Every few months a client asks us to convert a dogleg gearbox to a conventional H-pattern, and every few months we talk them out of it over a long lunch and a longer drive.

Down and to the left

The dogleg pattern puts second, third and fourth in a straight line — the gears you actually use on a good road. First, banished down-and-left, becomes what it should be: a pulling-away gear, visited once per journey.

On a race grid in 1986 it made sense. On the right B-road in 2026, it still does. The lunch offer stands.