Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

He might want to try a test with the engine hot. The air has to get in there somehow.
 
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In other news, the Holden of Fail has allegedly been fixed. My mechanic said it passed a compression test, as well as a block test, so there shouldn't be a head gasket issue. He did however find, a bunch of air in the cooling system, and that the oil was 3 quarts low. I dunno where that's going, since there aren't really any visible leaks other than some valve cover seepage and it doesn't smoke at startup.

Perhaps it’s like the truck 5.3L in GM pickups. Oil consumption.
 
I got pulled over by a cop today (blind corner, right at the bottom of a hill) and got let off because I assume, it was plausible going downhill in the abarth would just Accidently 45 in a 25 (idk why the speed limit is so low it should be 35-40 on that kind of road... probably that corner, specifically) and obviously 45 in a a "sports car" is safer then cars not meant for that.

So it's a good thing that I did not take the bug which last time I went that way I think I DID do it at 45 which I generally do not because it's a bit noisy.

I seem to be having this issue where switching between cars means I drive the bug WAY more aggressively then usual because I guess I forget? I am in the sucky car? Like I will be so sad that I should avoid that corner because downhill curve means the bug is actually going fast when it hits it. Sigh. I liked that corner because it was like the only safe one for that terrible car to go through because it is so damn wide.
 
Talk me out of a $6k Saab 9-7X Aero with 106k miles.
 
It's an even less reliable Trailblazer. It's called the Trollblazer for more than one reason.

I got pulled over by a cop today (blind corner, right at the bottom of a hill) and got let off because I assume, it was plausible going downhill in the abarth would just Accidently 45 in a 25 (idk why the speed limit is so low it should be 35-40 on that kind of road... probably that corner, specifically) and obviously 45 in a a "sports car" is safer then cars not meant for that.

I suggest installing a Valentine 1.
 
I suggest installing a Valentine 1.
Oh he didn't have the radar out which was a major factor in why he let me go I assume. What was happening was they were draining a hyrdrent and had one out to direct traffic.

That being said I have had them try and get me despite that before, in fact not far from there. THAT cop made the ludicrous claim that THE BEETLE could have accelerated like 15 mph in the 2 seconds between when i last checked the speed and he pulled me over. This cop was dead on, I was not looking but I am sure it was probably 40-45 mph given it was my usual speed.

Honestly though this one is on me, for not taking into consideration they can fit a cop car there. Thank god he didn't have the gun out...

Also fff i said this yesterday and what a scare lol
I do not fear death, only surcharges.
[/QUOTE
 
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25mph is still ludicrous in this day and age. The only time that speed is acceptable is on residential streets or around schools. There’s a couple roads by me where you could do 40-45 but there’s a couple of horse farms and somehow that means the speed limit must be low. It’s total revenue generation.

Although, when I get caught, I deserve it every time, there never an “oops, sorry officer!” I’m always aware and intentionally going that fast. I got stopped this winter in... early March for doing 84 in a 70 in the middle of nowhere on the interstate in Wisconsin. Roads were dry and sun was out, temps were above freezing slightly too and I got caught while he was going the other way. He flipped around and pulled me over...
 
Yeah this is a double yellow line really wide road. Like the fact I can take the corner at 45 in the bug should tell you it's not a terribly dangerous one. The speed the fiat can take it is "I don't know" because it IS a blind corner, if there is something there I DO want to be going a speed I can safely easily stop.

There is an even worse example near my house where we have this nice 4 lane road through some woods with a divider in the middle. Nothing on it for most of the road but woods. 25 mph. WHY. Like THANK GOD my town does not put cops on that one. It should really be like 45.

The next town over dropped a bunch of streets to 25 idk why people think that's a good idea. You get shit mpg and it's so slow people will be fiddling with their phones out of boredom. 25 is low enough to feasibly spin pokemon go stops you fools.

In general MA usually has at least a 10mph grace zone. A lot of the highways get up to like 90+. I remember driving on 495 once and got passed by a camper while going 92 and thought "ah I am so glad for american pickups there are no slow caravans here".

... they get you with the surcharges instead though I have a 2000$ one from scratching a damn lexus ?
 
Or maybe something from this century instead.

Recently tested my un-updated V1 against a friend’s new Passport with the clone of the V1’s directional indicators. The V1 still turned in a better performance - better sensing, better direction indication, the only issue was it did tend to alert a bit more over blind spot radars sometimes which will be fixed when I send mine in for the upgrade. Sorry, still going with the V1 as the gold standard.
 
