Print Post Approved. No. PP602 669/00603

SMARTER

News and Views from the world of OKA • Australia's very own 4WD September 1997

You're invited to the OKA Flying 50 reunion day! Greetings OKA owners and lovers, This month's newsletter is in fact an invitation — invit­ing you to be our guest at the OKA York Flying 50 Speed Classic being held in York, Western Australia on Sun­day, October 26. The event is the first of what will become a regular OKA Owners Reunion. An OKA Owners Reunion is to be a get-together of OKA owners, invited to be OKA's guests for the day. It will be a day of chatting, meeting other owners to compare notes, enjoying a day of hospitality on the OKA Motor Company and to display OKAs. So what's the York Flying 50?

OKA's glamour wagon posing at the Burswood Casino.

Glamorous "Grizzly" is quite a poser One of the most prominent vehicles at the OKA York Flying 50 will be the "Griz­zly" which will be serving as the event's sweep car. Grizzly is a most glamorous OKA — painted in gleaming black with contrasting twin chrome exhaust stacks, a polished alloy roo bar, wheels made "mag style", chromed side steps, polished alloy grab rails and tray bars plus a 350cu inch Chev V8 engine. Okay so it might not be the ideal garb for outback Australia but it's surely a great poser for the Flying 50 and for being an attention grabber.

The York Flying 50 Speed Classic is an annual re-en­actment of the marvellous round-the-houses motor rac­ing events that used to take place in Australia up to the mid 1950s. Essentially, motor racing was staged by closing off town streets to develop an around-the-town circuit. They were enormously popular — even to the point that the Australian Grand Prix was held in this manner. The York Flying 50 is a re-enactment of these events commemorating the halcyon years of motor sport with fields of historic and classic sports cars, racing cars and motorcycles.

OKA has become involved because like the OKA, it is a uniquely Australian event. The event is attended by a considerable number of peo­ple and will make a wonder­ful backdrop for the OKA reunion. OKAs will certainly be prominent because the town's main street will fea­ture a major display of OKAs. If you would like to be part of the display, possibly to promote your business, even hand out your business bro­chures or to just be there— you're most welcome to par­ticipate — the more the bet­ter. There'll be a hospitality tent on the edge of the circuit for you to be comfortable so do join us for what will be a fun day. Entry is free for OKA own­ers. All you need do if you'll be attending is to contact the OKA office so we can send you tickets. Telephone 9 356 2511. Fax 9 356 2522

Fanfare for world's first rural transport vehicle

// may not be fancy but this special rural transport vehicle designed by OKA has been highly acclaimedfor its practicality for third world country use.

Two new teams to serve you OKA is delighted to introduce two exceptional organisations to have joined the Australia—wide team of OKA distributors and service centres. Buddy Wakim's Four Wheel Drive City has been appointed distribu­tor— service agent for Sydney while Gurbe Jager of ARB Engineered 4WD Equipment is service agent for Cairns. Sydneysiders and visitors to Sydney will be in good hands for sales, serv­ice and spare parts as Buddy Wakim is regarded as one of Australia's fore­most four wheel drive retailers and service providers. Buddy is virtually a legend in the industry. His operation is substantial with par­

ticularly well equipped workshops, showroom and spare parts store. Gurbe Jager, proprietor of ARB En­gineered 4 WD Equipment is also an excellent operator with a wealth of expertise in servicing four wheel drives. He represents a very high standard service base for OKA owners who happen to be in Far north Queens­land. Gurbe's introduction to the OKA came via one of his friends having the first OKA to be based in the Northern Territory. The friend was impressed, Gurbe was impressed and the rest is now history.

Much fanfare and focus of attention was given in India just recently to a derivation of the OKA, known as a special Rural Transport Vehicle . The reason for the fanfare was to launch what has been claimed as being the first vehicle to be specially designed for remote areas of third world countries. The launching displayed the proto­type RTV and announced the start of production by Hindustan Motors, India's longest established motor vehicle manufacturer. OKAs involvement with the project was in being commissioned by Hindustan Motors to develop a sim­ple, inexpensive vehicle suited to vil­lage life of rural India. A spokesman for Hindustan Motors said the company had searched the world for the basis on which to build the vehicle. OKA's task was to create a vehicle for purposes ranging from being a small community bus to carrying livestock and cargo. The RTV, is a basic, two wheel drive vehicle based on the format of the OKA . The prototype was designed built and tested in W.A. before be­ing air freighted to India. The vehicle's release was given enor­mous publicity with 150 media rep­resentatives attending, among them ABC America and Reuters. Hindustan Motors expects to sell 6,000 vehicles in the first year of pro­duction with numbers increasing as the vehicle becomes recognised by the 500,000 villages in rural India.

Hands up those who have never heard of Betoota? We have to confess that OKA personnel certainly hadn't heard of Betoota until noting that Terry Rankin's Ad­venture Wilderness Tours has a tour that goes to Betoota — population 1. After considerable speculation about possible deriva­tion of the town's name we checked out what Betoota has to offer a tour. Betoota for those who don't know their geography is 140km East of Birdsville on the Diamantina River. The town has one event each year, the Betoota Cup and outback bush dance held on the third Saturday in Sep­

tember. Adventure Wilderness Tours has a package, taking 12 people via OKA bus for the big event of the year. The trip goes via seldom used roads to be quite an ad­venture in itself. We can see the sticker now. Toot if you know Betoota! For further info on tours to Betoota contact Terry Rankin 0411 706 429. Tour operators: "OKA News" is interested to hear where you're taking our OKAs and in hearing about des­tinations of interest.

