Has anyone on this forum installed ALP laser jammers on their F-Type?

If so, how many heads have you used and where and how did you place them?

 

Not sure if this helps, but I had a friendly and informative encounter with a CHP (Calif. Highway Patrol) officer early yesterday morning. Was diving N/B on the 5 Frwy. thru Anaheim (right near Disneyland) at about 6:45 am, pacing with another vehicle between 80 and 85mph. Hardly any cars on the road at this hour on a Saturday morn.

Happened upon a motor patrol sitting in plain sight in the middle emergency lane, radar in hand, pointing at both of us to pull over to the right. Having been in this position before, I immediately began to slow and pull to the right - while the other driver kept on booking - I of course was hoping the CHP would naturally take up pursuit of the fleeing vehicle. Not on this day...

After the obligatory exchange of license and registration, the officer proceeds to ask if I have a laser jammer? "No I don't sir" He peers around the interior, takes a walk around the vehicle, comes back to my window and asks again: You sure you don't have a laser jammer? "No sir, what seems to be the problem?"

Hands me my license and registration back and proceeds to explain [paraphrased]: I spotted you well in the distance travelling at an elevated speed. I'm using the most advanced Laser speed detection approved in Calif. (Lidar something or other) capable of consistently accurate readings at 4000 ft. I targeted your vehicle 3 or 4 times and got no reading. Targeted the other car and got an immediate reading at 84. Targeted you again and finally got a reading of 80 at about 400 ft. Are you sure you're not using a jammer?

Proceeds to ask a few general questions about my car (specs, engine size, HP), takes another walk around the vehicle, this time more admiring than inspecting, comes back to the window again and states: That is one damn beautiful automobile, how do you like it? We proceed to have a 5-10 minute conversation about the car, the Jaguar engineered "theater", etc., and I'm idling in dynamic the whole time cause I forgot to turn off the engine... so he asks me to rev it a few times to crank up the exhaust note. I oblige, he grins, then gives me the "please check your speed sir; have a nice day" send off.

Aside from the fact he was curious about not getting a hit on my car at some distance, it became quite clear the dude was far more interested in checking out my car, up-close and personal like. LMAO!


It occurred to me later that without a front license plate, there is very little flat and perpendicular/reflective surface on the front of the F-Type to bounce a laser signal off of...

.

 

And now you have the reason for front license plate laws!

 

I love it. We have stealth vehicles!

 

Love not having a front plate

 

On every other car I'm aware of cops are able to get a reading by targeting the headlights. No front plate needed. It's entirely possible that the cop IronMike encountered may have simply been incompetent.

I'd suggest we not get overconfident. I will be having AL Priority jammers installed.

 

I think 2 ALP head units need to be installed in the grill. I'm thinking of fitting a pair of them in the non-functional vents on either side of the grill. I'm not ready to remove the front clip to fit this just yet (I'll also install a remote radar head and the GPS antenna many of the units need).

Unfortunately for me NJ has a front license plate requirement so I'm using the Big Mike "Sto n sho" solution Big Mike's Performance Parts STO N SHO for Jaguar

I'd order radar absorbing paint if JLR offered it as an option.

 

Yeah, lol no car is stealth. I've gotten pulled over a couple of times already.

 

Oh interesting, I didnt know the outermost vents were non functional. They might be too far apart for a full coverage install though. You will need a center head as well.

 

I got lit up in TX with Laser. I have no jammers (they are VERY illegal in TX) and I do not run a front plate. Our cars are NOT stealth vehicles.

I was given a warning as the "nice" officer probably only wanted to get a closer look at the car. Why else would he pull me over for an 81 in a 75....

 

I remember a big debate on the Corvette Forum when the C6 came out about a decade ago that was almost a duplicate of this thread discussion. The same "theory" was advanced that they were also "stealth cars" and could only be "lasered" if a front plate was on the car.

That one was also definitively debunked after a short period of time.

