I visit the family in Lexington KY once a month or so, usually on the weekends. The only times I see troopers in Indiana are when I leave Monday morning and thus cross Indy around rush hour. Lately, I leave Chicago around 1 a.m. Saturday morning and leave Lexington 1 a.m. Monday morning. The 400-mile run started around noon on a Friday though.

[quote] blah blah blah NONE of this works, and I have the driving record to prove it.

I think it's more a case of experience. Over the years, I've learned to spot the speed traps, which is why I haven't bothered with a detector. There's more to fast driving that seeing a straight and flooring the pedal.

Emanuel

They cannot confiscate the detector. I live in Virginia and that's and old urban myth that at one time might have been true during the days of the zealously enforced 55mph speed limit during the oil embargo days. Tickets written for 56 in a 55 believe it or not.
I've been caught for having a radar detector twice, both times over 20 years ago. The first time the Trooper fryed a diode in mine by apparently plugging it into a higher current source. Escort fixed it and sent it back. They also told me at the time the diode was there to help out with a "surge" like my unit was given and it was not uncommon to see units from Virginia with this type of damage in those days.
V1 is what I use now. Speed is only safe on the Interestate. Around town houliganism is stupid and unwarranted. Limited access roads are the only place to a be doing anything over the posted limit.

Tom

Wayne, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but radartest.com is a well know "ringer" site supported by Escort. They got the guy who runs it to put it up after the V1 was winning all the comparison tests the car magazines were holding.

Basically, the purpose of radartest.com is to be "the shootout that Valentine always loses" :D If you read through it, you can see through their agenda pretty easily from the advertorial nature of the content. Caveat emptor.

I have an Escort 8500 and it's fine. On PCH near LA and in the hills near there, the Highway Patrol uses mostly k band and that's always on so you can see them a mile away. It saved me from majior ticky on the way to Ojai a year or so ago. I was going triple digits and it picked up an H.P. car coming the other way. When he came over the rise ahead of me, all he saw was a bit of tire smoke and a green 911 going 55 mph! In the city I turn it off and just drive a bit mellow. I am not 16 anymore and I know what my car's best 0-60-0 times are already. Save the stoplight drags for the ricers.

Alex

x

V1 + Common Sense = Great Drive!

I've noticed the NEW and IMPROVED Passport 8500 X50 in various motor mags. Does anyone have any experience with this? There's been enough questioning of V1's to get my attention.

there's so much tech advancing in this Spy vs Spy game every 6mo that's it a lot of work keeping informed. If you come across anything new in laser jammers or testing please give it a thread here..
good luck

Isn't there like a $40 difference between the one with blue lights verses the one with red? WTF???
http://www.escortradar.com/x50.htm

Passport 8500 is 300/street vs. 400/street for V1. What I read makes them out to be equally effective except for the arrows. Arrows? Like I need to know which direction the radar is coming from? I need to know where the brake is. If you're worried about using the brakes and him seeing your lights, you're probably toast already. Both have some laser technology. Wayne's Bel seems to have a good hard wire system.

If you think the arrows are only good "to know which direction the radar is coming from", you don't know the purpose of the arrows and bogey counters. Go to Valentine's web site and read how the V1 works.

The arrows and bogey counter are much more useful than just telling you which direction the radar is coming.

V1 still catches 80% of the stuff I have seen in the Seattle area.

Sharp operator with instant on is difficult but they seldom hit just you so you'll get a short hit of them approaching. Lazer on the other hand, while rare locally, is typically deadly. V1 alone is no match for awareness, a good set of eyes and a V1.

BINGO!

And the arrows make a huge difference. They tell you where your eyes need to be. You learn what is worth slowing down for and what isn't via arrows. My V1 has paid for itself twice over, at least.

You can also use the arrows to tell you if a radar unit is behind you - if so, you may be able to extend out away from them.

Or you may be able to determine that the unit is ahead of you, traveling in your direction. Then you do NOT want to extend out.

And, you can see if you are passing a source along the side of the road every time you drive past a point. Then you can ignore that point.

The V1 manual will greatly repay a close reading -- several times even.

The arrows are really worthwhile. I have my old Valentine designed Passport on my SUV and often wish for a V1 there.

Um, my test was driving for two years with my friends who were all on the brink of insanity when it came to driving. One had a V1, the other had a passport. From experience with the two, i went with the passport without even giving it a second thought. And my experience so far is excellent, i can even pick up instant on radar's if they try and gun someone other than myself as long as they aren't more than ~1/4 mile ahead of me. BTW, for anyone that has the passport, there is a setting you can change in the menu options that allows it to display more than one signal at a time. So far the most i've gotten were 4 radar signals at once, 2 K's and 2 X's (two stop lights and two cops parked down the street from the stop lights). I've also been lasered once, but the officer let me slide since i nailed the brakes the minute the radar went nuts reading laser.

Any $99 radar detector will pick that up. That's no big deal.

I just picked up escort's latest, the 8500 x50. I've been quite impressed, so far. Took me almost two weeks to find a speed trap, but it picked it out from more than adequate range. He was even using intermittent radar bursts, to make him harder to spot. I can't compare to the 8500 base model or the V-1, but I'm thrilled with the x50.

Dan

Not at full signal of 5 bar. Besides, i'm not guesstimating, i'm talking about actually 1/4 mile or sometimes more depending on the clearity of it's line of sight. Those of you that live in tree land might have a harder time, but here, if i'm on say route 10, then my range extends to over a mile. Above statement relates to how it reacts here in town.

My brother in law used the Escort and loved it. He said he only got the odd ticket, when there was a dual trap(you slow down, then speed back up when the first car passes only to be nabbed by the second 2-3km later), which they use up here ALOT. I explained to him that the V1 will tell you the number of sources and what directions they are coming from. He wanted to try it and, sure enough, the very first trip he said it found two dual traps. He would have gotten tickets in those traps with the Escort but he didn't - he was using my V1. Needless to say the escort was sold and he has a V1 now. He hasn't gotten a ticket since.

My V1 has saved me THOUSANDS of dollars. It has found radar 5km away, no BS. If you don't have arrows and a bogey counter you're at a severe disadvantage imo.

Excellent example Tony. There's much more to the arrows than direction.