I've never owned one, but from reading threads here it seems many of you have.
Is radar going to be terribly effective against the Elise ? I would think it's combination of small,low,rounded,fibreglass,aluminum
would make it a tough target.
How do radar detectors work anyway ? It would seem to me that
they couldn't sense "waves" in the neighborhood. They would only sense a direct hit at their sensor. By then isn't it too late anyway ?
Thanks
Steve
Radar will be less effective against the elise than a vehicle with flat steel panels, which is most vehicles on the road, simply because it is smaller and the radar will be reflecting off of the chassis, engine, and other sporadic metal parts instead of a flat body panels, giving it less of a radar cross section (RCS). Whoever said that the fiberglass panels are invisible to radar is correct. That said, radar will still work, as it works on bikes with an even smaller RCS than the elise. This doesn't apply to laser, as fiberglass is not invisible to the laser wavelengths, and they will bounce off the body panels.
I'm not sure anyone fully answered the question 'how radar detectors work'. They work by sending out a weak signal that mixes with incoming radar signals (in X, K, Ka bands), and produces a signal that is easier to detect than if they were just a passive reciever detecting the above radar bands. By sending out a signal instead of just being passive (as in an FM radio passively detects FM signals without sending out anything), this also allows the radar detector to function somewhat around curves & hills. While the radar from a radar gun is focused into a beam initally, as soon as it leaves the gun it scatters somewhat, allowing you to pick up scattered waves before you are in the "main beam" of radar, giving you time to slow down. Scattering occurs less with laser, but still occurs, which allows early detection.
As everyone has said, "constant-on" method is being used less and less, as it is easily evaded by those with radar detectors. "Instant-on" K and Ka band is used most of the time now, and like someone said, if you're by yourself on the road there is a good chance you'll be pulled over. But many times the cop will pull the trigger on someone within a mile ahead of you, so you detect it at a distance and can slow down.
By the way, the reason laser can't be used when the cop is in motion is that it detects differently than radar. For radar, your speed is measured by the doppler shift of the returning signal (i.e. the phase difference of the returning signal as compared to the outgoing signal caused by your motion relative to the police car), where laser systems send a series of pulses out and measure the distance of your car at different points in time - kind of like a high-tech stopwatch method. The current laser systems can't take into account any motion of the cop car, so they are only used as stationary systems.
From my experience in PA and NJ, laser is used very little compared to radar, although use is increasing. Still 95% of the time my detector goes off it is due to radar. And as to the question of whether or not they are effective - I'd say 97-98% of the times I've been able to brake hard and avoid a ticket - that's many thousands of dollars in tickets. Still, having an alert eye for cops hidden along the highway is as effective, and together they provide a great defense against radar.