Shift Lever Offset

[Steve Cassani]

Most of the replica and all of the original small-block cars, including the race cars, have the shift lever well left of the car centerline. Why is this? Was the original Borg-Warner gearbox configured so as to require the off-set?

I'm not sure the engine in the 260 and 289 cars was installed slighly right of the cars centerline, suggesting an inline engine location would put the gear lever still further to the left or closer to the driver, perhaps uncomfortably close. Do the engine and lever off-sets together compensate for the linkage and lever connection being on the left side of the transmission, rather than on center?

I'm asking because the gearbox I have specified in the build is a T5. This transmission lends itself to a lever location at the center of the transmission tunnel. What mechanical advantage would I realize by modifying the T5linkage to locate the gear lever as in the original cars?