We used to have a Pantera in the family. You know, pointy nose, big honkin’ V8 just behind your shoulder? It was good stuff. Another thing it had was a gated dogleg gearshift, the kind where first is visited on the rarest of occasions. Considering the copious quantities of torque the 351 pumped out, that was most often the case. And let me tell you, even with that minor annoyance a Pantera is a delight to drive around town, just as long as your left leg is up to the heavy clutch action.
That’s not always the case with cars that put first gear second. I recall a short stint in a Mercedes Benz 190 2.3-16, and those are not imbued with much in the way of oomph down low. That required an awkward left-ward snatch at every stop light and police pull-over.
So, we could say that a dogleg’s irritation level is most likely dependent on the engine to which it’s attached. Or maybe, it’s a onerous nod to a racing pedigree that’s of little use on the street. What do you think about them, are they the coolest of stick shifts, or are they an unnecessary annoyance to have to adjust to?
Image: PanteraPlace
Hooniverse Asks: Dogleg Gearshifts- Enthusiast Staple or Unnecessary Pain in the Ass?
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Coolest…but not for everyday consumption. Advantage is on older vehicles that would have more of a “bat in a barrel” feel with a regular boot, gates let you know what gear you’re grabbing.
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I was a bigger fan of doglegs until getting one, but I also didn’t take the time to really get used to it before tearing the car apart. There’s a pretty big pucker factor when you realize you’ve selected reverse in stop-and-go traffic on the freeway.
The refresh project includes all new clutch parts, so maybe 2nd gear starts will be a better option.-
I’ve had the same experience in the 318ti. Not technically a dog leg, I guess, since 1st is up and left, but reverse is to the left of that, instead of down from 5th as in all the other 5 speeds I’ve driven. There’s a detent to push through to get to reverse, but when you stall it and are in a panic to get moving again, it’s easy to blow through the detent and end up in reverse instead of 1st.
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Left and up is 1st in the PT Cruiser, but reverse in the Corvair. Right and down is reverse in the Cruiser, but 4th in the Corvair. Makes jumping from one to the other exciting, especially since neither seems to have much of a detent…
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I learned the drive a manual on a dogleg; a ’77 Datsun B-210 owned by my then-girlfriend. It even had a reverse beeper inside the car, that warned you that you were in reverse. After that, I drove a dogleg 5-speed for a eleven years; a ’76 Vega GT with the Borg-Warner 77mm 5-speed. You had to push down to select reverse. I had to replace the gearbox with a used one after a year, after a ham-handed tech at 4Day Tire trashed the thing trying to jam it into reverse The original one frequently required double-clutching, and a little patience, to enter reverse.
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Never driven one, so I can’t say, But I don’t have an overwhelming compulsion to, either.
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I guess the few I’ve driven might not count in this context, since “second” gear starts were the norm..
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj307/seminaryranger/Summer%20Super%20Duty/031.jpg-
Well, isn’t that convenient? Right and Left options so you don’t have to worry about which side of the cabin the steering wheel is located. Wait, what?
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I completely forgot about a Ram Cummins I got to drive with a similar shifter until I saw this. Is that what’s pictured? I got scolded for starting in L without a load. I remember I basically couldn’t do anything past just getting the truck going in L! Good times!
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I had a Borg-Warner dogleg 5 speed in my 1976 Buick SkyHawk. Since it was what I learned to drive in, I never had the ‘oh crap I’m in reverse’ moment but it took a long time after getting my next car to not start in second. And I still leave my current car in second when I park it just out of habit of putting the shifter in the lower left spot.
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That’s the same gearbox in the Vega – the Borg-Warner T-50, or “77mm” (what the shop manual calls it). They used Dexron III for lubrication, probably for cold weather driveability and fuel economy reasons. I had to replace the backup light switch once, which meant draining the ATF, since the switch was near the bottom.
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Ha! I had to replace the same switch.
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I spent a little bit of time behind the wheel of a Ford C600 and a C700. I don’t remember which one, but one had a pattern with 1 and 2 next to each other like this:
1 2 4 R
3 5
1 was a Granny gear, so I always started in 2. -
I guess in a 4 speed where the 4 is overdrive I could see it. In a modern 6 speed, blah.
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It’s the standard arrangement for three-speeds, whether mounted on the floor or on the column. As in other applications, it makes for convenient 2-3 and 3-2 shifts, so I’m okay with it. I learned to drive with one, so switching later to a four-speed column shift was a bit odd but quite manageable.
http://www.malaysiaminilover.com/photo/classicmanual.jpg-
In my TOTT F100, the 2-3 and 3-2 shifts are pretty easy. 1-2 is likely to have the lever come out of the column, though.
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In my first ’59 Ford, the pivot at the base of the lever (above and parallel to the main steering column, as in the illustrated example) eventually wore so much that pulling the lever back towards the steering wheel for first or reverse required one hand for the lever and one hand for the pivot point. First wasn’t synchronized, either, so this was just one more reason not to select it unless at a standstill.
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Wow, it totally did not occur to me that my ’66 GMC van counted. So I guess I DID have one, and was perfectly okay with it.
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Fun story: first tire shop I ever worked at, had an old (70s if I recall correctly)pickup truck come in, customer wanted new tires. Left the truck. Tech went to pull it in, came running back in looking like he saw a ghost. Said “y’all gotta see this! This thing has working clutch but an automatic shifter!” We all walked out to look, nobody else could make heads or tails of it. I hopped it and pulled it right into the bay.
They’d never seen anything other than an automatic with a column shifter. It was a group of us, all pretty young (I’m still under 30 myself) .
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I don’t see what the big deal is with the dogleg. As mdharrell said it’s the same as a 3-speed. But I grew up driving enough different things on the farm that I was used to checking a shift pattern *before* assuming a given gear was going to be in a given place in the pattern.
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Loved it when I had an early (SWB) 911; felt more “justified” since Porsche actually used the same transmission in their race cars…
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I suppose it could be a handy theft-deterrent if the knob was unmarked.
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The very presence of the third pedal alone is, unfortunately a theft deterrent in the USA.
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Or is that ‘fortunately’ , for us here?
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I’d say unfortunately because the market dictates what is made and available. And that makes it exponentially harder to find decent manual transmission vehicles, and the models being offered with manual transmissions are waning away 🙁
Just my $0.02-
The theft proofing is a nice bonus though.
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In the great French film Ascenseur a l’Echafaud (Lift to the Scaffold), the difficulty of stealing a Mercedes 300SL due to the dog-leg shifter is an important plot point.
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I had a dogleg 5 speed in my first 510 and it was great. It’s not a drag race configuration, but, these days, no manual is. The 1-2 was an easy shift, but the best thing was that out on twisty roads, where you never go below 2nd, it was more intuitive, kind of like a 4 speed with a really tall first.
Plus it’s the perfect arrangement for 1st-rRev rocking when trying to get unstuck (; -
They are the coolest 🙂
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