Recently tested my un-updated V1 against a friend’s new Passport with the clone of the V1’s directional indicators. The V1 still turned in a better performance - better sensing, better direction indication, the only issue was it did tend to alert a bit more over blind spot radars sometimes which will be fixed when I send mine in for the upgrade. Sorry, still going with the V1 as the gold standard.
You might want to read some RDforums, V1 is far from best at detecting radar out there and these days it basically requires a companion Android (because better app) to get same functionality as basically all other RDs in the same segment. The fact that it requires you to send it in to upgrade firmware is just another indication of it being outdated.

Even in signal rich NYC, the only time I got a late warning was one very specific spot that is actually rather well known for police activity. The geography is very good for hiding both cop cars and signals, even then I suspect it was I/O both times. I say this because for one I have been able to detect them much further before, and because the signal didn't stay on as rear alert after I passed them, even though geography going to the other way wouldn't mask those signals.
 
You might want to read some RDforums, V1 is far from best at detecting radar out there and these days it basically requires a companion Android (because better app) to get same functionality as basically all other RDs in the same segment. The fact that it requires you to send it in to upgrade firmware is just another indication of it being outdated.

Mmm-hmm, heard that before and I do read RDForums. Pretty much the same thing for the past decade or so, yet real world testing for me against actual police radars (oh, and whatever the heck Stalker is testing out this week because they’re right here in the Dallas area and I know where their test area is around here) keeps showing me that the V1 is better.

The V1 upgrade isn’t just firmware. You send your old one in, you either get a brand new one or they swap the board (sensors, CPU and all) out for the latest one, depending on what version you sent in.

Also, my friend with the Escort Max 360 just got a ticket on Friday. Cops were sitting with K-band next to a jewelry store. GPS locked out the alert and he got tagged. I was laughing my arse off when he told me.

One favorite tactic around here is to put a K-band ‘YOUR SPEED IS’ trailer up on a street for a couple weeks, long enough for the thing to get registered in a GPS database. Then one day they replace it with an actual cop car mounting a K-band radar gun and cop. GPS lockout systems ignore it and you get a ticket.
 
Mmm-hmm, heard that before and I do read RDForums. Pretty much the same thing for the past decade or so, yet real world testing for me against actual police radars (oh, and whatever the heck Stalker is testing out this week because they’re right here in the Dallas area and I know where their test area is around here) keeps showing me that the V1 is better.
The only thing you can definitively say is that in your usage the V1 has been good. You would have to do testing similar to what RDF guys do to really make the above statement, by that I mean run same course with different RDs and Radar guns and see what the results are like.
The V1 upgrade isn’t just firmware. You send your old one in, you either get a brand new one or they swap the board (sensors, CPU and all) out for the latest one, depending on what version you sent in.
That is admittedly pretty cool of them, downside is that you are RD less for however long it takes them to send a new/upgraded unit.

Also, my friend with the Escort Max 360 just got a ticket on Friday. Cops were sitting with K-band next to a jewelry store. GPS locked out the alert and he got tagged. I was laughing my arse off when he told me.

One favorite tactic around here is to put a K-band ‘YOUR SPEED IS’ trailer up on a street for a couple weeks, long enough for the thing to get registered in a GPS database. Then one day they replace it with an actual cop car mounting a K-band radar gun and cop. GPS lockout systems ignore it and you get a ticket.
As they say in our biz (IIRC you are also in IT) that's a Layer 8 issue. I have the 360c (same as your friend just has a wi-fi chip in it for EL connectivity sans app), and it does show you locked out signals on screen so if you are paying attention and aware of the above tactic you can easily avoid tickets.
There is also the fact that you can turn off auto lock out rather easily as well as clear any and all lockouts you may have. V1 has no special functionality here that makes it better than any other RD. If you know that a signal is false even if it did alert you'd still likely ignore it.
I actually turned K band off completely, there is way too much falsing from stupid ass BLISS sensors and I have yet to a see a single cop use anything but Ka in NYC/NJ area.
 
The only thing you can definitively say is that in your usage the V1 has been good. You would have to do testing similar to what RDF guys do to really make the above statement, by that I mean run same course with different RDs and Radar guns and see what the results are like.

That is admittedly pretty cool of them, downside is that you are RD less for however long it takes them to send a new/upgraded unit.

Usually it’s a ~five day turnaround quoted - they next day air the units back. Some people report getting them back in as little as six days after shipping the unit off.

And I have actually done the RDF style tests - both against the Stalker test range and with the help of friendly local officers.

