This is about V1 Moments of long ago, back in the mid-nineties. The scene is One Lap of America, Brock Yates’s spiritual revival of his original—and outrageous—coast-to-coast Cannonball Run.
Radar detectors were a must. V1 was the newest thing then; of course we wanted one, but there was a waiting list in those days. We had to settle for what we could get…Passport. We figured, how bad could it be? And it was cheaper, too.
During a stretch through New Mexico we were in a caravan of six Runners; the pace was serious. Each car had a detector, but only one was able to get a V1, the factory Acura entrant. The rest of us were wait-listed. Alerts were passed back and forth by CB radio. Being the slowest of the pack, Team Acura brought up the tail. However, in the open desert of the southwest, the V1 on the back door consistently out detected all other brands by at least a mile, often more. The real kicker was when it warned us of a signal approaching from behind, indicated by the locator arrow. A few miles later, the “360 degree protection” of our Passport came to life when the trooper was in our mirrors. The rest of the trip became a game of which detector would come in second to the V1.
When the fun was done, we knew what to do: Passport went back on a 30-day return and we hung in for our V1 order to hit the top of the list. Driving has been safer all of these many years since.
Rodney Ramos
Oak Brook, IL