Slightly O/T: Praise for my V1 (and why it kicks other detectors in the nuts)

[Kalevera]

Tonight on the drive home, my V1 picked up a line of cops on a densely populated, very twisty road nearly a mile, and a bunch of 90 degree curves, before I did. They were facing my direction, on the side of the road, just waiting around a sharp corner at the top of an incline. I'm convinced that no other detector on the market would've perfomed as well.

Let me preface this by saying that I don't theoretically speed. Unlike some of you kid racers out there, I'm not into the 120 down the highway, reckless, aggressive driving stuff. My thing is more along the lines of doing 42/43 in a posted 35 zone, and being able to spot cops before they see me. I don't like horse trailers, slow trucks, and old people driving old people cars, though. Around here, especially the revenue hungry neighborhoods I drive through with an old BMW covered in bad paint, they'll write you up for anything.

This particular instance happened on my commute route. I've owned the V1 for a little over a year now and know all of the bogeys in the vicinity. The V1 is great because it's accurate, it offers detailed information, it is reasonably discreet and well built. When the thing does what it does, I know what to expect. Its only weaknesses are lidar and KA instant on. Lidar is moot around here, and the V1 still picks up KA instant on with relatively good accuracy, even without me upgrading the unit to the latest software.

Another testament to its quality is the fact that every "serious" driver that brings his car to my shop owns one of these things, not to mention that everyone I work with happens to keep one in the car, as well.

Next to booze, girly mags, and video games, it is the best use of $300 I've ever spent.

Even if you've got nothing to be thankful for today, thank Jesus for letting me buy a V1. And for high gas prices.


best, whit

[Gayle]

The only speeding ticket I have gotten in many, many, many years of driving was on Lee Road in Cleveland Heights--something like 35 in a 25 zone. So I know what you mean about the revenue hungry enforcement.

Your testimonial is most impressive. How about a pic? Since I have gotten the 535 I have felt like I was a speeding ticket waiting for a place to happen. I many need one of those, but not if its ugly though.

.

[Kalevera]

Gayle, I don't know about pretty or ugly. I know about function, which is what matters to me in this case.

Funny that you mention Lee. It's the only place I've ever seen KA Instant On used in the Heights. And there's a regular speed trap right next door to my house (living between two unsavory neighborhoods, on the street that people from those...uh...communities...use to travel between the two locales). You know my street.

I don't have a pic because I've been driving the E30 for the past few months. Bought the fixed install kit for the 535, haven't installed it yet, though. I didn't take a picture of it, but John has the nicest install I've seen to date. I may try to replicate it one of these days, but he's way more advanced than I am with this stuff.


best, whit

[Gayle]

John has the nicest install I've seen to date. I may try to replicate it one of these days, but he's way more advanced than I am with this stuff.

John who? I would like to see the nice install.

.

[ajt3nc]

I run a beltronics 995 and I think it is equal to a v-1.( Just my opinion, not wanting to start a war), I have noticed in eastern NC pop is a new tool. I also travel between Florence and Myrtle Beach in SC and the old standard applies.
I am a 43 year old usually sedate driver but for your info. If you put new tires, a chip and tune your 525i and get caught in SC 15+ mph over it is a $480 ticket. That will really offset a 995,rx65 or v-1 very quickly.

[632 Regal]

my last incident regarding a radar induced traffic stop was from my non V1 detector FAILING. I't worked earler in the day, the day before etc, but something made me question if it was working all the time...it wasn't, thats when I made the investment in the V1. Now I need to send it in for a software update cause it's going off from other peoples shitty detectors...never can have it all I guess...lol


I run a beltronics 995 and I think it is equal to a v-1.( Just my opinion, not wanting to start a war), I have noticed in eastern NC pop is a new tool. I also travel between Florence and Myrtle Beach in SC and the old standard applies.
I am a 43 year old usually sedate driver but for your info. If you put new tires, a chip and tune your 525i and get caught in SC 15+ mph over it is a $480 ticket. That will really offset a 995,rx65 or v-1 very quickly.

[calmloki]

The only speeding ticket I have gotten in many, many, many years of driving was on Lee Road in Cleveland Heights--something like 35 in a 25 zone. So I know what you mean about the revenue hungry enforcement.

Your testimonial is most impressive. How about a pic? Since I have gotten the 535 I have felt like I was a speeding ticket waiting for a place to happen. I many need one of those, but not if its ugly though.

.

Gayle - Here's my V1 install. Can barely see the main unit from the driver's seat, the remote indicator sit's on a second L. speaker cover bought from a junk yard so I could double sideed-sticky tape it.
Tom
http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=18060&highlight=walrod

[Gayle]

Gayle - Here's my V1 install. Can barely see the main unit from the driver's seat, the remote indicator sit's on a second L. speaker cover bought from a junk yard so I could double sideed-sticky tape it.
Tom
http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=18060&highlight=walrod

Thanks Tom. I appreciate seeing the pics.

