WOW, what a week!
Well, I’ll start from the beginning.
I got to Roy’s early Tuesday evening. On the way up I stopped (well actually drove) through the 101 loop in Scottsdale to test out the Superprotector for everyone. They recently installed photo cameras in a few select areas, and are giving (hopefully) drivers warnings until later this month. I shot some video and will keep everyone posted in the photo enforcement section.
Once I got to Roy’s he gave me a tour of my new home for the next week. By now I’m sure you’ve seen the pics, so you know how nice a setup that is. If you’re going to drive, might as well do it in style.
Next I got to see the new STI driver. My initial impression was that it is a good looking unit. It feels very solid. I also like the buttons being in front for ease of use. Of course the two biggest questions are, how does it perform, and is it truly spectre immune?
A 4000 mile road trip gave me the answer to performance, which I’ll discuss in a few, and I got to play with all the spectre units Roy had, to do my own test.
The quick answer is YES it is spectre immune like you wouldn’t believe.
I did my own testing with the spectre/stalcar units and the STI didn’t alert, while my V1 and 8500 alerted it from 15-20 feet away with no problem.
If you want a true spectre immune detector this is it!
On the way up to the testing we stopped in at Escort. Not expecting much, boy was I surprised.
First, I would like to thank EVERYONE at Escort. They were all a very friendly and down to earth group of people. I felt like royalty. They treated us like V.I.P.’s and gave us a FULL blown tour.
One thing I must say, that I myself have been guilty of, is using the reference “Belscort” when referring to Escort and Beltronics.
Escort may own both companies, but they ARE two distinct product lines, with two distinct marketing goals. The advantage is that they can share hardware and software technology while offering different features to different people.
Also, the R&D and testing that goes into a new unit is amazing. I must also say that I was very impressed with the quality control that they are putting into shipping units. They are still preparing STI’s for shipment and each unit gets triple checked for quality, not to mention each pallet of all new units get random boxes pulled and double checked for quality.
Words can’t really fully describe the experience. Needless to say it was great!
On a side note, Outrun called Valentine to see if we could stop in, and the bottom line was NO!
So much for friendliness from VR. Kinda sad. I’m sure he can tell you more about the conversation.
When we finally arrived, I started meeting the different people from here.
I would just like to say it was a pleasure meeting each and every single one of them.
EVERYONE I met were just good down to earth people. It was truly a pleasure to meet everyone face to face and talk with them.
Now to the other big question. How did the STI perform?
Great! We ran into over a dozen speed traps on X, K, and Ka bands. Instant or constant, it handled everything thrown at it.
For me personally, trust is earned when it comes to a new detector. When I first got my V1, I didn’t trust it until I saw it perform for a while, and now, of course, I do.
The same went for the STI. The more I saw it perform, the more trust it gained.
After this trip I have FULL confidence in its abilities.
We had situations where we got 3, and 5 mile warnings with constant, along with several mile warnings with instant on, moving and stationary.
The audio alerts were distinct for each band and of course it had AUTOMUTE. Man I missed that. What a great feature.
The long drive aside, this was a great experience. No negativity, no problems. Just one great trip for the record book. I couldn’t have asked for a better time if I planned it this way.
I would also like to give props to Roy and Outrun. If you want to get to know someone, go on a several thousand mile road trip with them. They are both nice as can be.
I’ve got some video to go through, and I’ll put up one showing Outrun doing his magic with a camcorder.
Also thanks to GOL for the invite. These guys are sticklers when it comes to testing. They do everything possible to ensure accuracy, equality and fairness when testing.
Great job guys!
Well, that should pretty much sum things up.
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