Destination: Ames, Iowa, for a meeting. And I was late leaving Louisville. So I was feeling some urgency as I rolled up Interstate 74 west of Peoria. I had an Eagle Talon heavily modified for the Silver States Classic and it was a runner.
I purchased my V1 in ’96 on the advice of my best friend; he’s a fanatic, always buys the best, and he swore by his V1. That convinced me.
My pace had picked up a pack of about seven or eight cars hanging back about quarter mile. They weren’t on my bumper, so no problem.
I was approaching an overpass and WHACK! Ka! Two lights…off the gas and a bit of emergency brake to scrub off the speed with no brake lights. The pack behind me came on fast, oblivious to the doom ahead, cresting the overpass right with me. V1 is now totally alive,…full light show! There he is, a trooper sniping straight at us. The pack lights up with red tails. Too late! Like ducks landing on a pond, about half pulled in behind me and the other cars, naked, settled in front. I was surrounded. We all got pulled over into a little show and tell party where the troopers did the telling.
Well, fuming over my bad luck, I sat for a moment watching a VERY well fed lady trooper—must be the donuts—step out of her cruiser and start out for the first victim. She paused…pointed at me…and gave me the “get out of here” sign. Who am I to argue with the law?
I pulled out, and she gave a double-take when she saw my obviously highly modified Talon squirt by. How they saw me doing the legal beagle in all that mess is beyond me, but it would not have happened without that wonderful black box hardwired into my car.
You want a streamlined pretty thing on your dash? Buy a Passport. You want military-grade protection? Buy a Valentine One. Oh, one more thing: READ the manual. Mike did a great job of teaching strategy and making great technology!
Rob Rittenberg
Tulsa, OK