As they say in our biz (IIRC you are also in IT) that's a Layer 8 issue. I have the 360c (same as your friend just has a wi-fi chip in it for EL connectivity sans app), and it does show you locked out signals on screen so if you are paying attention and aware of the above tactic you can easily avoid tickets.

Default behavior, though, is NOT to audibly alert to a second signal in the same location from what I saw. And that display is tiny.

There is also the fact that you can turn off auto lock out rather easily as well as clear any and all lockouts you may have. V1 has no special functionality here that makes it better than any other RD.
I actually turned K band off completely, there is way too much falsing from stupid ass BLISS sensors and I have yet to a see a single cop use anything but Ka in NYC/NJ area.

Actually, the latest V1 has got a filter for the BLIS and traffic metering sensors that works great while not blocking valid signals.

The V1 doesn’t have GPS lockout. Nothing to turn off.

Local threats around here include laser (something Escort/Passport is dismal with from my own experimentation - their laser sensor windows are too small), Ka, K, the occasional ancient continuous X band unit in rural areas and something evil that has been showing up in increasing amounts of late but is very concerning - very fast instant on X. Kind of like the POP or QT guns but instead of operating in K or Ka, they hide in the ‘industrial’ X band with older door openers and security sensors, which you will expect to get quick alerts from in built up areas. I have seen these slowly popping up with a few area departments, but I haven’t found out what rig is producing it yet. The V1 catches them every time, but I haven’t found anything else that does with any reliability. First time I saw one was when Der Stig and I were shuttling his VFR back from Houston to Dallas a few years ago and almost found out about it the hard way. None of my law enforcement contacts have been issued one yet or know what it is. Possibly something new Stalker is handing out to local law enforcement - they like to do that a lot.

For those that don’t know, Stalker is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of radar/laser speed enforcement equipment. They like to hand out new toys to area law enforcement for ‘field testing’ as they are based in the Dallas metroplex.
 
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Usually it’s a ~five day turnaround quoted - they next day air the units back. Some people report getting them back in as little as six days after shipping the unit off.
That's a pretty long time.
Default behavior, though, is NOT to audibly alert to a second signal in the same location from what I saw. And that display is tiny.
Default behavior has to be tuned to work with your environment, there is no difference to V1 in that regard.
Actually, the latest V1 has got a filter for the BLIS and traffic metering sensors that works great while not blocking valid signals.
All RDs have that, and all will false/miss valid signals. After all it's just a modulated radio signal, and it's nearly impossible to tell one from another.
The V1 doesn’t have GPS lockout. Nothing to turn off.
Yeah it doesn't have any GPS, so it can't do a lot of stuff without extra equipment.
Local threats around here include laser (something Escort/Passport is dismal with from my own experimentation - their laser sensor windows are too small),
Laser detection is nothing but a ticket notification. Only exception are certain speed camera systems that scan the road via laser, in 99% of other cases once you are hit with LIDAR you are done.
Ka, K, the occasional ancient continuous X band unit in rural areas and something evil that has been showing up in increasing amounts of late but is very concerning - very fast instant on X. Kind of like the POP or QT guns but instead of operating in K or Ka, they hide in the ‘industrial’ X band with older door openers and security sensors, which you will expect to get quick alerts from in built up areas. I have seen these slowly popping up with a few area departments, but I haven’t found out what rig is producing it yet. The V1 catches them every time, but I haven’t found anything else that does with any reliability. First time I saw one was when Der Stig and I were shuttling his VFR back from Houston to Dallas a few years ago and almost found out about it the hard way. None of my law enforcement contacts have been issued one yet or know what it is. Possibly something new Stalker is handing out to local law enforcement - they like to do that a lot.

For those that don’t know, Stalker is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of radar/laser speed enforcement equipment. They like to hand out new toys to area law enforcement for ‘field testing’ as they are based in the Dallas metroplex.
That is rather interesting, the most evil thing here is MRCT/MRCD, which are mobile cameras with low powered mix of K/Ka
 
I'm not even worried about radar anymore.

I've slowed down substantially in my old age.

This hasn't stopped the parade of traffic stops though. I swear to fuck I must be flagged in the PA state police's ANPR system with a "harass me!"
 
I'm not even worried about radar anymore.

I've slowed down substantially in my old age.

This hasn't stopped the parade of traffic stops though. I swear to fuck I must be flagged in the PA state police's ANPR system with a "harass me!"
From what I remember of MD at least you have at least decent speed limits, it's all 50-55 around here, that's too slow even for the Xterra, Stang wouldn't even get out of 2nd gear...
 
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