[shadowpuck]

Gayle - if you are thinking of a V1 don't worry about the looks. You'll love the functionality/performance.

If the V1 just absolutely won't work for you, there's an Escort model (I forget which one) that's fairly recent and does pretty well. Most of the 'serious' drivers I run with have the V1 or that Escort.

Much like the previous poster, seeing what other people run is a big statement for me. I've been in numerous caravans with the V1 and it is simply amazing.

These 5's are so sneaky/smooth once you are rolling that it's easy to be moving at a nice clip and not even notice. I've had a few times where I'll glance down at the speedometer and realize, "oh, that's nice" and have to remember to set he cruise control....lol....:)

[Gayle]

Gayle - if you are thinking of a V1 don't worry about the looks. You'll love the functionality/performance.

These 5's are so sneaky/smooth once you are rolling that it's easy to be moving at a nice clip and not even notice.


I am a chick. Chicks always worry about looks. Incapable of not.

But the sneak factor is a problem. That's why I feel like a speeding ticket waiting for a place to happen.

[Incantation]

hmm i don't every speed in cars but maybe it would be good for the bike... is it a big unit?

[632 Regal]

its a pretty large size, I think (not sure) they make a smaller unit for bikes. Now to isolate the standard unit from excess vibration might be a problem.

hmm i don't every speed in cars but maybe it would be good for the bike... is it a big unit?

[Johntee540]

I got a ticket this morning on the way to Driver's School at Summit Point Track.

My V1 went off - I was next to the only car on the road. I slowed down and the only other 2 cars on the road went bombing by. I slowed to my standard 5 over Limit and kept the cruise control on.

Passed the cop and hey he didnt come out after me or the other guys. Reached down grabbed the cup of joe - took a sip and then looked up in my rear view mirror only to see one of Virginia's Finest in my rear view mirror with his lights on!

Pulled over and he walked up with a device in his hand. (Quickly turned off the V1 and closed the Ashtray where the remote is - V1 are illegal in VA. )

He asked me to roll down my rear drivers side window. Placed the device over the glass and then did the same on my front window. He then informs me that he has pulled me over for having "Illegal Tint". Write me up! $86.

Asked about the numbers on my car - "Do you race this thing?" I asked him - "How's your sense of Irony?". He says "try me". Told Him I was on my way to a drivers school at Summit Point - He laughed. I said to him "C'mon, Illegal Tint? Admit it you are just bored on an early Saturday Morning aren't you?" He says - "Hey I gotta write someone off before I go off shift!".

The V1 worked flawlessly. I was amused because the unit stayed in my Front Windshield right side next to the Mirror and he either didnt see it or cut me major slack for having given me the ticket. But....... Reminded me he "coulda written me for the Hella Smoked Tails; BB Triflo exhaust; and Euro HID Headlights". I smiled and said thanks - JT

[Johntee540]

They make an adaptor that will allow you to connect it to a helmet speaker. - JT

[Gayle]

Was your "driver's school" for racing?

Here in CA "traffic school" is what people go to in order to be educated about safe driving and get tickets forgiven so they don't pay the fine or get their insurance rates dinged. (equivalent to Saturday school or detention for misbehaving drivers).

I am not sure from your post if you were going to the fun kind of school or the pentence for bad behavior kind of school.

And no pic of the V1 installation? :( Whit was raving about it. We want to see it.


.

[Johntee540]

Actually - I think Whit took a shot of it when the car was in for the conversion. I will have to wait till I get back from Seattle next week before I can take a shot. The Drivers School was for the Schatterbahn Porsche Club at Summit Point Race Track. Technically - it was not a Racing School - but Driver Instruction. Over 2 days I got around 200 Minutes of track time. Running with Porsches is fun - scary when you are running with new owners - first time on the track. My instructor promoted me to the next level - So I got to run in the yellow group. At the end of the first day he signed off on my ticket to drive without instructor. .

Couple of things I found out. These cars are heavy. They drive beautifully but they just dont have the same Power to weight ratios the Porsches have. I was continually being chased down by this awesome (believe it) 914/6 that would accelerate twice as fast a JonK's Turbinator! It was a rocket. It was driven by a chick who was awesome. She had that and a Ruf porsche. Not to mention her own mechanic; Trailer; custom tow Rig; And caterer. The Ruf Porsche I had never heard of - it is sort of analogous to Alpina - but for Porshces.

The funniest thing I learned is that the Porsche guys are about as sick as we are however - they seem to have a few more benjamins to put into it.

