Radar Detectors for the Roadster
For my first post with this excellent forum, I thought I'd share my recent experience in buying a radar detector for my Crossfire. I've never owned such a device before now, but I figured that if the detector saves me just one 120-mile-per-hour ticket, it will have paid for itself!
If you buy a detector that provides 360-degree coverage, dash mounting in the Crossfire is out of the question. Because of the small rear window and the high bulkhead behind the seats, the problem with the Roadster is that you have to mount the detector fairly high up on the windshield. In fact, the optimum position seems to be about one-and-a-half inches below the rear-view mirror; luckily this position isn't nearly as obstructive as you might think.
I at first bought a Cobra XRS 9840, which retails at around $200. It has all kinds of bells and whistles, including an eight-point compass and a car battery level display. I'm sure the Cobra does what it's supposed to do detection-wise, but I'm not impressed with it's functionality. It wobbles about on it's windshield mount way too much, and the LCD display is crowded and not very attractive. To put it bluntly, the display looks cheap. The unit also protrudes out into the car a little too much. But what finally made me decide agaist the Cobra is the fact that, with the Roadster's top down, it's impossible to read the LCD display at all - it just isn't bright enough.
I then bought a Beltronics Vector 955, which also retails at around $200. This is a much more solid piece of equipment than the Cobra, though it lacks the Cobra's 'extras'. (I figure I can live without knowing whether my battery is at 13.6v or 13.8v.) It sits very solidly on its windshield mount, and protrudes less than the Cobra. But the clincher is that it has an LED display, which is plenty bright enough for even the sunniest top-down day.
I bought the optional Permanent Wiring kit ($30), and was able to completely conceal all wiring to the unit exept for a few inches behind the rear-view mirror. The kit provides a handy mute button, which I surface mounted just below the headlamp rotary switch. I passed the power wire through the front bulkhead into the engine compartment (there's a hole covered by a rubber cover) and wired it into a spare socket in the main fuse box. The power wire has its own in-line fuse. The ground wire is connected under a bolt at the side of the smaller fusebox inside the car.
I'm still a little unsure as to how the 360-degree detection will work. Positioning the unit to 'see' over the bulkhead and through the rear window is difficult enough; but you also have to take into account the spoiler, which (as you all know) considerably narrows the view to the rear. I'm pretty sure the rear detection capability is mainly for signals from laser (LIDAR) equipment, and I'm also pretty sure we have very few (if any) of those in Wyoming. But as the spoiler will be up during all those times I need the radar detector the most, I'm wondering if there's a better way to mount the unit to give both forward and rearward coverage.
Does anyone know of a detector that has a seperate rear sensor unit that could be mounted behind the seats, or even on the rear licence plate? If manufacturers don't make such a two-part detector, maybe they should consider it.