Nobody likes getting tickets. The sweat inducing, gut wrenching, nerve racking experience of being pulled over by law enforcement is one of the most reprehensible activities in the history of humankind. Not to mention the cost that the government slaps on you to pay off that fine. While we can't help you avoid getting tickets for riding by yourself in the carpool lane, running without any catalytic converters or rocking a 200dB hollowed out muffler can, we did hear of something that promised to help you avoid the dreaded speeding ticket. The K40 Electronics' Calibre Bluetooth-enabled radar and laser detection system and Defuser Plus laser jammer promised that it was, "faster than a speeding ticket." We had to find out for ourselves.
The first thing that struck us about K40's offerings was that you can't see them at all, unless you need to. Dial One Autosound in La Habra, Calif., handled the install of our Calibre system. The first wireless radar and laser protection system to incorporate Bluetooth technology, the Calibre system has four nodes that communicate with each other remotely. There is the remote control; the interior network module, which controls the speaker system and alert LEDs; the front radar/laser detection unit that can attach optional Defuser Plus laser jammers; and the rear detection unit. Since each module communicates wirelessly, there is no need to run cables through firewalls, no need for wires down the whole length of the car and no complex installation procedure.
Sameer Patel, head honcho of Dial One Autosound, proclaimed it "the easiest hard-wired radar detector I've ever seen," then had the gonads to add, "it's so easy, even you guys [2NR] could have put it in". Trust us, he's lucky he was kidding.
After installation, when the police peer into your window, there will barely be anything visible. The remote control is barely half the size of a credit card, and the Calibre system alerts you of radar or laser through the included auxiliary speaker and by either miniscule LEDs that flash for front or rear signals or tiny egg-shaped pods that contain LEDs. The pod version of the Calibre system is for leased vehicles or for owners who don't want to drill into any interior panels to install the standard LEDs, which are hidden into interior panels. The Defuser Plus laser jammer system comes cunningly contained in a fake license plate frame, and almost can't be noticed by the passing eye. So instead of a radar detector that can't jam a laser and sits out in plain view on the dashboard with a big coiled line running to a cigarette lighter socket, you get an accurate detection and prevention system that is totally stealth. But how does it work?
After hooking up the pod version radar detector and front Defuser Plus laser jammer on our own Project Two-Face, a Subaru WRX, we flipped the ignition and gave life to the Calibre system. After no time at all, we saw our pods flashing and heard a voice intone, "K40 on," quite loudly. With the system set to "high" we had no problems hearing the warnings and tones above the roar of our Injen exhaust system and the sounds of the stereo.
Grabbing the remote control, we switched the Calibre system to "city" mode and took a short cruise through cop-infested Southern California. Honestly, we weren't even sure if the system was hooked up correctly at first since we weren't receiving any constant bombardment of detection readings, something that we've come across in the past with cheaper radar detectors. Our solution was to call a police friend of ours, and let us tell you, a policeman will always be one of your most powerful allies. We organized a "hot zone" of approximately nine city blocks in a populated area we were sure was going to give some random signals. Circling through the area continuously, we had our policeman move to random positions in our zone and zap us with his radar gun. With enough accuracy to filter out weak signals that would trigger false alerts in cheaper radar detectors, the Calibre system would audibly and visually alert us to each radar signal it was receiving.