I just finished reading an issue of R&T at lunch and the 2nd to last page was an advertisement for an Escort radar detector. I didn't realize they were still around, with changes in radar and laser and such.
My parents bought me one when I got my first car around 1986, an old Cobra something if I remember. Lots of Navy travel = keep me..."safe"? (For the record they also bought me a CB radio, which was my first choice.)
Still around. Quite useful for photo radar and such. Not so good with instant on and laser, unless they are run by a poor operator.
In reply to Jerry:
Yes, I picked up an Escort Smartradar a couple months ago & have used it on 2x ~1700mi trips(as well as daily). It most likely saved my ass at least 2x each trip - and I'm usually good a spotting cops from miles away. I figure the laser detector is basically useless, but there aren't many places running it anyway - especially on rural interstate.
I did a 1-year subscription to the Escort app, but I won't renew it. I get way more info from Waze, as it has way more users.
I use my Valentine 1 everyday. Kinda miss my CB for long trips. Great for Smokey reports and traffic/accidents. Sometimes you can listen to some interesting conversations on it too.
The more I drove race cars the slower I drove street cars so the need fell off fast as I got in to motorsports.
I wish that some one would make a device that you could put on your dash as a HUD with 1" tall green LED numbers that would display the speed limit and your current speed. It would warn you when you are over the current speed limit by beeping or flashing the display in red. It would also beep and flash in yellow an upcomming speed limit change.
I know this is all possible as Garmin GPS units tell you the current speed limit for the road you are one and tell me when I am over it by turning my current speed to red letters. I just want this function but with bigger letters/numbers that I can set on the dash at the base of the windshield as a HUD.
I just go slow enough to not get picked up.
I still like my V1 for back roads and remote highways, but I find Waze to be more helpful in heavily traveled areas.
sergio wrote: Here you go
Nice but get rid of all the other stuff and the posted limit and your speed fill the whole screen. Garman seems to think we are all idiots and forget how to get to the store or across town. I only use mine for trips or going to see new clients. the rest of the time it is in the center console not in use. BUT if they made that thing so it only displayed vehicle speed and the posted speed limits with warnings I would be all over it.
My eyes and think to myself "Now where would be a good place to hide" and when all that fails, I just defer all the tickets. I had 3 deferments going at the same time once....that was funny.
With the speed limit no longer 55 in most of Free America, the need for them has diminished. If the speed limit is 75 or 80 and speeding is now 85 or 90, there isn't much need to speed. And, with many new vehicles and 18 wheelers using CAS, the false alerts have gone way up over previous years. However, on long trips I still like to know when someone is phasering me.
Oh, V1 or Go Home.
I've got an Escort Redline that is on 100% of the time in the Camaro. It's easily paid for itself in the year and a half that I've had it, although ironically the only ticket I've had in the past 3 or so years came a couple weeks after I bought it with the detector in active use. Not that it would have helped, local cop bagged me and only the staties are allowed to have radar in PA.
As far as the instant on/laser stuff is concerned, Mass is the only state I've personally encountered it in. When you start passing obvious speed traps and the detector never goes off, you know they're running laser.
I just keep a rabbit in front of me by about 1/2 mile
I don't feel the need for one anymore.
10 Years ago I5 in Oregon would lurch between 50 and 65 every few miles for little reason and it was heavily patrolled. Now the southern half of state is nearly all 65 and the urban slowdown zones in the upper 1/3 make sense intuitively so its fine.
And for me the fun is all had below 55 on the abundance of excellent Oregon secondary roads anyway.
I just spent 10 days in Los Angles- holy smokes, no cops I could see, and the only rule is GO!!. 80-85 is fast lane flow of traffic on freeways until its start slowing- then the system goes into these 50 to 0 to 50 to 0 lurches. You can make time.
dean1484 wrote: The more I drove race cars the slower I drove street cars so the need fell off fast as I got in to motorsports. I wish that some one would make a device that you could put on your dash as a HUD with 1" tall green LED numbers that would display the speed limit and your current speed. It would warn you when you are over the current speed limit by beeping or flashing the display in red. It would also beep and flash in yellow an upcomming speed limit change. I know this is all possible as Garmin GPS units tell you the current speed limit for the road you are one and tell me when I am over it by turning my current speed to red letters. I just want this function but with bigger letters/numbers that I can set on the dash at the base of the windshield as a HUD.
With self driving technology progressing at the rate it seems to, I'm honestly surprised we haven't seen cars with a GPS based speed governor installed. After all, nobody "needs" to speed, so why not just take it off the table? (horrible thought I know)
I always get a kick out of Mike Valentine's picture...trust me I live in my mom basement. Or trust me it works I live in a van down by the river.
Waze has replaced the need for a radar detector for me.
I have a V1 in the Saab; mainly it comes in handy for my wife to identify when she's about to get stopped. Last time she got a verbal performance award, she was crabbing to my daughter about what all the beeping noise was about as they rolled past the cop
. Gotta have some situational awareness...
Dean, my parents' Volvo, which is smarter than 99.99999% of drivers, has something like what you describe. One of the 3246 cameras and sensors reads speed limit signs and puts a bug on the speedo along with a mini speed limit sign. They have a Rt 85 locally, apparently it also will read one of those as a speed limit though.
Edit: I must investigate this 'waze'. Now if we could combine traffic alerts, etc with GasBuddy, that would be quite the app!
I learned to drive in L.A. I'm not used to it anymore. On our recent trip out there, coming down 15, I think, it was 4 lanes of traffic on a freeway designed for 3 (no more shoulders and narrower lanes), door to door, bumper to bumper at 80 MPH in a 55 MPH speed limit. That's some tight driving.
The OBC in my E36 had a function where you could set a "max speed" and it would beep at you if exceeded. Took me forever to figure out what the "random" beeping was when I got the car because it was set to like 74 or something. Cranked that baby up to like 100 so I wouldn't have to hear it. Well, not as often anyways 
I used to really felt like I needed one where I grew up in the Detroit area because there were lots of surface streets where the speed limit was 30 or 35 and it felt like you could go much faster than that. Now that I live in Chicago, not an issue, other than the radar cameras in the school zones and parks, but they have a lot of signs and paint in the street warning you about those, so to get tagged by one of those you have to be really zoned out. Also, not a problem with the Mazda2 I drive a lot of the time - on the highway, it really protests going faster than 75 and I don't think there's a highway in the midwest where you'll get pulled over for driving 75 (maybe particularly strict sections of I-75 in Ohio, which I thankfully, never drive on anymore). Nobody gets pulled over on the freeways in Chicagoland - they're all 55 mph tops and everyone goes 70-80 if there's not traffic. The only things I ever see pulled over are overloaded trucks and shady looking characters in unregistered mid 90's Pontiacs.
trigun7469 wrote:
Plus that pic must be 20 years old.
Fueled by Caffeine wrote: Waze has replaced the need for a radar detector for me.
Came to post this. Waze works pretty well on the freeways.
I, too, have found Waze to be very helpful. Not only does it tell you about cops, but also stuff lying in the road, and it can sometimes automatically reroute you around accidents.
I travel a lot and have used radar detectors since the early Escorts and 55 mph limits driving from Louisville to Detroit twice a month. The current best thing for detectors is a V1 with YaV1 app. This gives full control of programming GPS lock outs frequency readings etc all in a free easy to use app connected to the V1 via Bluetooth. It is close to perfect for radar.
Lidar\laser however requires a jammer for any real safety otherwise any laser alarm is just a false from another car safety system or you are about to be pulled over if you were speeding alert.
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