Mike Valentine’s V1 Is Lacking Innovation
Has Mike Valentine, the CEO of Valentine Research, lost his innovation? His Valentine One radar detector is quickly becoming a dinosaur while the other “famous brands” include GPS, stealth and other features into their high performance units.
Fireball Day One – Keeping it Real
Day one of the Fireball Transcontinental Rally.
Last night we received our driver packet with instructions that our first leg was to start at the Amway Center in Orlando. It also stressed that this rally was not for speed or best time, but to obtain points during our coast to coast journey while arriving at the various legs during a predetermined timed window. If we arrived too early it would indicate that you were speeding and you were disqualified. Arrive too late; you’re disqualified for that day’s leg of the race. For leg one, organizers estimated that it would take eight to nine hours to drive from Orlando to the Mississippi/Louisiana state line, a distance of just over 600 miles.
I was then notified that my sponsored car, the TransCon Ambulance had blown its driveshaft while driving down from Indiana and that they were in the process of trying to locate another. It was doubtful that they would make it to the first leg of the race.
Assignments for the day:
Assignment one was photographing at least three State troopers with patrol car while it was parked next to your car with driver.
Assignment two was to photograph each states welcome sign while holding a newspaper dated 9/29/2007 with the car in the background.
Assignment three was a riddle to solve that we were given upon departure of the Amway Center. The riddle, “chill out with the Queen of Bagdad”.
Prior to arriving at the starting point, I fired up my Garmin Zumo GPS and located a FHP barracks that was on our way. As we were pulling in, a Lieutenant FHP officer was checking into work. I identified myself as a retired deputy and began telling him about the rally. He stopped me mid sentence while chuckling and related that all the troopers in Florida were aware of the race and he would allow us to photograph him and his car because he understood that our race was a charity event aimed at raising money for the “Missing Children’s Network.” However he requested that we drive smart and safe.
The Veil Guy posed for the photograph, thanked the Lieutenant and we were off for the staging of the event.
At 8:00 am we arrived at the Amway Center, checked in and made final adjustments to our car. At 9:00 am the Orlando Police Department provided a motorcycle escort for the seventy plus cars entered into the rally, onto Interstate 75.
Once on the Highway I did a Google on my laptop and found that there was a Dairy Queen just off of I-10 in Bagdad Florida, riddle solved.
As we were aware that the Florida Highway Patrol use mostly Ka radar, we decided that we would pair up the Beltronics Sti radar detector along side the Valentine One and do a side by side comparison of the two.
Alert One – 35.5
It didn’t take long for our first alert as just ten miles north, the V1 radar detector gave a short alert for Ka and a second later the Bel STi went into full tilt alerting at 35.5 (Ka Band). As we crested an overpass a half mile away we saw a FHP vehicle parked in the median running instant on radar.
Alert Two – 34.7
About fifteen miles later the STi alerted first to a 34.7 (Ka band) and a few seconds later the Valentine One lit up indicating Ka band. We crested another overpass that was over a mile away from our first alert and saw that a “Fireballer” pulled over with a trooper standing next to the driver’s side door.
Alert Three – 34.7
The coast was clear the next fifty miles till our STi detector lit up again at 34.7. The Valentine radar detector lagged behind a good three seconds before it first alerted Ka. Ahead we saw a trooper parked in a row of trees in the median approximately a mile from our first warning.
At 10:45 am we arrived at the I-10 turn off and headed west. It was here that I began explaining to my co-driver the reason for the painted horizontal lines that crossed the pavement in sections. These I related were used to measure distance at predetermined locations so police could measure speed using VASCAR or another timing device from patrol cars or aircraft. I cautioned him to slow down after crossing the first set of lines and count out at least another set prior to speeding up, to avoid these types of speeding violations. Just as I finished, the “Blinder Dude” from Blinder Xtreme Team called on my cell phone relating that he was forty five miles behind me and that he had just received a citation for doing 91 in a 70 and that he was clocked by aircraft.
Alert Four – 34.7
West through the panhandle of Florida seemed pretty uneventful the first 150 miles. During this leg we had the Astron Martin, another BMW, and the Ferrari Spider all taking turns at the rabbit position (lead car in pack). Just 20 miles east of our Bagdad stop, co-driver The Veil Guy took lead with the Aston Martin a quarter mile behind. As we crossed a clearing of trees in the median, we saw an approaching FHP vehicle east bound approaching us, as the Veil Guy started to decelerate, both detectors lit up simultaneously, giving us a good indication that we were just nailed with deadly instant on.
