reno928s

Fast Pirate, In more than one occasion he seemed to turn on the radar sooner before I was visible to him. He had to have known that I was very close. He probably would have nailed me if he had not turned the instant on to soon and my speed was about 80 mph which gave me enough time to bring myspeed down to non-ticket level. As I passed I could see him hiding behind the wall. This was with an older passport I used to own. I'll bet anything that he new ahead of time that I was coming. But I am just curious how the Bel STI compares with the Valentine and the newer Passport 8500.

RKD in OKC

Radar smadar. Any more it's those self appointed safety kings with cell phones you have to worry about.

FastPirate

amen to that

VWaddict

...-No kidding!

yeah I wasn't certain what you meant FastPirate, so I thought it best to clarify. -It's all good!

Those self-appointed speed cops are usually the same bastards yakking on the phone with a 'delete-option' rear view mirror mentality...

Keith

FastPirate

i caught that, i was just making it clear wat i was saying i knew we were both on the same page, i just hadnt explained myself fully

kaamacat

One other item to consider...... and this came up yday when we had a convoy of cars heading to an event, where a Trooper was behind one guys car. The symptoms showing on his RD almost indicated POP because of the short bursts. (he was being followed for about 10minutes in-fact). The point here was, the Trooper was behind him)

Not into the selling point here about "the arrows", while in this case it would have been true, the point here was that this person had a V1 and they do have rear radar antenna. (Do the others? I was thinking they were rear Laser only, taking the input from the receiver on the top of the units)

Thoughts?

P-Car944

The V1 is the only window mounted radar/laser detector with a front and rear antenna, other RD's rely on reflection on to the front antenna.

maximus951

The V1 rocks! I've used a passport and the Bel STI - range and consistency aside, the V1 walks all over them simply because of the directional locator. It even saved my butt from laser twice.
One thing to keep in mind if you get pulled over for speeding - the officer will attempt to get you to admit that you were speeding. That's the 1st objective... the radar gun doesn't proove anything until you are in court and the judge or ref looks at the "evidence". If you already admitted to speeding (which was likely recorded during the stop), they have your confession in conjunction with the evidence from the measuring device. This will not save your butt 100% of the time but it forces the officer to consider every variable pertinent to the infraction - were there other vehicles nearby?, was he moving in the same or opposite direction?, is his equipment calibrated?. They are betting that most drivers will simply take their lumps and pay the fine - fact is, you are innocent until proven guilty. Up here in mpls, it's a game of hide and seek lately - between the city, municiple, county, airport and state police, driving anywhere fast is like russian roulette - most days I just turn on the classical station and hover @ 63.

RKD in OKC

There is a big difference between getting pulled over and getting a ticket. I've been pulled over 15 times since owning my first 944 turbo 9 years ago. Of all those traffic stops I only received 1 ticket, and I feel like I would not have gotten that one if I had pulled over into a parking lot instead to the side on a busy street. And that one time was with the flowmaster on a 4 inch exhaust, he heard me from 3 blocks away and hunted me down. The ticket was for 5 mph over the speed limit in a 40 mph zone.

If asked, I never know why the officer has pulled me over. When the officer tells me why I was stopped I always comment, but without admitting anything. And example:

After getting clocked at 115, a motorcycle cope said he clocked me doing 115 AND that I didn't slow down until he pulled up beside me. I replied "I'm sorry, I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome and I am trying to get home before I crap my pants." I did not admit to anything and gave him a good excuse to let me go. He immediately said, "Go...go, and just keep it under 90," while waving me on. I saw him looking down and shaking his head as he walked back to his bike and the cruiser that had pulled in behind him. A few miles down the highway I passed another cruiser in the median. I was doing 90 and he just waved at me.

P-Car944

Are those flames for real on your Porsche?

FotoVeloce

I'm not saying the Escort is the be-all end all but just correcting a common misconeption that the V1 is the only one with a 'bogey counter'

My X50 8500 has three modes
normal - shows the strongest signal type and stregnth
special - shows the band and frequency (this is sort of cool!)
expert - shows up to 3 Ka 3 K and 2X band signals all that the same time and shows indiviual stregnth for each one southing the little LED counter on the V1 can't really compete with

The only thing about the V1 that I find interesting are the arrows If Escort would do that it would be game-over for Mr Valentine

I've had a number of detectors over the years they are only so useful but useful they are I rely upon my X50 every day (I get painted at least once often multiple times) every day during my commute

I'm debating purchase of the V1 just so I can know first hand but the comments from those that have used both lead to think this is a waste of time if only the 9500 had the freaking arrows

RKD in OKC

Flames are photoshopped, but...Duplicolor has some temporary paint that I am thinking seriously of giving a try.

P-Car944

The patent for the Arrows for the V1 are up in 2011. I had the 8500 and the X50 and went right back to the V1...true that the 8500,X50,RX65 and STi (all those detectors share the pretty much the same hard ware and software). But they dont tell you where the signal is coming from like the V1.

I have extensively tested the Passport 9500i and I can say its a total flop. Its just a X50 with the same detection with Cobra gimmicks added. The GPS lock will get you a ticket since it will block out the total radar band and not just the false auto door opener. The 9500i is have major problems and is not doing good at all. The best detector Escort has ever made is the non-x50 8500.

CO951

P-Car944, why do you say that the 8500 is better than the 8500 X50?

P-Car944

through my testing is that the price difference between the 8500 (non-X50) and the X50, the 8500 performed just as well compared to the X50 and the 8500 has tested better for detecting Ka and the X50 has had trouble detecting Ka in cotrolled testing (must need a Ka gun for that) and in real world testing. There has been more returns of the X50 then compared to the non-X50. The major difference between the X50 and 8500 (non-X50) was the added POP feature which is a joke designed by Cobra. I have my POP mode turned off so I dont pick up every Cobra in the city. Basically pound for pound the non-X50 8500 was a better detector then the more expensive X50 for the very near equal performance, but not enough to make a party about.