I don't know if you guys have the K40 radar detector but it is essentially a built in radar detector that is supposed to have VG-2 Protection (the device used to detect radar detectors where they are illegal). I was driving the E in Virginia today where radar detectors are illegal. Mine was on and next thing you know I was pulled over and cited. The officer was moving through traffic and was able to detect this device while I was moving from their VG-2 device (he was behind me).

Really sucks but fortunately it only cost $40. Have any of you been caught with this?

 

No. I don't have a K40, but I'm interested in one. Stealthiness is not an issue in California. How do you find its sensitivity compared to, say, the Valentine 1? Front/back isolation similar?

Jim

 

forget about the K40, it's junk. Either get the Passport X50 if you want to just plug it in, or get the Passport SRX if you want a stealth installation.

 

What part of Virginia? Did he keep it for evidence? They will give it back to you eventually if they took it. The ironic thing is that I have heard the Virginia government periodically auctions them off, despite the fact no dealers will sell them in the Commonwealth. Go figure.

 

I have to agree, hands-down the V1 is better than anything out there. I've had opportunities to run it side-by-side with Escort's best, and the V1 has always been more accurate and given a better warning. It has saved me many hundreds of dollars in tickets over the years.

The Valentine 1 site has an interesting blurb on VG2, which I've copied here:

http://www.valentine1.com/lab/Previously2.asp

Does Valentine One have "stealth?"
Is this the same as being VG2 proof?
- H.C., Idaho

The real question is, can V1 be found by an instrument called a "radar-detector detector?"

Good radar detectors, like good AM/FM radios, are super-heterodyne receivers, and they all share a common trait. They receive, but they also transmit a signal; it's called "local oscillator emissions." This transmitted signal can be found by another radio if it's tuned to the right frequency. A radar-detector detector is merely a radio tuned to the right frequency range for most detectors.

VG2 is the most famous of the radar-detector detectors.

A little history: Escort was the first X-K super-heterodyne detector. Jim Jaeger and I invented it, working out of his basement in the mid-seventies. Since then, other detector makers have taken the easy way and copied Escort's frequency scheme, which means they have the same L-O frequency. So VG2 knows right where to tune for them.

The one detector that's apart from the pack is V1. I didn't copy myself. So VG2 misses Valentine One. In our tests, Valentine One is better than all others for VG2-proofing. Our best competitors are pretty good, maybe good enough. Some others resort to a dubious strategy; they switch off their radar protection when they sense VG2 nearby.

Recently, we've been hearing of another radar-detector detector, the Spectre RDD. Used first in Canada, enforcers of detector bans in Virginia and Washington, DC, and the nationwide ban in heavy trucks, surely have this tool on their must-have list. It claims to have been designed specifically "to detect the latest state of the art stealth-type radar warning receivers." Does it find V1? Very likely, according to reports we've been hearing from a few V1 users. One participant in an internet chat room, who claimed to be a Canadian enforcer, said "I've snagged a Valentine 1 already." We've been unable to acquire a Spectre RDD for testing. Until we can do so, be advised that no super-heterodyne receiver is perfectly undetectable, and that includes V1.

 

The K40 absolutely stinks compared with a V1 and is also much worse that Passport SRX. I did side by side comparisons with a V1 in one of my cars with a K40 installed (BMW E39) and the difference in detection distance was astounding. The SRX range is not quite up to the V1 but its not bad and it has some advantages too. It falses less often than the V1 and it is a concealed installation and it also has a laser shifter -- that from all indications works (also costs a lot more). I have V1 in two cars and SRX in my E500. I consider my setups OK and the tradeoffs of the SRX worth it for the concelaed install and shifting. I was induced to take the K40 by the dealer because that's what they push, but in my opinion and based on my own tests (not the magazine tests, some of which by the way also rank K40 very low) K40 is not worth it in terms of performance vs. Escort/Passport and V1.

If V1 would ever come out with a concealed install (not just putting the remote in the mirror), but a true stealth installation, I think they'd clean up on the high end installations, but they so far have not gone in that direction.

 

I used a V1 in my Porsches for years, with good results. I always put it on the passenger visor, and plugged the remote into the cigarette lighter. Whenever my wife would ride in the car, she'd complain about this box right in her face, and the wires were a mess. ALso, the g-forces associated with hard cornering would eventually work the remote out of the cigarette lighter, and it would pop out and fly across the c0ckpit.

