944 and police radar

[jnkyrd944]

A friend of mine who is an engineering student was talking to a cop about radar. Somehow our 944s got brought up, and the officer said they are extremely hard to hit with radar. So I immediatly assume it comes from the lack of reflective surfaces in the front, (hide away headlams, no chrome, rubber on the painted bumber, recessed license plates, lower to the ground, etc.),

but he said the real secret is with the paint in the older cars. And he wouldnt tell us what it is. Its not just Porsches, but alot of cars. He made it clear no cop would explain why.

Does anybody know what he's talking about?
maybe metallic content of new paint? primer? maybe its the new metallic window tint? is the color a variable? If anybody knows, lets hear it.

paul

[stray15]

Hmm, thats very interesting. I will have to ask around about that also.

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Porsche, through and through
Tim
'83 944
http://community.webshots.com/user/strayer15

http://www.geocities.com/tstray15/Home.html

[fty]

Maybe the clearcoat being mixed with the paint? damn new I shouldnt have gotten her repainted..

[pst]

From what I've read, it isn't the paint but the frontal surface area. Anotherwords, if a semi tractor and a 944 were next to each other and a cop aimed his redar gun at them, he would pickup the semi tractor. Radar needs a surface to reflect from and cars like 924's; 944's; Corvette's; etc. have a very small frontal area. Therefore they have much less area to reflect the radar. If other cars are around you, the radar will most likely not "see" you, only the other car. But if your alone, sorry! This is one of the most effective methods that lawers use to get charges dropped. By introducing reasonable doubt that the officer could distinguish between cars is enough to end the case. I have never heard or read anything about paint other than the non reflective radar absorbing paint used by the military.

[CJFusco]

Well I was pulled over and given a ticket and a court summons during the winter (my dad, a retired cop, fixed the ticket), and when I was coming home from Boston, a cop was STANDING by the highway with a radar gun and gave me the "bring the speed down a bit" sign (looks like he is patting a dog's head).... so we aren't THAT invisible

[TheStig]

uhhh u sure thats true? I've been beamed so many times with radar and so far i don't like being painted by cops seeing that i'm on the verge of losing my license...



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Porsche. Es gibt keinen Ersatz.

[jnkyrd944]

I didnt mean to sound like I thought i had a F-944 Stealth. I was referring to K band radar, which is somewhat old, since 1977 or something, and the way certain older paints changed the reflected radar frequency returned to the gun. Today, about half of the radar guns are KA band, which is much more accurate cause it uses multiple frequencies.
Also, i lived in the country while i went to school in East Texas, and they were still using ancient X band radar! Thats like the kind in the automatic doors at Kroger or Wal-Mart.
Im know the big city guys have hand-held Laser guns, which arent even detectable until they light you up. also at a 1000 feet, the laser "dot" is a little bigger than 2 feet in diameter, which means they can pick the Porsche out of the crowd and shoot the driver in the head if they wanted to.

[scottewid]

Got hit in my 1984 944 with K (according to the Passport) last November when the cruiser 1/2 mile down a straight painted me as I was passing a line of other cars. Speedo said 78 when the alarms went off. Cop said he clocked me at 72. Seems like the radar was perfect because my GPS always says I'm doing about 5 under what the speedo says.

[p0r2chby]

(if your interested, I still have a few cans of this anti-radar paint stuff from my old CIA spy days. I keep it in rattle can's with a KRYLON label. The application is very simple. Using a smooth stroke, about 12 inches from the car, make a light pass just above the mid-point. Keep going around the car till all of the paint is gone.
Don't worry about any drips cause they help with the effect. The best one to use is the flat black but I have also had good results with the dark primer grey. I'll sell the can's for $5.00 each or 3 for $20.00)

OK, serious now...

the idea that some sort of ingredient in automotive paint somehow effects the ability of radar, of any style, to not get a hit on our cars is plain old bunk. My instinct tells me the cop who was chatting with your buddy was just Bs'ng.

