Does anyone have radar?

[ciabatta]

after my 1st ticket =(

I am seriously contemplating purchasing a Valentine Radar but for the life of me I can't find a place to:

A. mount it
B. plug it in

any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

[qball]

No, but I can detect it.

Get a V1... well worth it.

Also, get a lightweight V1 mount

http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/show...ight=valentine

[RichS]

http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26841

I have the above bracket with a remote display mounted into my dash. I get many compliments on it.

http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/show...5&postcount=35

[Bleu Omdurman]

I have had one in both Lotus's I have owned. In my opinion, the best place to mount is in the rear window area. In the Elise I mounted up high behind the passenger seat. You could not see it there at all from outside the car. Even if you were looking for it as a cop. In the exige, I mount it between the two seats again on the rear window. Since the Exige has no rear visibility to speak of, you can also not see this from outside. If I had an Exige S, i would likely mount it behind the passenger seat again as I would be concerned the intercooler would restrict the V1 Performance to the rear.

[2-Y-CHROMOSOMES]

I use the Solo2, battery operated and suction cupped just left of my micro mirror

It works great.

As soon as I hear an alarm I immediately down shift and slow. Sometimes I wonder...hey I do not see a cop. Then 1 mile later there he is.
I would not have license right now most likely it saved my butt many times.

The Valentine is suppose to be the best. I just opted for the cordless solution which valentine did not have. Not sure if they carry a cordless option yet.

[Mr.C]

ciabatta,

please let me know if you are interested in one of my mounting brackets.
I have a few left (eight to be exact) and I'm not planning to fabricate any more at this point.

Here's a link with more details:

http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/show...highlight=mr.c

Steve

[mikecronis]

I find the V1 too "chatty" even in "A" mode. I recommend the Escort 9500i with GPS (which gives the added bonus of displaying your ACTUAL speed opposed to the motorcycle-like over-exaggerated OEM speedo). With it you can manually block-out any falsing areas (such as supermarkets, etc.) with the press of a button it remembers that frequency and never falses there again (but can still pick up other freqs in that area).

Just my .02.

[JMY]

I got Mr.C's V1 mount and I love it ! Hardwired the V1 to the +12V behind the stereo .... I always run the V1 in "L" mode which is the maximum filtering and press the mute buttom on the remote when the unit beeps too much.

[yak52pilot]

I still have a k40 laser jammer and radar detec in RS6 and its AWESOME. Saved me numerous times. Kinda pricey at $1300 installed, but paid itself off many times.

[SanAnEliseMan]

I have found two GREAT ways to avoid tickets that are much cheaper. . .

1) drive with other people who have radars and break when they do

2) join the military and flash your id when you get pulled over

The latter works the best! I have been pulled over 10+ times in the last 4 years and 0 tickets. . . so far my best is 24 over. Guy was an ex-marine.

[cfexige]

Originally Posted by ciabatta

after my 1st ticket =(

I am seriously contemplating purchasing a Valentine Radar but for the life of me I can't find a place to:

A. mount it
B. plug it in

any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

My car is for sale, take a look at it just to see where I mounted mine. It is half way down the pictures. http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45061

bought the mount from mr.C

[cfexige]

<IMG SRC="http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc173/s55amgebay/Lotus/20.jpg">

[wrh3]

The solution I decided on was mounting the detector on the rollbar cover with a Velcro strap and using the remote volume control and display, works great and not as visible to profiling thieves:

[babak]

+1 V1

thread moved to other

[MattG]

I've been selling some mounting brackets for the V1, see this thread:
http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26841

Plugging it in *can* be very simple if you don't want to hardwire it (though that's not very difficult). If you install it at the front of the passenger cabin (like with the suction cup windshield mount), just run a flat power cable (included with the V1) through the center console to the accessory outlet between the seats. If the V1 is installed at the rear window, just run the power cable straight down to that plug. The only downside is that the accessory outlet is an always-on power source, so be sure to remember to unplug the V1.

My V1 has more than paid for itself by now. I wouldn't speed without one.

One more thing, I've heard good things about the other brands/models of radar detectors too, at least the higher end ones that are comparable in price to the V1. You get what you pay for.

[babak]

Matt, I really need to do your mount install, I just suck at wiring and need some hand holding getting the power from the head unit.

[MattG]

Originally Posted by babak

Matt, I really need to do your mount install, I just suck at wiring and need some hand holding getting the power from the head unit.