In the mirror we both noticed the FHP vehicle turn into the median and as he pulled onto the pavement the Aston Martin pulled into the right lane allowing the officer to cross and to give chase.
Pretty much knowing that our goose was cooked; we pulled into the shoulder and awaited our punishment. As the trooper’s car pulled up behind, horns of the Aston, BMW and Ferrari gave short beeps as they passed.
The trooper walked up to the driver’s side and asked the same question that I uttered thousands of times before in my law enforcement career, “Do you have any idea how fast you were going?” Bob, being an old pro with several tickets under his belt from prior encounters just sat there with a dumbfounded look and uttered, “No, was I speeding officer?” He replied, yes, ninety in a seventy mile an hour zone. After Bob offered up his driver’s license, I asked the officer if he needed to see my identification too as I removed my license from my retired sheriff’s badge case. He asked where I was an officer and I replied that I was from Arizona and that I was on business (didn’t say police business) and had met with a Lt. (dropping a name) from his agency earlier that day.
He walked back to his car and a few moments later came back telling us that we needed to slow down…..
Realizing we had lucked out at this encounter, we maintained a respectable speed until pulling into the Dairy Queen. Here several of our teammates were waiting to see if we were going to make it into the check in. The clerk of the Dairy Queen then also came out saying that she had heard over the FHP scanner that troopers were lined up waiting for a group of Fireballers twenty miles out, that someone had called in that we were driving over 140 MPH.
The Veil Guy and I both chuckled saying that we were not part of that group, however we had been pulled over for doing ninety.
We picked up a Florida newspaper for the photo shoot at the state line and completed our assignment at the “Queen of Bagdad” and heading back onto the Interstate. At this time the “Blinder Dude” called on his cell phone saying that the white Corvette had been stopped doing 140 mph and that the driver was arrested and taken to jail.
Alert Five – 34.7
A few miles west of Bagdad after going underneath an overpass, we received a 34.7 alert on both detectors simultaneously. Looking over into the entrance ramp, I observed a FHP vehicle clocking west bound traffic from behind.
Alert Six – 34.7
A few miles west of the state line we got another 34.7 alert simultaneously on both detectors as we passed a thick grove of trees in the center median. We never saw an officer, but assumed from the nature of the alert, that one was on the other side of the median shooting east bound traffic.
After crossing into Alabama, we pulled into the rest area and scrounged through some trash bins to find a newspaper for the Alabama welcome sign. Finding several, we took them all (as not to leave any for other contestants) and rode over the State welcome signs and got our first set of photographs.
Driving on the bay bridge on I-10 approaching Mobile, the STi went full tilt 34.7 for at lease one mile while the V1 remained silent till it started finally it began chirping. Over on the east bound lane we saw what appeared to be a police light bar pass behind a cement bunker.
Here we fired up the GPS […]
Fireball – Pre Ride Check In
Today was the first meeting of all the racing contestants and getting the cars decaled, inspected and checked in. I took this as an opportunity to checkout all the cars while my teammate the “Veil Guy” made last minute tune ups to our BMW 540i sport.
My first project was checking out all the speed countermeasure equipment that many of the cars were using and I was shocked and somewhat disappointed in what I saw.
First off entry into this race is not cheap, it costs over $10,000.00 for the full entry. The cars are not cheap either. There is an Aston Martin, a couple of Bentleys, a few Lambos, a Ford GT40, and couple of Ferrari to boot. But when it came to radar detectors I was shocked to see that some of these drivers really skimped in this area, counting six Cobra’s, one RMR C-450, and even a KAT!
I chuckled when I passed the car with the Rocky Mountain Radar jammer as he was bragging to another driver how his unit was able to jam out all police radar and laser thinking to myself “I wonder how many miles he is going to make it before he gets his first ticket and finds out what a POS detector he really had.”
There were many drivers however that did do their homework and two even mentioned that they had been reading my blog and forum prior to the race and did make some smart buys.
On the high end of the radar detector spectrum I counted four Bel RX65’s, four Escort 8500 X50’s, two Valentine One’s, one Bel STi and one Escort 9500i. One Aston Martin driver that identified himself as a Radar Detector net forum member took me to his ride to show off his Blinder M47, his Veiled headlamps and a SR7.
I then met with the owner of the “Bat Mobile” while he was in the process of installing his Escort 8500 X50 to the dual cockpit style curved windshields. It was certainly a challenge installing the unit above the rocket launcher and booster rocket switches.
Tomorrow at 7:00 am we line up and depart for our first leg of the race, Baton Rouge LA.
Check in tomorrow night for more updates.
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