Porsche 911UK Forum

Welcome to the @Porsche911UK website. Register a free account today to become a member! Sign up is quick and easy, then you can view, participate in topics and posts across the site that covers all things Porsche.

Already registered and looking to recovery your account, select 'login in' and then the 'forget your password' option.

Radar detector..... advice/feedback needed

Singhaa88

Active member
Joined
18 Oct 2016
Messages
25
Hi all,

Right short story is, I was caught doing 79 in a 50 in my previous 997... landed myself with 6 points in one sitting..... now I have brought a GTS I'm thinking a radar detector would be a smart investment and probably necessary.... anyone got any feedback/suggestions/experience with these....

Would kind of prefer one that doesn't go on the dash or windscreen but that looks to be the only place that they can be mounted? Again feedback/experience???
 
i don't know of any radar or laser monitor that doesn't get loads of false alerts from all the gizmos on modern cars. Would love to know if there is one. I gave up searching and currently using Wase phone app which I have found very reliable to date.
 
Yeah but wase requires user inputs ... I've been looking at the snooper v4 ( I think it's called that) where it runs from a database and picks up radar and laser guns
 
I've had a Snooper and Beltronics detectors in the past, but I now have a Valentine One with V1connection for Android (Apple is also available). I use the YaV1 app on my phone, which makes programming much easier. The latest firmware is the best out there at filtering unwanted alerts and it can be further tuned using YaV1 if required.

The GPS detectors are okay, but the real-time benefits of the Valentine One have saved me on more than one occasion, it has easily paid for itself.

Friends have tried numerous detectors and they've now bought a Valentine One, they might cost a bit more initially, but they're built to last and can be upgraded for a reasonable cost when updated firmware comes along. It's one of those "buy cheap, buy twice" things, you'll end up spending more in the long run, decide that detectors are useless, or ignore it at the worst possible time if you end up with something that false alerts constantly.

I realise that the above sounds like a bit of a Valentine One advert, but I have no association with the company, I'm merely a happy customer. Some would say the best advice is to never exceed the speed limit, but we've all been there done that if we're honest :wink:

One word of warning, if you drive in mainland Europe, detectors are illegal in some countries. The French Police have been known to smash them up at the roadside and issue a hefty fine, or impound cars if they see fit!
 
I did some research on laser detectors / jammers a couple of years ago after losing my licence in Australia (one speeding ticket: 39 in a 30mph zone, zero tolerance area). I don't have an Australia licence to lose, but I wouldn't have been able to drive for 3 months if I did.

As was mentioned earlier, the radar detecting equipment is pointless, as the UK police are largely only using laser to collect their stealth tax. Then my understanding is that laser detection is nearly pointless, since by the time it's hit your car, and your gismo flashes, your speed has already been beamed back to the speed detection unit. All it is telling you is that you just got caught.

As for jammers, pretty sure these are illegal in (at least) the UK. You can get in A LOT more trouble for using them than just a speeding ticket... so I would strongly advise against these.

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/15073866.Man_who_used_laser_to_jam_speed_camera_appears_in_court/

I use the free TomTom app that creates a watermark over the top of my Google maps. It tells me what my GPS speed is, what the speed limit is, and flashes for fixed and reported mobile cameras, and warns me of jammed traffic ahead (very useful if you're at motorway speeds and will need to brake hard shortly). It also starts automatically when my phone connect to my car bluetooth.
 
One thing about Laser detectors that I found out is that they use to have a lot of 'scatter' when they were used. This means that if the detector is being used on a road where there are lots of vehicles your detector can pick up the 'scattered' beams and alert you that a Laser speed device is being used.
The one caveat here is that on say a road like the A9 where the police can pin point you from miles away and you are the only car on the road then your pretty much stuffed!

Also have to agree about the jammers, one of our club members uses one and he was warned by someone in the know that if he was caught using it he would be in a massive pile of do do, so best avoid at all costs.
 
Yup, jammers are potentially 'perverting the course of justice'..

