A friend has died

Mike Valentine – whose name is synonymous with what are arguably the best radar detectors available and who designed the first ones that others then copied – has died at the far-too-young age of 74.

I’ve known Mike since the 90’s when I interviewed him The Washington Times. I was a car columnist and editorial writer there. I liked Mike even before I spoke to him because he was the guy who gave people like me – who like to drive – the joy of driving back. Before radar detectors – and after the advent of the ‘speed kills’ cult that metastasized from a strange obsession with fringe neurotics like Ralph Nader (who didn’t ‘speed’ because he didn’t even driving force) Driving had become both dangerous – for your wallet – and torturous, in the sense that you had to be constantly alert to radar traps manned by government officials looking to generate revenue in the form of somewhat blandly designed ‘tickets’. ”

As if whoever gets one has bought one.

In any case, Mike’s invention – the radar detector – warned drivers of the nearby presence of a police radar in time to avoid being ‘fine’. The radar detector was a major step forward from CB radio, which at the time was virtually the only way to get advance notice of a radar trip en route. Suddenly you could enjoy driving again – and not be criticized by the government (and subsequently the insurance mafia) for ‘speeding’.

This was a special godsend – at the time Mike started selling his first detectors – on the highway, because the government at the time had arbitrarily declared that driving faster than 55 MPH was illegal as “speeding” and suddenly also as ” unsafe’, despite the fact that it was legal (and ipso facto considered safe) to drive faster than 55 on virtually every US highway before Drive 55 went into effect in 1974.

Most highway speed limits before that were 60-65 or even 70-75. Thus, driving at those speeds became ‘speeding’ – and also the excuse used by the insurance mafia to make you pay even more than the government did in fines in the form of ‘adjustments’ to your premium. Based on the claim that you were driving at speeds that were previously legal (and therefore presumably ‘safe’). just like thatt become unsafe.

A single “speeding ticket” could cost hundreds of dollars in court fees, fines and insurance adjustments that were not just a one-time thing, but a in progress multiply. And if you were unlucky enough to get another ticket in the three years after your conviction for your first such offense, before the first one disappeared from your ‘record’, it could regularly cost thousands of dollars in insurance ‘adjustments’.

This saved millions of Americans from millions of dollars.

Mike helped stop the bleeding and gave us directions back. I can confirm this from my own experiences, years before I spoke to Mike to write a story about him. I got my first radar detector right after I got out of college and it probably kept me from going to jail. I drove a lot in those days just after college, partly because I wanted to see the country and because I was looking for work. I drove across the country (and back) twice. It would have taken a lot longer – and been a lot less fun – without Mike riding shotgun. So to speak.

When I finally spoke to him, I told him all about it – and thanked him for everything he had done to bring back the joy of driving. The impressive national speed limit of 55 MPH was finally ended in 1994 – with Mike’s active support and assistance, along with the National Motorists Association, an organization that both Mike and I have been affiliated with since the 1990s (Mike has been longer).

He told me about his detectors, how they worked – and what they could do. Mike was really one smart boy. But he was also something different and more, which I can also confirm. He was one good guy. Patient, modest and self-effacing. Some very smart people aren’t and it ruins their smartness. Mike’s genuineness enhanced the appeal of his cleverness.

He passed away far too soon.

I will say goodbye to him in my own way later today. The hurricane rains are over, so the coast is clear to light the Orange Barchetta on fire and make some noise and leave some marks.

I hope Mike can hear and see it. I salute you, sir!

Thank goodness.

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