The image at right is a picture of an unremarkable little car: the Datsun B-210. I'm marginally familiar with the B-210 because when I was about seven years old, my parents had an equally unremarkable Datsun F10—the B-210's front-wheel-drive little brother.
Anyway, my parent's choice in cars isn't why I'm writing this article. The shifter on this Datsun B-210 is.
If you look closely at the ad at the right, you'll notice that the five-speed gear change layout has reverse up where first normally is and first down where second is. This is called a dog-leg arrangement, and it's really unusual to see it on an old Datsun POS.
The dog-leg gearbox was originally adopted because in certain classes of cars (particularly sports cars and very large trucks) first gear is rarely used. Typical race or autocross courses rarely involve the use of first gear, but do typically require a lot of shifting into and out of second and third. Similarly, large trucks often have a high-ratio first gear used only in situations where a whole boatload (err, truckload) of torque is required, and that usually doesn't happen around town.
So the dog-leg gearbox lets drivers avoid an unnecessary lateral move in shifting, if you're only ever dealing with second through fifth.
Now, the dog-leg has lost favor because it's unconventional (meaning most people don't immediately know how to drive it) and isn't quite as useful with a six-speed transmission. It's also going to slow down any shift work when first gear is involved, which tends to happen when drag racing.
So do I like the dog-leg gearbox? Heck yes. But please, if you have to drive one, drive something other than the B-210.
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