Nice car & pics. I installed the IMS Guardian myself, not difficult but I combined the install with some basic maintenance, oil change, filters etc.
My Tiptronic selects 1st gear on hill starts but most of the time its starts in 2nd.
Good luck with the winter driving. I'm going skiing at the weekend but I have 4WD Nissan Elgrand with snow tyres for that. The Boxster stays in the garage when we go to the snow