I had a great time and learned alot about how my car handles and how it is set up. I smoked a set of Porterfield Brake pads in 2 days. I wont be driving the beast until the new ones arrive and get replaced week after next when I get back from Seattle. - "Doin the 125 - 50 Mambo into turn 1" and loving it - JT

[Gayle]

Actually - I think Whit took a shot of it when the car was in for the conversion.

So are you authorizing Whit to post a picture? He pm'd me that he didn't feel comfortable posting pictures of your car. (He is always so respectful)

And as far as the porsche people, isn't it funny to think about all the other types of vehicle owners who are as nuts about their rides as we are ours? And as far as the chick with the ruf porsche, I want a caterer as an accessory too. Think Patrick at BMA could fix me up with one at a reasonable price?

What did the driving school run? I want to do that.

[Johntee540]

Whit post away! The Schools out here differ. This Porsche School was $300 for 2 days. The BMW Club out of Philly is at Watkins Glen in Jun is $400. And The BMWCCA is at VIR in Sept for $400. Audi Club is at VIR in Oct for $290. I think I will do the ones in the fall. In 2 weeks its boating season on the chesapeake and I will have another mechanical thing to fix on the weekends. - JT

[Kalevera]

Gayle, I don't have a picture of it.

best, whit

[ThoreauHD]

I live in a place where the US Consitutional is completely ignored. Detectors are illegal in my state. So I'll just have to live vicariously through you folks.

[Johntee540]

You must live in Virginia then! :) - JT

[Johntee540]

I will see if I can get a shot of it before I leave today. Problem is the car is "track filthy" so what ever you see be kind...... - JT

[Gayle]

I will see if I can get a shot of it before I leave today. Problem is the car is "track filthy" so what ever you see be kind...... - JT

Track filthy, huh. Did you run her hard and put her away wet?

I would love to see a picture and I have lots of practice at looking past dirt.

[ryan roopnarine]

i've always thought that it was absolutely insane that virginia allowed unpermitted open carry of guns but didn't allow radar detectors. i know which trade off i'd rather make. perhaps a nasty, unhidden 6-8 inch ruger security six on your hip would have made the officer reconsider the fundamental unfairness of "getting one more" before the end of his shift.

i'm going to leave this post here, im not going to change it, i'm going to assume that the VA poster wasn't going more than 7-8 over, not PMITA prison speed.

[Johntee540]

Gayle - after about an hour of trying to up load the pics of the Stealth V1 Radar Detector install I gave up. There are pictures that I posted on my Cardomain site located here: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/737181/1 Let me know what you think and be sure to sign my guest book. Thanks - JT


John who? I would like to see the nice install.

.

[liquidtiger720]

I like that install jt. I think I might have to copy you whenever I get one.

[joshua43214]

The funniest thing I learned is that the Porsche guys are about as sick as we are however - they seem to have a few more benjamins to put into it.


We are normal, healthy, well adjusted people compared to Porsche people. I worked for a guy that was heavily involved in the local Porsche club. They even make the Saab cult look sane. They all know that the only real Porsche is a 911. and only the older 911's will do, the newer ones are too easy to drive with the new front end. Oh sure they handle well ad all, but any one can drive them, it takes REAL skill to drive an older Porsche. Oh, and the total disdain I would get every time I mentioned how much I loved the 928t, every one knows real Porsches are rear engine cars and dont have power windows.

When I see BMW owners waxing their wheel wells also, I might consider we are crazy too.

[Rigmaster]

i've always thought that it was absolutely insane that virginia allowed unpermitted open carry of guns but didn't allow radar detectors. i know which trade off i'd rather make. perhaps a nasty, unhidden 6-8 inch ruger security six on your hip would have made the officer reconsider the fundamental unfairness of "getting one more" before the end of his shift.

i'm going to leave this post here, im not going to change it, i'm going to assume that the VA poster wasn't going more than 7-8 over, not PMITA prison speed.



I dunno exactly what you're trying to say Ryan, but- as much as I dislike speeding (and other) tickets, and think that too many municipalities rely on them for too much of their operating revenue- I think you're inferring that a gun lying in open view of a cop would somehow intimidate them into NOT writing you a ticket (???).... That's something I'd rather not play around with. Cops have a tough enough time without that kind of ****.



Bret.

[ryan roopnarine]

I dunno exactly what you're trying to say Ryan, but- as much as I dislike speeding (and other) tickets, and think that too many municipalities rely on them for too much of their operating revenue- I think you're inferring that a gun lying in open view of a cop would somehow intimidate them into NOT writing you a ticket (???).... That's something I'd rather not play around with. Cops have a tough enough time without that kind of ****.



