Xref: utzoo sci.electronics:2345 rec.autos:7428
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!decvax!yale!husc6!linus!alliant!muller
From: muller@Alliant.COM (Jim Muller)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics,rec.autos
Subject: Re: Robocop spotted (Photo radar enforcement)
Message-ID: <1285@alliant.Alliant.COM>
Date: 25 Feb 88 17:02:49 GMT
References: <418@flatline.UUCP>
Reply-To: muller@alliant.UUCP (Jim Muller)
Organization: Alliant Computer Systems, Littleton, MA
Lines: 19
Keywords: radar detectors

In article <418@flatline.UUCP> erict@flatline.UUCP (eric townsend) writes:

>Well... It was explained to me that older corvettes are more immune
>from all radar because of their angled radiator design...  Dunno
>If I want to believe this.

It is believable.  Quite some years ago now, maybe >10, C&D did several tests
of various detectors/cars/techniques, and one thing they discovered was that
the Corvette and the Honda Civic were both poor radar reflectors.  The reason
for the Corvette being bad (good) is not especially because of its plastic
body, since the plastic just passes the radar on to the next reflector in, and
there are plenty of them (radiator, block, driver's face, bumper, anything else
metal or water).  In this case, though, the bumper (a big, flat slab of steel
on some cars) was just a thin strip, angled sharply.  The radiator was angled
up, and it effectively shielded the block with its shadow.  That a radiator
would be a good radar reflector is quite understandable, since the wavelenghts
are on the order of a few centimeters.  Surface irregularities smaller than the
wavelength tend to be "ignored".  Thus a car radiator, with its few-millimeter
spacing of metal conductors, looks just about like a mirror to radar.