Ottawa Valley Land Rovers newsletter, February, 1994

by Robin Craig

Howdy folks! What more can I say? It's good to be around again. Well for those of you who have been living under a rock, the Rover group was sold to BMW on the first of this month. I guess BMW now stands for British Motor Works! I hope for all parties involved that this marriage in the continuing saga of the Land Rover Story works out. Also I trust that Land Rover Ltd remains unscathed by it all, because boys and girls, in case you have not noticed money is what it is all about. In other words the mana gement of the day will make decisions that dyed in the wool lovers of the aluminium beast like yourself view as abhorrent. Remember they run the company and not you.

Land Rover Owner (LRO) magazine is facing some competition on the home front. A publication put out by Link House, publishers of the British magazine Off Road And Four Wheel Drive, printed under the name of "Land Rover & Range Rover World" has surfaced . The blurb sent out to advertisers claims the following "Enjoying a close relationship with Land Rover Ltd, Land Rover World is the first dedicated magazine to offer credible adventure, technical, military and historical features devoted to the Lode Lane vehicles while presenting them in an attractive and aesthetically pleasing way which is enjoyable and at the same time, highly informative." As yet I have not seen it for myself. Those in the know in the UK that I have talked to say that it is not all i t is cracked up to be. The name Land Rover World is already in use by the factory as the title for it's own magazine sent out to commercial customers. On an historical note my archivist Bob Wood reminds me that it was Link House who were sparring partners for the Overlander magazine once put out by David Bowyer.

Talking of mediocre, LRO itself is suffering under its own internal power struggles and constraints. A number of respected writers, seem to have fallen out of favour from what I understand. Proof reading seems to have slipped somewhat over the last yea r. A number of cock ups with picture captions and the like leaves one to believe that there is room for improvement in the proof reading department.

The February LRO shows a picture claiming to be a series 3 gearbox. The gearbox has a short and a long lever sticking out of the top and attached to the frame in full view is a torsion bar. This is a 90/110! James Taylor admitted to me he did put the w rong photo in for publication but was surprised that the editor had not noticed it either. A more amusing faux-pas this month is some captioning for a jacking article by David Bowyer which states "Here the author is just demonstrating - his nuts are still in place". I'm sure we'll all sleep better knowing that!!

Charles (you can call me Master Corporal) Widenmaier is back on the road again. After just about a complete rebuild his 88 is up and raring to go. If any of you are planning on going up to the Petawawa area give him a call at 687 6688 and get together if you can. I have it on good authority that his vehicle used to be mistaken for a Coleman stove (if you want more details ask him). To put and end to that the rebuild was topped of with a two tone brown paint job, the nickname the Brown Bomber cant be far behind now.

If you like me collect the reduced Rovers then you might be interested to know that ED Models in Solihull of all places have a new released by JB models on sale. It is of a Series 3 109" hard top towing a trailer in 1/76 scale. This model is available at about 3.50 pounds directly plus taxes shipping etc or can be ordered through Terry Jones at the Hobby House location on Montreal Road here in town.

Finally a warning to all of you with the famous SPIN ON OIL FILTER ADAPTERS. David ( Daphne to his friends ) Lowe from Toronto relates a tale of I think it was four engine strip downs on one vehicle in about as many days. The vehicle in question has a spin on oil filter adapter fitted. Unfortunately the owner (not David) had fitted it on back to front, some doubt this is possible but David says it is. In conjunction with a new style FRAM filter, which has an internal valve which allows circulation in o ne direction only, the problems began. What resulted was great oil pressure, against the valve but no flow because the valve was closed because the adapter, fitted backwards had reversed the flow. Follow that? Any queries call David at 1 416 283 9130 NOT ME!

That's all folks..... I'm outa here............... Robin

Reprinted from the Ottawa Valley Land Rovers newsletter, February 1994