Well, when I headed home for lunch today I noticed that a stationary radar site had been put up on the 4 lane highway outside of my neighborhood to inform people how fast they were going. So, I decided to put this to use and perform some real world testing with the Passport 8500.

I ran a number of different experiments with the following variables:

1) Altered mounting positions: a) as low as possible on the window so that the unit is actually sitting on the "hump" of the dash just before where the defroster vents are, 2) just under the rear view mirror so that the display is just visible from the driver's seat, and 3) to the right of the rear view mirror, as high as possible without hitting the tinting dots.

2) Highway or city mode.

The radar was K band and as I approached it I was going down a gently sloped road that curved slightly to the left which made it impossible to see the radar station when it was first picked up by the detector (and for sometime thereafter as well).


So, here are my results:

1) Both highway and city modes detected the radar at exactly the same distance when approaching from ahead (driving toward the radar source) or when detecting from behind (i.e. driving away from the radar source). This was somewhat unexpected.

2) When approaching the radar from ahead, the first beeps went off at slightly over 0.4 miles away on city or highway mode. Once I passed the radar site, the signal dropped off completely in about 100 yards.

3) When driving past the radar site (going away from it) the rear detector picked up the signal for 0.2 miles, or half as long as if you were coming at the radar head-on.

4) As for the mounting of the detector, it didn't really matter much where it was placed. After all of the runs, it seemed clear that mounting the detector just under the rear view mirror so that the rear sensor was not obstructed consistently gave slightly better results compared to mounting the detector low on the dashboard. However, mounting in the middle of the windshield was more or less equivalent to mounting above and to the right of the rear view mirror.

Compared to the low mounting position (resting on the dash), both higher mounting positions offered between 25-40 yards of increased detection distance when approaching the radar head on, but no real difference could be detected with the other scenarios.


After all of this, my only real question is:

Does anyone know a good aftermarket bracket for radar detectors that is better than the crap that the Passport comes with?

Enjoy.

 

I'm with you! Till then, I'm stuck with this...



Note: I have a 1/2 inch rubber foot resting in the bottom/middle of the detector to raise it & eliminate vibration.



What I'm looking for:

A bracket that will fasten to the neck of the rear view mirror, so the detector doesnt' even touch the glass.

 

good review, i have the passport too and mouted like urs, o on the sidenote dont' cover the temperature sensor located in the very middle of the dashboard. In the picture i think ur radar is covering the sensor

 

I know that you mean....but it's not. Come to think about it, maybe that picture was prior to my rubber feet. Either way, I have it slightly higher and it doesn't block the sensor vertically.

 

Page 8 of manual says: "Auto / Highway / City Switch
The City button selects Passport’s sensitivity
mode. We recommend the Auto
(AutoSensitivity) mode for most driving.
Passport’s AutoSensitivity mode
provides long-range warning, with
minimum false alarms. In this mode,
Passport’s internal computer continuously
analyzes all incoming signals and intelligently
adjusts the sensitivity circuits.
You can also select conventional
Highway and City modes. When driving in
urban areas where annoying X-band intrusion
alarms and door openers are common,
City mode can be engaged to lower X-band
sensitivity and reduce X-band alerts. Full
sensitivity is maintained on all other bands.
You can customize Passport’s City mode
sensitivity. See the EZ-Programming section
for details."

RTFM.

j/k

 

so this maybe a stupid question...but I'll ask anyway. When I first bought the 8500, I mounted it low on the windshield, just like the pics. After hardwiring, I've been using the visor clip and have it mounted on the driver's side visor. Could this be too high do to interference with the black dots? I guess I never really thought about it before, it's just convenient to mount on the visor.

 

I mount my V-1 to the visor and it seems to be fine. I guess mounting it lower might give a better view.

 

It might give YOU a better view mounted down low, but I would recommend mounting ANY detector as high as you can so it can “see” further down the road.

Shawn S

 

motor trend did a test and the v1 lost to the 8500

 

As one would guess, it was a controversial win and has been discussed to DEATH in this thread:
http://www.acura-cl.com/forums/showt...hreadid=124840

 

Good review. The bracket does suck! If anyone finds a better one that we can use keep us posted!

 

An FX35 behind me was setting of my V1 laser warning. Has this happened to anyone else?

 

I have the v-1 but I really like the upgrade that you can get for the 8500 that actually keeps your car from getting read by a laser gun.

 

what upgrade is that, flint?

 

i think flint is talking about the ZR3 laser shifter that u can add on, which is somethin like 500 bux hah

 

I always ran my 8500 in highway mode and mounted it right behind the blacktint and covered it w/ the visor. no problemo for me.

Hey, if you want i'll come by w/ my v1 and we can do a realworld 8500 vs v1 front and rear

I get off @ 7:00pm everyday

 

I think KenSteele tried that once and they didn’t get along when operating together in the same car.
They interfered with each other.

 

ya this is true the 8500 will interfere with the v1, you cant run them together in the same car. now however, if you guys got in 2 different cars and went side by side or one person went and then the other person went... that might be interesting.

 

can't do it side by side cuz my front windshield is infared reflect which blocks the radar signals and can only be placed on the bottom or top cutout.

hmm, i didn't have a problem w/ the 8500 and the bel 9xx in the same car.