Valentine One Radar Detector Moment of the Month
April 2006: Fighter Pilots Call It "Situation Awareness"
Destination: Ames, Iowa, for
a meeting. And I was late leaving Louisville. So I was feeling some urgency
as I rolled up Interstate 74 west of Peoria. I had an Eagle Talon heavily
modified for the Silver States Classic and it was a runner.
I purchased my V1 in '96 on
the advice of my best friend; he's a fanatic, always buys the best, and
he swore by his V1. That convinced me.
My pace had picked up a pack
of about seven or eight cars hanging back about quarter mile. They weren't
on my bumper, so no problem.
I was approaching an overpass
and WHACK! Ka! Two lights…off the gas and a bit of emergency brake to
scrub off the speed with no brake lights. The pack behind me came on fast,
oblivious to the doom ahead, cresting the overpass right with me. V1 is
now totally alive,…full light show! There he is, a trooper sniping straight
at us. The pack lights up with red tails. Too late! Like ducks landing
on a pond, about half pulled in behind me and the other cars, naked, settled
in front. I was surrounded. We all got pulled over into a little show
and tell party where the troopers did the telling.
Well, fuming over my bad luck,
I sat for a moment watching a VERY well fed lady trooper—must be the donuts—step
out of her cruiser and start out for the first victim. She paused…pointed
at me…and gave me the "get out of here" sign. Who am I to
argue with the law?
I pulled out, and she gave
a double-take when she saw my obviously highly modified Talon squirt by.
How they saw me doing the legal beagle in all that mess is beyond me,
but it would not have happened without that wonderful black box hardwired
into my car.
You want a streamlined pretty
thing on your dash? Buy a Passport. You want military-grade protection?
Buy a Valentine One. Oh, one more thing: READ the manual. Mike did a great
job of teaching strategy and making great technology!
Rob Rittenberg
Tulsa, OK