Mike Valentine, The Patron Saint Of Radar Detectors, Has Died
Mike Valentine, the creator of the iconic Valentine One radar detector, has died. As reported by his obituary, Valentine died in his home in Cincinnati, Ohio on Sept. 16 at the age of 74. While he’s best known for the Valentine One radar detector, he contributed so much more to the industry than his namesake device. In fact, he’d been behind some of the most advanced radar detectors on the market before the Valentine One even existed.
In 1976, Mike Valentine and his business partners launched Cincinnati Microwave Inc. Although that name might not be immediately familiar, you will know the name it later adopted — Escort. The very first Escort radar detector was so much more advanced than its competition that in a Feb. 1979 Car And Driver radar detector comparison test, the magazine declared, “Once you try the Escort, all the rest seem a bit primitive. In no test did any of the other detectors even come close.”
However, Valentine’s time at Escort didn’t last forever. As Road & Track reports, “when partners disagreed on the company’s future, Mike took a buyout.” However, Mike Valentine wasn’t finished. He established Valentine Research, and in 1992, the world of radar detectors took another big leap forward with the launch of the Valentine One. Suddenly, users were no longer forced to guess where radar was coming from, but instead were alerted to positioning using a series of arrows — one pointing ahead, two conjoined arrows pointed to either side, and one facing behind. Plus, the unit’s oscillator sweep could pick up brief radar signals in one frequency sweep. Add in a direct sales approach using ads placed in major automotive magazines, and the Valentine One instantly became iconic. Its arrows are certainly seared into my memory, and I haven’t even used one. Though continually updated, with mail-in upgrades available for existing users, the original was so good that Valentine didn’t launch a true second generation until 2020. How’s that for longevity?