Which could lead to a custodial sentence iirc

I've got the Aguri Skyway, which works ok, but it's mainly the gps system that's saved my bacon... :cop:
 
Hi
sounds obvious but it's only as good as how recently the device has been updated... - even a few minutes...

I decided to look into these a few months ago after a 'moment' last year in France and came to the conclusion that most of the time, the detectors will probably have a time lag which would then be 'costly'
One of the advantages of Waze (as mentioned above) - and other apps I would think - is that it is constantly fed by a 'community' and automatically updated so I have found it very useful so far - eg yesterday ; having learnt my lesson last year, we were cruising sensibly back from LM and it alerted us a few times that the gendarmes were up ahead... and sure enough, there they were behind or on the bridges out of sight until we had passed them ! Had I updated my K2 before we set off early in the morning, I don't think it would have 'known' they were there
Sure, it's not infallible as I have to remember to switch the app on but that only takes a second and becomes 2nd nature as the routing is very good (saved us nearly 30 mins vs Google and the iPhone nav app a few weekends ago dodging a big section of roadworks on the M1

I would be very nervous about a jammer indeed

HTH
:thumb:
 
I have had a Valentine One in my cars for as long as I can remember. Ive tried various radar detectors over the years and the V1 is by far the best. Easily half a mile or more warning of any radar speed cameras, more if its facing you. Its directional indicators are great and compared to other detectors it gives very very few false alarms, if any.

Now others are allowed to use the directional indicators, the Escort 360 is apparently just as good, if not better than the V1, however neither are cheap.

However. As others have said, all the mobile speed traps are laser, so the radar/laser detector will only let you know about it once you have already been hit. Also nearly all new fixed cameras are infra-red, rather than radar. So in additional to the V1 I have used an app called Waze on my mobile phone for the last 6 years or so. Its great, its a free sat nav, plus warns you of any speed cameras/accidents/police. Its user`s can instantly log a speed trap and any other users will instantly know its there. I use Waze everytime im in the car, even for routine journeys so its automatic and its saved my bacon a couple of times.
 
Waze is very good, I must say, even down to things being dropped in the road.
 
As a side note to the above, someone mentioned this to me today. Gives you a warning about marked and unmarked emergency vehicles approaching your car, or that you are approaching.

http://www.targetblueye.co.uk

So it looks like the two main types of stealth tax trap you can't avoid are helicopter and laser. Solutions to the others are as follows:

Radar: radar detector (any reputable hardware)
Fixed: GPS device (any reputable app or hardware)
Marked/unmarked police tail: target blue eye
Mobile laser: no failsafe, just hope someone reports on wase
Helicopter: Yea...

I personally stick religiously to all speed limits. Even on empty motorways at 4am.
 
Rob325114 said:
As a side note to the above, someone mentioned this to me today. Gives you a warning about marked and unmarked emergency vehicles approaching your car, or that you are approaching.

http://www.targetblueye.co.uk

So it looks like the two main types of stealth tax trap you can't avoid are helicopter and laser. Solutions to the others are as follows:

Radar: radar detector (any reputable hardware)
Fixed: GPS device (any reputable app or hardware)
Marked/unmarked police tail: target blue eye
Mobile laser: no failsafe, just hope someone reports on wase
Helicopter: Yea...

I personally stick religiously to all speed limits. Even on empty motorways at 4am.

I mentioned that one in my response above, great unit however will become redundant next year.
 
Ah yep, sorry. I didn't read/click on that as I assumed it was similar to Road Angel Gem listed in the same sentence (which is essentially the same as every other GPS /radar/laser device). It's a shame the target blue is going to be redundant, as it sounds like it has some benefits on giving you an early heads up on approaching blues/twos - something I find popping up from all over the place in London, with very little space to get out of their way.

Obviously all of this conversation could be moot if every spent more time looking at their speedometer, than the road ways to get around speeding tickets.
 
I've had a stinger VIP on mine for the last 4yrs never gone wrong and saved me quite a few times. Only downside is the price great piece of equipment
http://www.stinger.com
 

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
124,354
Messages
1,439,454
Members
48,710
Latest member
Silage
Back
Top