Ottawa Valley Land Rovers newsletter, March, 1994

by Robin Craig

I have spent the last week at home because of the flu. As a result I have been seeing a lot more TV than normal. In one day I counted seeing the Land Rover marque on four different continents in over a dozen different roles. With a world wide coverage such as this I feel confident that the purchase of the Rover Car group by BMW will not affect this coverage in the future. Now can we put this subject to rest now? Thank you.

In November 1993 The Australian Government created a "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier" at their National War Memorial in Canberra. The remains of an Unknown Soldier were carried the final part of the journey to the memorial atop a gun carriage towed by an immaculate Series II military 109" Land Rover.

For any of you like myself who might want to try and get a copy of the Haynes manual on the Land Rover, good luck! I was in Smithbooks recently and was trying to make use of some vouchers I had been given for my recent 29th Birthday. The clerk found the title and called the distributors in Toronto directly to order it and get a delivery date. She was told that the book is out of print now and that at present there are no plans to put it back into print. So if you can find one around pick it up now! For those of you who gave away a shop soiled one, tough luck!

I am not a computer junkie by any stretch of the imagination. To me it is merely an aide to trying to survive these days. I would never be able to do this column for a start without it, you could never read my handwriting and this things spells so much better than I can. When I read about the Land Rover bulletin board and heard about it from people like Dale and Dixon I really questioned whether I could get anything out of it as it seemed to be populated by people who 1. had a real Land Rover (I don't) and 2. knew how to fix them (I can't as yet).

Well let me tell you that having gotten onto the system and putzed my way around a bit I have had a lot of enjoyment from reading the general goings on the main board. But what I really enjoy now is the direct e-mail contact with other toy / model / military Land Rover minded people from around the globe. My personal e-mail is from the UK, US and New Zealand. Not bad eh? So if you have access to a modem and a PC talk to Dixon and get yourself wired. It's worth the effort. Who said Land Rovers and computers were not compatible.

Finally this month an early entrant for the prestigious Lug Nut award for '94. Recently the model making group that I and another OVLR member belong too held a game show style quiz. The group was split into various teams. The questions had been researched by the question master so that everyone's personal specialty subject would be catered for. Unfortunately I was not able to attend but I felt sure that my colleague would be able to answer any question with ease. Sure enough the moment came when the question was put to him "what was the name given to the hybrid vehicle produced by putting together a Land Rover and a Scorpion armoured vehicle chassis?" Needless to say my colleague's mind went blank and all he wanted was the floor to open up and swallow him! Who was this person you ask? I can't tell a lie it was you very own club treasurer Andy Graham. You see Andy, I told you I wouldn't tell anyone! If you didn't know the answer yourself it was the Centaur.

That is it for this month, see ya ......... Robin 613 738 7880

Reprinted from the Ottawa Valley Land Rovers newsletter, March 1994