OKA participates in Canning Stock Route clean-up A massive clean up of the entire Canning Stock Route is to have an OKA Single Cab utility as its primary work horse. OKA Motor Company has donated the use of the Sin­gle Cab for the project. The clean — up being undertaken in April next year by Track Care Western Australia, an organisation formed under the auspices of Tread Lightly Australia aims to address reports that the route has become a mess through littering and the destruction of trees for camp fires. The project's primary task will be to remove rubbish from along the entire 1,750 kilometres of the route. Other tasks include erection of information signs, build­ing of a toilet at Durba Springs and repairs to several of the wells along the route. OKA Operations Manger, Kim Hough said OKA be­lieves it only appropriate that the four wheel drive in­dustry supports the project as it was probably travellers in four wheel drive vehicles responsible for the mess. The organisation was desperate to have a four wheel

drive capable of a sizeable carrying capacity hence OKA's decision to loan a single cab to the project. They are also seeking volunteers interested in partici­pating. Anyone with a four wheel drive vehicle, the time and an inclination to support a worthwhile project should write to Track Care Cleanup 1998, P.O. Box 8072, Perth Mail Centre 6849.

Introducing "OKA yarn" The OKA newsletter aims to be the disseminator of news of interest to OKA owners. In striving to achieve this we've discovered that OKA owners are always interested in knowing what other OKA owners are up to — the adventures they've had with their vehicles and so on. Hence the introduction of "OKA yarn" where you're invited to contribute your tale.

Overhead console ideal place for radio or extra storage

It looks good and it is certainly use­ful for finding a home for a two way radio or storage space for those items that just keep floating around the cab. The OKA overhead console com­bines strength and durability with good looks to be a most attractive interior extra. A padded vinyl finish matches the interior trim whilst storage access openings are fitted each side with elasticised vinyl flaps to keep red dust out and prevent stored items from falling out while travelling in rough terrain.

Accessories such as radios are eas­ily fitted into pre cut radio openings covered by a rubber backed trim that can be cut for a neat fit around any sized radio. They can be fitted by OKA service centres or D.I.Y.

Cap leads cop to cap-ture a thief! Just recently OKA employee, Paul Watson discovered that his car had been broken into. Items stolen included a mobile tel­ephone and an OKA Racing cap. Paul had the bright idea that the thief just may have used the mobile phone — and on investigating, would you believe he discovered that the thief had indeed used the phone— twice to call taxis. And would you believe that this not very bright thief had called the taxi service to take him home? The end result was that the police were able to obtain information as to where the taxis had dropped the thief off so they had an address. When they called at the home to have a chat, the thief was not present — but then one very observant cop while driving in the area observed a person sitting at a bus stop wearing, yes — the OKA racing cap! The thief was duly nabbed and Paul now has his property returned.

OKA owners have these OKA items for sale • Multi cab module and tray • Seating for seven, upholstery in excellent condition. • Full length ceiling console for air conditioning control and radio

speakers. Also have double reclining seat with armrests upholstered in blue fabric. Enquiries to 0411 741 511 or the OKA office 9356 2511.

Technical product knowledge OKA dual battery systems

Subject: Late XT and LT vehicles fitted with dual batteries. It is often not fully appreciated what the option of the dual battery system aims to achieve. The following explanation may give a better understanding. 1. The Standard Specification of a single battery has the high CCA type fitted to the left side of the vehicle. 2. In dual battery specification, the prime purpose is to dedicate one of the two batteries to supplying charge for the starter motor to crank the engine. The separation of the batteries is achieved via the following system: a) The original high CCA battery is transfered to the right side of the vehicle to become the "Dedicated Starting Battery". b) A Deep Cycle type battery is then fitted to the left side to provide a power source for everything else on the vehicle that requires electrical power. c) The two batteries are isolated from each other via an isolator switch plus a wiring circuit and relay. This allows both batteries to be

charged on a continuous basis whilst the engine is running, but prevents the Dedicated Starting Battery from being discharged by anything other than starting the engine. d) There is a contingent facility, via the isolator switch should one or the

by John Wheeler, Service Manager BATTERY SENSING START SIGNAL

ALTERNATOR VARMNG LIGHT

FUSIBLE UNK5

AUX.

BATTERY

Q

e -STARTER

MOTOR

9 START

RELAY

7 — \ O/RDE

KEY SWITCH

CHARGE RELAY

STARTWG

BATTERY

NOTE: No accessories to be connected to the starting battery.

other totally fail or be damaged. .In the event of any requirement, bi­zarre or peculiar, the switch allows the by—passing of the isolation con­dition to connect the batteries in par­allel. This Dual Battery System is the most

common being introduced during production in mid 1994. There is however, a different dual battery specification with a different function that was installed on ear­lier vehicles. We will deal with this system in a later issue.

OKA gear draws strong response Response to the last "OKA News" article that an array of OKA gear is now available has met with such a strong response, more items will be added in the near future. In response to demand, the first additional item that should be arriving soon will be an assortment of polo shirts. They'll be available in a range of colours in small, me­dium and large adult sizes and of course printed with that unmistakable OKA logo. The OKA gear range includes all—weather jackets, T shirts, sportsbag, caps, mugs, glasses and stubbie hold­ers. The all weather jackets supplied by Rainbird are avail­able in two styles — lightweight waterproof nylon or

the fully lined, poly cotton "Japara". So when you next visit the showrooms do feel welcome to ask the staff to show you the range or alternatively just fax (9 356 2522) or telephone (9 356 2511). Sample prices Stubbie holders $4.30 — made from wet suit material Caps $10 — available in canvas, corduroy, brush cot­ton. NB: We doffs our caps in apologies to the lady over­charged just recently. If she cares to call we'll refund the excess. Sportsbags $17.50 Black. Navy, Dark green, Burgundy,