valentine one: best radar detector?
 

i just got my escort 8500 stolen and i need a new radar detector i feel so naked driving without one. so i figure im gonna go buy a valentine one since its the best out there and i hate gettin tickets. however, somebody showed me this website about a radar detector/ jammer called a viper (www.007radar.com)? sounds enticing, but i dont know. can somebody help me out? thanks

IMHO, don't put stock in that crap. R&T did a test of jammers awhile ago. I think they worked 10% of the time. If you really want to trust that sorta reliability, then go ahead. otherwise, stick with a Valentine one, as they have numbers to back up their product. That and your own two eyes are the best anti-speeding-ticket combo you can get.

Jammers are a bunch of bull sh!t just get a valentine one I have one and it's saved me count less times. Yes they are to sensitve but you learn to tell which are real nad which are fake

I've been through most detectors out there and the V1 is definitely the way to go. It picks up bogeys literally miles away on a regular basis.

Regards,

Dusty

I've got it. It is seriously amazing. I would spend the extra money and get it because the difference is unbelievable. The other one I have used was a 200 dollar Escort one I think, complete garabage in comparison.

on another note, HOLY SHIT Dusty your on here. Word MVP gonna do something related to the 7, that would be sweet. Also, much props your guys Supra is absolutely insane.

Hey Anthony,

what, my advice wasn't good enough for ya ;)?

Valentine 1 is the best out there. If you have the cash, get one.

Yeah I decided to join. Someone else on here apparently has the name I've used for years on every single other forum. :(

We aren't going to do anything w/ 7's in terms of building one up, I'm going to leave that to other experts. We do have 2 new project cars but nothing with a Mazda badge at this time.

MVP is moving up in the market in terms of parts for the RX7. My goal will be the #2 FC/FD supplier in the USA for the common parts. I think everyone w/ a 7 should buy from RX7store but if they aren't then I want them buying from us. There are some other companies out there that need to focus more on service in this community and I hope to raise that bar...we'll see.

Regards,

Dusty

yeah defanately go for the v1 mine has saved me countless times.

Greetings,

I've got a V1, and it's the best, and worst detector I've ever owned. The good news is that it doesn't miss any real radar, and I like the arrows. The bad news is that it goes off waaaaaaay too often for false alarms. Even in the big L mode, where it's supposed to have less false alarms, it's the most annoying detector I've ever owned. I understand it was an isolated case, but mine broke after about 3 months, and I had to send it in for repair. To their credit, Valentine handled the service very quickly.

Now that I have an R1, I need a second detector, and after much research, I ordered an Escort Passport 8500 yesterday. From the review below, you'll note that there are some questions as to whether Valentine has kept pace with the latest radar types, and the 8500 got great marks for it's automatic mode of filtering false alarms. I'll miss the arrows, but 90% of them were false alarms anyway, and I've had about 2 decades to learn to interpret radar signals :-)

http://www.radartest.com/DS4HEM.html

Cheers,
Rusty

Just curious, has anyone on here gotten a ticket while using the Valentine one?

Also, where is a good cheap place to buy one?

Just curious, has anyone on here gotten a ticket while using the Valentine one?

Also, where is a good cheap place to buy one?

I've gotten several tickets while using it but that doesn't really matter to me considering the hundreds I haven't received.

You have to buy it from Valentine direclty, they have NO dealers. You can buy 50 and the price is still $400. There is no discount, period, you just pay to play.

Its hard to stress how much worth the money this item really is!

Regards,

Dusty

My V1 does not false very often. I have turned the annoying X band off (motion detector band). This band does not appear to be used by cops in Houston, Texas ... mostly K or Ka, very little laser if any. I have heard of some cops in College Station or thereabouts still using the X band but this is a rarity in my travels through Texas.

You can go to the V1 website and download instructions to turn off certain bands or change the sensitivity to certain bands beyond what's in the manual.

