Valentine One Radar Detector Moment of the Month
July 2003: V1 on Top Down Under

The scene was New Zealand, the North Island: it was late, and I was driving at a determined pace towards the mountains for a weekend of snowboarding. New Zealand Police have become extremely ruthless at enforcing our low speed limits.

With no other cars on the road, I was the vulnerable one. After swinging down a long hill, I turned a corner—directly into instant-on K band. V1 went to full alert. I hit the brakes almost instantly, slowing from around 50 percent over the limit to just under. The cruiser was nearly hidden. Its park lights were masked by small trees. Nasty.

His lights came on, and I was pulled over shortly afterwards. The man was furious. He demanded to know what sort of radar detector I had, and tried to bluff me into a ticket. I asked him what speed had he clocked me. He had to admit that he could not actually lock on to my speed as I had slowed down too fast. So he had no evidence apart from numbers doing a flashing roll over his display.

The V1 had done its job in a tricky situation.

From then on, all enforcers in the area were on high alert, with V1 picking up three more radar traps within the next 10 kms.

Simon Longdill
Auckland, NEW ZEALAND