[jnkyrd944]

i think ive seen that paint on a Civic. it adds horespower too right?

[CrazySOB]

I don't know about HP, but the wind resistance is cut in half. If you do use it, make sure it's the flat black (makes you even more invisible at night). Make sure you clean the dead bugs off everyday, otherwise the performance value goes way down.

[TheStig]

hmmm.....hehehe stealth paint, I think i can do a color change from burgundy to F-117 black muhahahha The only radar that would pick the car up would be NORAD's...



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Porsche. Es gibt keinen Ersatz.

[Craig944]

=). I have a cousin who is a cop i'll find out fory ou guys.
But in the meanwhile everyon go purchase a few motion dectors (strong ones). And hook them up to a portable battery (maybe your car battery?) and set them up in your air dam & behind you and pointing to the side of you. What this does is make random numbers come on police raders very quickly.

[Rob-O]

Uh, well, wouldn't you ask a painter what the deal was?

Well, okay, I used to paint (and still do now and again). I think the cop was pulling on you hard. There is nothing in the paint that would make you more or less reflective from 1977 to now. You may thinnk metallic paint would help deflect the signal. Nah. Maybe you haven't polsihed your paint since 1977, I don't know. But that wouldn't do anything either.

Sorry, fellas. We're as easy to spot as the next guy. The next guy running as fast as us that is.

[PorscheG96]

I'm certainly not an expert on the topic of paint, but would paint containing lead have anything to do with what this officer was referring to? The only reason I bring this up is because a young woman brought us a rim that we sent to have repainted, and they absolutely could not match the original color because leaded paint is no longer permitted for use in the United States, and it was a Momo [Italian] wheel. Could lead in these foreign paints lend to a radar gun's inability to read the velocity of some cars? Just a thought... -Trevor

[Lawrence Coppari]

Different subject but a dark 944 would be very hard to pickup with laser. Car and Driver did an article several years ago and used a black corvette. It could not be clocked until very close unless its headlights were up or it had a front license plate. Turning on headlights also made it more difficult to pick up. Sloping edges and dark colors make light reflection difficult. So does a sandblasted front.

[PrerYDoG]

Yes, Maxim did an article that mentioned dark colored, curvy cars are hard to hit (hince, even though it's the law in my state, I have no front plate). Also, because the composition of paint has changed over the years, I wouldn't doubt that there is something in older paint that made it more reflective to the radar beam.

[CJFusco]

Speaking of paint jobs affecting radar readings... here is a radio show where some hick thinks that his shiny paintjob on his IROC messes up radar. He also thinks that cops give him a break because his ride is so sweet and they know he can smoke them. I got this from HARD FORUM... check it out, it is really REALLY funny. Give it a few minutes to really get good.

http://mfile.akamai.com/5023/wma/ph...lhend010702.asx

[Z-man]

Originally posted by Craig944:
...But in the meanwhile everyon go purchase a few motion dectors (strong ones). And hook them up to a portable battery (maybe your car battery?) and set them up in your air dam & behind you and pointing to the side of you. What this does is make random numbers come on police raders very quickly.

I have heard that using devices that obstruct or alter the function of a police's radar are illegal.

We can all do what blackfoot did: Get a Stealth VR4, and then certainly we won't have to worry about radar.
-Z.

[banjomike]

>OK, serious now...
>
>The idea that some sort of ingredient in
>automotive paint somehow effects the
>ability of radar, of any style, to not get
>a hit on our cars is plain old bunk. My
>instinct tells me the cop who was chatting
>with your buddy was just Bs'ng.

Actually a friend's father had a contract with the government. He applied a flat back coating to large curved titanium peices. He thinks they were for the stealth bomber. He told me he'd do my car for $20,000. But I would have to take of the body panels for dipping myself. I was never sure if he was pulling my leg. At the time I knew a bunch of Elec Engineers. One was doing research on different materials and their reflectivity. He told me it was plausable. Of course a flat black porsche would stick out like a sore thumb.

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Mike 86 944