relatively tight gates, this car has been very forgiving and I have had a blast learning the nuances of driving a stick. One thing I have noticed in some of these posts is that people seem to run at high rpms. I usually stay in the 3000-4000 range. Any thoughts? Also, have yet to put it in 6th. 5th has gotten me well into the ticket danger zone!!

I am going to try to put a pic of my car on here. It is rainforest green. Originally I wanted silver but here in tampa, silver and black are all I see. And the green matches my subie forester. I don't know why there aren't more green boxsters, it is such a beautiful color and seems to suit the car.

[donv]

It is a beautiful color and rarely seen -- green was my second choice after Lapis. Enjoy the car!

[Pilot2519j]

Good luck and enjoy the car! Remember is real quick in the 4-7 k rpm ticket writing territory if you know what I mean. I had mine since Dec 2003, Boxster 2003S love it use it daily.

[Stryke]

Green ones tend to have worn out clutches!

Congrats!

[Ad Sach]

First... Congratulations on your car!

The Rain Forest Green is a beautiful color. Looking at paint ships before ordering, the green was not very interesting. After 2 years of Boxster ownership RainForest Green and Cobalt Blue would be high on my list.

re: "I usually stay in the 3000-4000 range. Any thoughts?"

For the 1st 6 months, I usually stayed about 3500 RPM, including cruising on the freeway. Now that I have 32,000 miles with Sonja, I have learned that fuel mileage in Freeway cruising is much better at the lower RPM that still allows you to accelerate smoothly - usually somewhere around 2600-2800RPM.

The power occurs between 4500-7200 RPM (on the S), For spirited driving, rapid acceleration, race tracks, I believe the RPMS should be kept in the power band.

These cars have an electronic limitter that won;t allow the driver to accelerate to a higher RPM than the engine can handle. If one is careless and picks the wrong gear, it is possible to overrev the engine with the clutch - this can destroy your engine - so obviously you want to be careful in downshifting.

I found it helpful to memorize the maximum speed in each gear. This was done by watching the spedometer while accelerating in each gear. For my 02 S, I have read 1-42, 2-75, 3-99, 4-125, 5-150, 6-+.

Enjoy your car!

[mjbliemel]

Rainforest Green is nice, congrats and good to see you going with the manual and not the tip. I pesonally find the tip the ultimate heresy on a car like the Boxster. Enjoy the ride!