 

+1. Agree completely. I was kidding about stealth in reference to the setting on the menus. One can only wish for a true stealth car. That said jammers and detectors are great but ultimately its up to the driver to know the times to push it and the times to be cautious and sometimes we are just not going to guess right and get pulled over.

 

Oh yeah.... I forgot, maybe I hadn't pushed the Stealth button... I swear I was disappointed the first time I did. Stealth is not the proper word to label that button.

 

Most definitely agree on this... first time I saw the "stealth" button, my mind immediately went: Oh! What on earth does this do?

Of course the learned result was a huge let-down...

 

Review the results of extensive testing on Radar and Laser detection devices by RALETC (Radar and Laser Expert Testing Cooperative), this independent group performs exhaustive testing on all the popular devices at least once a year.

Based on their Receiver Head Sensitivity Testing performed in January 2015, the ALPriority Laser Jammer consistently demonstrated the widest sensitivity range of all jammer devices tested. Measured from the center of the receiver head toward the outside the vehicle, the ALP provided an astonishing 84" wide swatch of sensitivity to Lidar detection.

This would suggest that if you installed a pair of ALP heads side-by-side, directly on the centerline of the vehicle, two ALPriority heads would then provide a 14ft wide (84" left and 84" right) path of detection to a Lidar signal. This of course is much wider than any passenger vehicle. Now conventional wisdom suggests that receiver heads be spread apart by a few feet, widening the overall detection range even further.

Interesting to note however that the RALETC testing does not indicate the range of sensitivity from the receiver head toward the center or opposite side of the vehicle, only from the head outward. I believe I had read somewhere that laser receiver heads are directional in nature, meaning you have to follow the manufacturers installation specification as the heads often contain a marking indicating "this side out", suggesting the detection capability is stronger to one side of the head than the other...

Assuming this to be true, mounting the heads in the side vents rather than the center grille, may well create a void in the coverage between the two heads because they are too far apart. A third head would indeed solve this problem as you suggest, though with the detection range of the ALPriority heads in particular, this would seem to be completely unnecessary if one simply mounted the heads toward the outer edge of the center grille.

Important that readers understand this applies to the ALPriority laser jammer system only. The next best performer of the systems tested was 45" of coverage by the Laser Interceptor product. Two LI heads would combine to provide 7 to 8 feet of detection sensitivity, which just barely covers the width of the F-Type, with little margin for error.

There are a number of different products in the marketplace claiming to do the same thing... I happened across this one: Veil G5 Stealth Coatings
Relatively inexpensive extra measure of protection (in addition to radar and/or laser detection hardware) to provide precious seconds of extra time to react and lower your speed.

I haven't tried this yet, and not sure I would be applying to any painted body surface, but since police seem to focus on headlights and/or license plates first, I am strongly considering ordering some and applying to my headlights exclusively. Since I don't run a front license plate, not applicable for me there. Besides, I also have Xpel film on my headlight lenses, so if the stealth coating itself yellows or fails in some other way, removing and replacing the Xpel film on just the headlights would be a relatively minor additional cost to the full radar/laser protection equation.

 

I'm headed up to my installer tomorrow (CarTunes of Atlanta). Will report back on their recommended placement.

 

I'd be interested in hearing their plan for placement of interior controls as well

 

I'm so happy with my MY15 S-coupe but I might trade her in if InControl App hooked up with "accessories" like this giving us WAZE and countermeasures control right on the head screen. Mechanics of the car are superb - wouldn't change anything, but software and the desire to see a BRG with Camel coupe in my garage could interest me in a trade.

 

So far, I'm disappointed with both the Sygic and JustDrive map apps...I like JustDrive in general, but not the mapping apps (for reasons set out by others in another post). I don't think Waze integrates to the head screen (if you know otherwise, please let me know).

I used Sygic on a 450 mile drive yesterday. MAJOR FAIL...it doesn't refresh, locked up at two critical turns causing me to miss them, and seems to be a major data user. I've heard nothing but great things about Waze, but I can't use a mapping app that is on my iPhone...too small and low for me to see.

 

+1