When I got the SL55, I thought I'd try a battery-operated unit, so I got an Escort Solo S2. It didn't seem to false much. In fact, it didn't seem to alarm much. Still, I kept on using it, and when I got my E500, I would use it on long trips. On my way back from Death Valley in January, I was on a two-lane, coming up behind an 18-wheeler that was just cresting a hill, when a CHP popped over the top of the hill headed straight towards me. Nothing from the radar detector at all. I saw the CHP turn on his lights in my rear-view mirror, and I pulled over before he made his U-turn and waited. There was no time at all for him to use laser on me, so he had to have clocked me with radar. With the V1, I'm sure I would have gotten some indication before he crested the hill, but with the S2 I didn't even get a beep when he was right in front of me. I tossed the S2 in the trash when I got home, and I've been "going naked" ever since.

What I'd like, installed in both my SL55 and E500:

1) An installation that looks clean.
2) An installation that doesn't invite people to break into my car to steal the radar detector.
3) A detector that works as well as, or nearly as well as, a V1.
4) Indication as to the direction of the radar, a la tha V1 (or K40, for that matter).
5) Keep the detector off the visor, where it is dangerous and distracting.

From what I read here, it sounds like there's nothing that will do all those things.

Am I missing something?

Jim

 

Remember this thread?:

If anyone can tell me where I can get this on the East Coast (USA), I think I'm game (around US$1k).

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=83989&highlight=lidatek

 

All these things do is put the V1 remote display in your rear view mirror. They do NOT hide the main unit, which still needs to sit on the windshield, is still subject to theft, falling off, etc. I consider the mirror remotes to be of limited value, certainly not worth the cost. Now, if someone could disassemble a V1 so that the front sensor sat behind the grill, the rear sensor looked rearward (like on the parcel shelf), and the remote was the only thing that showed inside, that would be ahome run.

 

I LOVE the K40 but I have not used other ones. I find it to false very little and it gives me plenty of warning and even around turns. I have driven 120,000 miles with the K40 with only one ticket, ironically enough, for the K40. People say the other ones are better but I am pretty happy with the exception of the VG-2 protection that doesn't work at all...

[/QUOTE]What part of Virginia? Did he keep it for evidence? [/QUOTE]
I was nailed just outside of DC. The good thing is that he didn't keep it since it was installed in the grill, dash and license plate frame...

 

Here is a review without the V1:
http://www.radartest.com/article.asp?articleID=7776

Abbreviated Results:
http://www.radartest.com/chart.asp?articleid=7777

 

I suggest you search the forum for Technik1 or Ai Design. You may be surprised.

 

radartest.com is famous for hating the V1.

The rumor has always been that Escort has some kind of behind-the-scenes influence.

 

Wrong. BTW, I think that's my car. Do a search.

 

You just found out first hand how portable detectors increase battery life. They turn their sensors on an off instead of running them full time.

As for mounting the V-1, I use the suciton cup mounts in 5 vehicles and they stick for years. Literally. Ditch the coiled cord and hard wire it. It can be done in les than an hour or pay someone $50 to do it. Mine are mounted up high (yes, through the tint) and are almost invisible from inside and out.

 

My apologies. But I can't find it through search. Is it old enough to be archived? Or could someone please post a link. Thanks

 

Wow, my apologies. That is a very nice way to install a V1. Where did you get it done?

 

I think you get can that done either in downtwon NYC (T1) or in a suburb of NYC (Ai)

 

These guys used to do it in NYC. http://www.ultrasmith.com/

 

I live in MD and drive into VA everyday and love my V1/K40 jammer. It is 100% stealth, and all you see it the etched display in the mirror. My jammer also is integrated into the display. This type of install will run you around $3K-$4K.

Had my car at the dealers and had every sales person come out and look. They just sold a SLR and he will be getting the same install as me. Check previous posts to see my pics.

 

[QUOTE=04E55 AMG]I live in MD and drive into VA everyday and love my V1/K40 jammer. It is 100% stealth, and all you see it the etched display in the mirror. My jammer also is integrated into the display. This type of install will run you around $3K-$4K.
QUOTE]
This was the first time I was nailed and I drove in VA with it quite frequently also. Mine is also completely integrated in the dash with sensors in the grill and rear license plate frame. The problem was their electronic detecting device identified it.

 

Technik 1 in Manhattan (around 29th and 11th) or AI Design in Tuckahoe NY