Vehicle Security

[Guy]

Do you guys remember that great skit on Saturday Night Live with Ricardo Montobon (sp?)?

They had the worlds most luxurious and powerfull car that was guaranteed theft proof. On the outside it looked like a beater. Different color panels, rust, missing hubcaps etc. Inside, it was nicer than a Rolls Royce (in fact I think they were showing clips of a rolls). Under the hood was the power of a Ferrari.

Ricardo in his rich accent was describing the luxurious appointments in the car like..........the Rich Corinthian Leather. etc. etc.

Do you guys remember that ?

They also had the 'Adobe' car - body and interior made out of clay .

Guy

 

[JHL]

I saw a program on tv where they hired a professional car thief and let him loose on a dozen or so new cars with various devices and alarms fitted, not one of them lasted much more than a minute or so before he had them going and driving away. Some that had noisey sirens looked good but people just walked past and ignored him !!!

If they want it they will take it, the best you can do is fit something that will slow them down or make them move on to another car when they don`t get your going in a couple of minutes, if you want it back the only way to be sure is with some sort of Tracker system linked to GPS sats. I have been looking at a GPS based system for our company vehicles which gives live tracking 24hrs a day or can be updated every so often if you don`t want to pay for full time tracking. If you have the full time link it can be set up to provide you with all sorts of information and the box in the car is not much bigger than a cigarette packet. The selling point of these tracking systems is how quick they find the car but that`s only after you find it`s gone. Unfortunately in a lot of cases cars are left at say 8am when you go to the office and you don`t go to collect it untill say 6.30pm after work and it`s long gone, hence why the sellers of such systems in this country don`t advertise a 100% sucess rate but you will alway get the black box back and what`s left of the car if you are lucky.

I work for a material testing company and we tested a number of clamp on devices. Initially they look good and you have difficulty seeing how you would release them, but again most only lasted seconds rather than minutes.

When I visited the US I was amazed at the number of people who used valet parking. I stood outside one bar and watched as people pulled up in expensive cars and let the boy jump in and drive off, I wondered how many people have been ripped off like that.

My favourite is to locate the fuel pump relay an remove it when I leave the car anywhere, not fool proof but it might make the casual joyrider move on to another car. On cars with mechanical pumps I wire in a detachable link somewhere, long enough so that the wires won`t join up and the causal thief would have to have some kit with him to get it going. That is probably the best you can do. Ofcoarse you could always spend the rest of your life sitting in your car but not very practicle so I suggest trying the following.

-- Crime-obsessed South Africans have a powerful new weapon with which to stop likely criminals: the car flamethrower.

Casting a man-high fireball, reportedly with no damage to the paint, the Blaster has been placed on 25 South African vehicles since its introduction last month.

At 3,900 rand ($655), it offers a cheap, dramatic defense against carjackers. It has yet to be deemed illegal.

South African courts allow killing if convinced that it's in self-defense. The defense is not unheard of. In last year's 13,000 carjackings, criminals often brandished weapons or used them with little provocation.

The Blaster squirts liquefied gas from a bottle in the automobile's trunk through two nozzles, located under the front doors. The gas is then ignited by an electric spark, with fiery consequences.

Both sides flame at the same time, regardless of whether the attack is coming from just one side of the vehicle, or whether passersby are on the other side. But the breadth and depth of blast can be modified according to individual preference.

Fire blinds, not kills, maker assures
Blaster inventor Charl Fourie, 33, disputed concerns that the flamethrower could burn someone to death.

:eek :eek

I`m sure it could be hooked up to fire remotely when the alarm it set off buy a would be thief.

J.