I love my V1. It does have alot of false alarms, but you learn to know what is real and what isn't based on where you are. Filtering modes help quite a bit, but I'm on the highway so much I prefer not to have any set. Love the arrows, they are right on target. If you have the chance to be in someones car when they pass by a cop pulling someone over, you can see the signal getting stronger right up to it where it sounds like a hospital room :). Then the second you go buy, it's tell you the signal is from the back already.

Re: valentine one: best radar detector?
 

imo...yep

I recently drove from miami to Boston and the V1 saved me at least twice. It does get a little annoying around town, but on the open road it's great.

thanks for the replies guys. i appreciate it. more than likely im gonna get the valentine one

did you hear that goodfella? be safe this weekend.

What doy ou guys have to say about the V1 being outdated???

I recently heard about K40. I like the
idea of my radar detector being hidden
with the undectable model, but has
anybody had experience with them? www.k40.com

we install the k40 2000 undetectable a lot for the porsche dealership here in memephis. they are nice but sometimes false a bit.....like the v1. the good thing about the k40 is they offer a laser defuser (LD5500+) and that piece IS the SHIT!!! ever since i put mine on, i've been shot with laser and it gives them an error code. hell, twice i 've seen an officer look at the thing crazy and smack the side of it. i'm using it in conjunction with my dated escort 7500 (but it picks up laser). i'm planning on buying the escort 8500 and get the zr3 shifter ( www.escortradar.com )because it comes with 2 front laser jamm ers and one for the rear....retail $499 (in addition to the 8500)...while the k40 defuser is 350 installed...250 not.

the cool thing about the defuser, though, is that it comes with a piezo horn and l.e.d. to install so you will be notified when it's detecting ( and jamming) laser. a lot better security against the pigs!!! p.s. WELL worth the investment.

oh yea, for everyone's information about radar jammers....DON'T WASTE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY!!!!! save it for mods or smoething else. a little bit of knowledge for you....radar is something that is governed by a small group of guys known as the FCC! they are not the one's to fuck with in relation to jamming signals...like federal crimes. on the other hand, the wonderful thing about laser is that it's governing body is the Food and Dug Administration....no crime against altering/jamming the signal....i wondered why i like food so much. be safe out there :)

I like my crow well done
 

As I mentioned earlier, I have a V1, and thought the Escort Passport 8500 might be better overall. Well, the 8500 arrived, and I've had some time to do some side by side testing between it, and the V1.

The results:

- 8500 has fewer false alarms, but still goes off at the main trouble spots.
- K band warning seems to be a dead tie between the two detectors
- Ka band warning (only saw one) came a second or two sooner on the V1.
- I REALLY do like those V1 arrows
- my biggest complaint about the 8500 is the volume of the K and Ka warning. The X and Laser tones really get your attention, but the "brap" sound of the K, and "brap brap" of the Ka aren't as noticable. It would be easy to miss a weak K or Ka warning if the stereo was playing at any respectable volume.

Bottom line- I sent the 8500 back, and ordered a second V1.

Cheers,
Rusty

My friend has it, whenever we go out we put it in the car, and its simply amazing. Never fails on us.

Well, to throw in my two cents, I ABSOLUTELY swear by the V1. I've lived with radar detectors since the original Escort, so false alarms don't bother me. It gets to be second nature. After a little while you don't even realize you're filtering out the noise in your head, but the real thing sounds different. Personally, I think the "L" mode does a great job of filtering, but then again, I never use that mode. I wanna hear EVERYTHING it has to tell me! Keep in mind there's a very fine line between selectivity (not falsing) and sensitivity (never going off at all).

Mainly, I just wanted to add that my dad recently got the newest Escort Solo (their battery powered detector). It is an ABSOLUTE POS!!! I would SERIOUSLY warn everyone away from that particular one. You have to be IMMEDIATELY in front of a cop before it even begins to beep. We put it beside the V1 on a long trip, and it even totally missed one time that we were being clocked by Ka. I would never ever consider using anything other than the V1. The price difference doesn't even come close to the performance difference.

...oh yeah, and just to add, on two separate occasions I was cornering very hard and had the V1 pop off the windshield, bounce off the passenger door and fall into the floorboard, and it still works fine. I really expected that would have broken it!