I used this as a reference, helped a lot:
http://www.quinndunki.com/lotus/v1/

It's not too bad. Splicing into the head unit is easy, then it's just a matter of routing the cables, and how you do that will depend on whether you use the remote display module, and if so, where you locate it. In my case, all wires were routed behind the passenger airbag cover, through the hole on the right of the storage shelf, then over to and through the center console. Not too bad really.

In the meantime, you can still use my mounting bracket with the cigarette lighter adaptor.

[RaDaRkInG]

Originally Posted by mikecronis

I find the V1 too "chatty" even in "A" mode. I recommend the Escort 9500i with GPS (which gives the added bonus of displaying your ACTUAL speed opposed to the motorcycle-like over-exaggerated OEM speedo). With it you can manually block-out any falsing areas (such as supermarkets, etc.) with the press of a button it remembers that frequency and never falses there again (but can still pick up other freqs in that area).

Just my .02.

There are big problems with the new Escort 9500i and the majority of people are returning them because of less range than the Valentine One.

They are locking out signals from door openers and the 9500i is not alerting to cops that shoot radar in that area. Owners of the 9500i are also complaining that signals that they lock out are not staying locked out from the day before. They also say that their Sirius/XM radio is cutting out because of the 9500i and its GPS function.

http://www.radardetector.net/viewtopic.php?t=23027
http://www.radardetector.net/viewtopic.php?t=23178
http://www.radardetector.net/viewtopic.php?t=23183
http://www.radardetector.net/viewtopic.php?t=23036
http://www.radardetector.net/viewtopic.php?t=22800
http://www.radardetector.net/viewtop...torder=asc&sta rt=0
http://www.radardetector.net/viewtopic.php?t=22824
http://www.radardetector.net/viewtopic.php?t=22762

http://www.radardetector.net/viewtopic.php?t=22803

Are you satisfied with your 9500i or returning it?Satisfied with 38% [ 19 ]Returning 61% [ 30 ]Total Votes : 49


The Escort 9500i is $50 more than the Valentine One and it still can't detect as well as the V1 can.


http://guysoflidar.com/august-2007/r...ctor-test.html

http://guysoflidar.com/july-2007/off...ctor-test.html

[RaDaRkInG]

Originally Posted by 2-Y-CHROMOSOMES

I use the Solo2, battery operated and suction cupped just left of my micro mirror

It works great.

As soon as I hear an alarm I immediately down shift and slow. Sometimes I wonder...hey I do not see a cop. Then 1 mile later there he is.
I would not have license right now most likely it saved my butt many times.

The Valentine is suppose to be the best. I just opted for the cordless solution which valentine did not have. Not sure if they carry a cordless option yet.

The Escort Solo S2 is the best cordless radar detector you can buy but it is still terrible. It lacks in range because it is asleep more than 85% of the time to conserve batteries. It can't detect POP radar, instant-on radar, and it just isn't worth the money. Just check the latest independent unbiased radar detector test and you can see that it is always at the bottom.

http://guysoflidar.com/august-2007/r...ctor-test.html


This is why Mike Valentine doesn't make a cordless version of the V1.

http://valentine1.com/cordless/

There's no cordless version of V1
It's possible to run a radar detector on two throw away AAs, but you have to give up any hope of high performance.

Performance takes power. There's no getting around the physics of it. Batteries are weak sources of power. That's why electric cars use battery packs weighing hundreds of pounds, yet few of them can top 100 miles without recharging.

Laptop computers have very expensive batteries — quite heavy, too — yet they're lucky to run two hours on a charge.

A radar detector operates like a sentry making its rounds. If the territory is small, then he can watch carefully and often. Expand the territory and he has time for only quick glances. When "superwide Ka" radar guns came on the scene a few years back, the microwave territory a radar detector has to watch was expanded more than 1000 percent, compared to the good old days of X and K bands only. Now the sentry needs powerful circuits.

"SOLO S2 uses only a fraction of the power used by conventional corded detectors," claims the maker's website.

Uh-oh, here comes the energy crisis.

The SOLO S2's "High-Efficiency Power Management" is hardly rocket surgery. It saves the two AAs by putting the sentry to sleep more than 85 percent of the time. It just switches off the power-using detector circuitry.

A sleeping sentry can't possibly give early warning when radar is used in the instant-on mode. And it gives up all hope of detecting the POP mode.

Sure, a cordless detector would be convenient. And I'll be out in the lab cooking one up as soon as the laws of physics are repealed.

[R'elise Me]

Has anyone tried the BEL Sti Driver? Thoughts/assessments?

Also, is it possible to mount the V1 on the dash or does it HAVE to be mounted by the rear window? If not, why, out of curiosity?