Drive at night

**tmichael928** · 07-23-2009, 06:32 PM

Hello from under the dash of a '85 32 valve 928
I have driven a Porsche ( I prepared & restored) for 5 years and 152k miles with no moving violations. As you know shifting from 3rd gear to 4th is a felony. The ? is,how is it possible. Either I'm lying or I drive like a retired Highway Patrolman. Aside from a digital scanner, cb, beltronics in the front a whisler in the rear along with a 20 gig loran GPS, filled with all the current hot spots en route; I primarily drive at night between sunset and sunup while my wife sleeps. I do not stop. The Porche gets excellent millege and has a large gas tank for long trips.My wife drives during the day allowing me to rest. (except for the alerts of course).
What does this plan yield. Lets take a recent cross country I80 trip to see my daughter in Philly from GV, CA. We left just before midnight thursday. We arrived to a dinner at my daughters house Saturday afternoon. A loran calc avg spd of 61mph. Well below the posted speed limit. Consider the difference between flying out of Sac with the 3 hour time difference, 3 hour preboard time, possible missed connections, and the 2 hour Rental car pickup & drive time plus the 11 hour flight time starting at noon friday. You'll derive the same day arrival Saturday.
My hope is that I'll be able to pick up equipment , techniques, & ideas from this forum as obviously I really enjoy driving safely with no violations and want to keep my perfect record. I am blessed with a close friend who is retired CHP who has mentored me to where I'm ticket free today. However you can't expect to do this forever and not be pulled over. It will happen. I hope to make that occurance as safe & painless as possible.
All tips and comments are welcome.

**Freebird** · 07-23-2009, 06:55 PM

Welcome to the forum Michael and post some pics of your restored baby soon as you are allowed. This is a great group of fanatics. I am sure most of us will make you feel right at home.

**hockey005** · 07-23-2009, 07:54 PM

welcome, you def want to look into a radar detector - id recommend a valentine 1 or escort passport 9500ix and for a laser jammer laser interceptor or the new blinder m27....also a CB radio is relatively inexpensive and is a great tool for the road

u will want to check out this site too.... Radar Detector Tests and Reviews by Guys of LIDAR

**tmichael928** · 07-23-2009, 09:06 PM

Freebird
Thank you for the comeback. I will certainly share pics of my pet project. I'll be able to show some critical features that I think diminish the radar reflection of the Porsche. The configuration of the two detectors play a role as well. The rear widow metalized mirror tint that reflects rear focus beam. The smooth mirror finished wheel with no vertical reflective surfaces. To the untrained eye it looks like a very nice small white economy car with triple 'A' stickers on the rear bumper.
It has no fins or body angles anywhere. No spoilers. No front grill. The intake air comes from underneath the front of the car. The headlights nest pointing up and rotate up when you turn them on. Having said all that it just doesn't stand out in the flow of traffic. My CHP mentor recommended this type of appearance. He said I needed to be the opposite of a red Corvette convertible or a Black pickup truck with red sides. You'll just have to see it to understand.
The detector setup is hard to describe. The detector is integrated into the rear view mirror which is a large mirror with a video screen within the mirror. The video is low light integrated into the licnese plat frame under the bumper. The only thing that does seem somwhat out of place is the mutiple attenas. I have managed to combine the digital scanner with the tiny cb radio. The large gps reciver is in the dash. The radion attenna is internal but It still leaves 3 other attenas for the other recievers. You'll just have to wait for the detail pics.
Fun stuff for sure however I'm averaging 2.5 hours of preparation to each our of drive time.
The other point that will remove some of the shine on this deal is that I train before each trip so that my leg circulation prevents legs cramps.
Got to go

**altcountryman** · 07-26-2009, 04:16 PM

Looking forward to pics of your 928 and your setup!

snoopyc4 · 07-26-2009, 04:52 PM

Welcome to the forum. You could always get a V1 for front and rear radar protection instead of having to deal with two RDs

**Freebird** · 07-26-2009, 05:55 PM

Sounds nice Michael, looking forward to seeing that baby soon. Times sure have changed from my highschool years of running a big block 455 olds cutlass with a original Escort on the dash, Cobra 40 channel radio with 125 watt magnum linear and a long whip trunk mount antennea on the back deck. Can you believe I was running a Bearcat scanner (the ones with crystals) back then. Hard to get around multible antennas.

I am on the road for a living OTR trucker, but pop in from time to time so dont take offense If I dont respond for days. Welcome again.

**tmichael928** · 07-26-2009, 07:41 PM

Thank you all for your interest.
I don't as a rule take 928 into a public setting anymore as it draws way to much attention. This picture is a Porsche club meeting on the peninsula 180 miles from my home. I left it parked way off to side behind several hot gull wing 911's to no avail. They found it and asked me to move it inside and explain why I had 2 video screens and a touch screen Lowrance embedded in the console. What was the small round cylinder above the rear license plate. Why does the exhaust sound so different. What is the high pitched whine etc.
Some salient facts are very interesting:

It coast with no power at 50 mph.
It takes 6 horse power for it to move at 55 mph
It has exactly 50 50 weight distribution
It is 6 inches narrower than a vette.
4 wheel stirring
I routinely get nearly 20 mpg at my highway speeds giving it a 400 mile range between fill ups.
If you are taller than about 5'10" you can't drive with your head vertical.
It held the land speed record in 1986 for a production car normally aspirated.

I don't drive it during the day unless I have to. We always leave for trips around midnight and arrive back after dark.