Progressed further with the Lego Westy. I have built a few Lego technic cars in years gone by,

I started with the 8860 car chassis model. The westy is a mix of old and new style lego technic pieces.

Here is a pic of the rear chassis complete with rear suspension and diff. The diff configuration is a fairly standard set up on large lego technic car models:

After contemplating which engine to use for about 1 second I decided on a V8

This engine either V8 or V10 is fairly popular in a lot of current lego technic car models:

The gearbox - biggest headache so far being restricted by space its limited to four speed. My first attempt had 2 forward and 2 reverse gears Finally got a configuration to work with 4 forward gears but unfortunately no reverse. The four upturned bushes to the right of the picture above the drive shaft are for the remote gear linkage:

Trial assembly of parts so far. I need to do this to assemble the drive train and tweak gearbox ratios and also to position engine, gearbox and remote gear level assembly so the are all in the correct position:

Once the drive train is fitted correctly I built the chassis around it connecting the rear section to the front, is this how real ones are built :