Bret.


no, i certainly wasn't trying to suggest anyone do that. someone had implied down below that constitutional rights didn't exist in virginia. i didn't know that virginia allowed just anyone 21 and over to carry a gun strapped to their side in public without any kind of paperwork until relatively recently. i had juxtaposed the situation in my brain (without expressing it too well in my post) that if a policeman pulled one over with a visible gun on their hip and a radar detector on their dash, they'd have to cite the individual for the radar detector (breaking the law) and deal with the gun as a (legal) eventuality (business as usual) of their occupation. i don't see how any law enforcement person would want a "trade-off" to be made in that direction. its insane that they would maintain laws that keep things that way, there must persist some kind of insane libertarian, wild wild west type crap in legislator's minds for that law to stay on the books.

i'm going to assume you know something about guns bret, but i'll outline why i think the above is insane.

1. a great number of states don't let individuals carry guns on them, concealed or not.

2. almost every state that lets you do the above requires a permit of some kind. where i live, FL, requires the permit for ANY concealed weapon, whether that is a legal knife or gun or remote controlled stungun. the permit is not hard to get, so nobody considers it a hardship. the one i know for certain doesn't is New Hampshire (live free or die), and i think vermont might not require it either.

3. all of the aforementioned require that the thing be CONCEALED. the reason for this is because 1) unconcealed handguns scare some people
2) people can more easily disarm the owner
if they see a gun on them
3) little kids trying to do the above
4) criminals pre-empting the use of the (gun)
by shooting the owner, disarming them, et
cetera

among many others

4. AFIAK, virginia doesn't even offer a concealed weapons permit, but lets you carry a firearm on you, license free so long as you HAVE IT VISIBLE to every one around you. this makes absolutely no sense to me, and i am a liberal user of florida's gun laws. its absolutely insane to me. the ferverent gun people have a new toy de jour that i've observed at the gun shows and at local gun shops called the bushmaster "pistol". it is a civillian clone of the m4 carbine/m-16 that has had the stock removed. i don't care what anybody else says, to me it is a short barreled rifle. the salesman spent a good 10 mins explaining to me why it wasn't a short barreled rifle, how it was a "pistol", how the batfe considered the thing a pistol. would a virginia LEO rather deal with a radar detector, or one of those slung around my neck in the car?

ps, here's one:

http://www.lewhorton.com/BSMAZC15P21S.jpg

this is why i make the juxtaposition between the radar detector and the gun. if i lived in virginia, and couldn't get a permit to hide the thing, i'd occasionally be in the car with it on, which would mean, if i got pulled over with it on, it would probably have to stay on until the officer was informed of its presence , ie, i wouldn't go fumbling to take the thing off before the officer got to the car, and have him eventually find out that i was playing with a gun when he was observing me from his car.


the only unkind part of what i was trying to convey is herein--you've chosen to make your occupation the enforcement of laws in the state of virginia. you SHOULD know in the back of your mind that this is a possible threat to your returning home at the end of the night, but you make the tradeoff anyway, even if it means you have half of a soviet RDF van in your cruiser, and should negate the idiotic bluster that cops around the world seem to pick up as part of the job .... "i could have written you a ticket for the windows...." so you could write tickets for a radar detector if it twere me, i'd consider it not respecting the value of my own life enough, and i don't care how specious my reasoning sounds. its a little metal box that picks up radio waves. my superiors and legislators have decided this is a valid tradeoff with respect to my own personal safety. its not like the thing facilitates pedophilia or such.

[liquidtiger720]

When I see BMW owners waxing their wheel wells also, I might consider we are crazy too.


You don't wax/dress up your wheel wells?

I must be the only one here.

[Johntee540]

Ryan - you're sense of irony is right on. Guns carried in public versus the "evil" of Radar Detectors is how I took your post to read.

In VA remember - right down the road from me in Fairfax is the Worldwide HQ for the NRA. They are second most powerful lobby in the US - and as Wayne LaPierre states - "We are operating out of an office in the Whitehouse now".

As a result - the NRA pilots lots of programs here in VA as they work very very closely with House of Delegates here. There has been a republican majority there for almost 20 years and until recently the repubs also had the governership as well. During that time NRA piloted the "Exile" law which puts illegal gun violators in Jail for an indefinite period of time. Part of the "enforce the laws on the books" argument (which I agree with).

What I dont agree with is the concealed carry permits that the delegates put through. Almost anyone can go and get the concealed carry license with a minimum of training (basically show up to a gun shop and sit through a 45 minute class). You do not need to show cause for concealed carry. The Law enforcement community here is totally against this recent (6 years ago) legislation.

The visible carry of handguns has been on the books since the late 80's I believe.

I agree with you wholeheartedly that pulling me over for illegal tint is ridiculous. The tint law is on the books to protect law enforcement should they need to pull you over and approach your car safely. I guess because they worry I may have a handgun in the car and they want to be able to see it. There is a huge irony here! - JT