This is a classic:
http://www.flownet.com/gat/jpl-lisp.html
Also check his open code lisp section!
I would like to add as somebody whose first language was lisp, car/cdr never represented a problem. It looks more balanced than first/rest.
The thing that got me were emacs, SICP lectures and the whole idea of lisp writing lisp. I don't think changing syntax would help much because lisp attracts certain types of people (I believe).