Hi,

I'm located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
It's hard to put my '82-vette out on the street without someone having an interest in taking it for export purposes in the wider sense. I'm not sure how long my factory alarm will keep people out.

Looking for some time now for an aftermarket alarm. Most alarms are made for common 4-doors or have a lot of stuff I can't use (like a trunk alarm trigger). Hope someone can give me information where to look for or which system would be great to integrate (??) into my vette.

Theo Rusch

Most aftermarket systems are built for many cars, not just one design. You just don't connect the other items.

The one im looking at is modular.. connects x number of inputs and x number of outputs.. you decide what each should be

im going to go overboard as im been liberated of one vette already..

hood, both doors, (and electric actuators to unlock), microwave motion, dual output horns, glass breakage.. and a transmitter that will notify me if the alram is going off .. the remote shows status on led..

cant remember the name.. im buying it from local shop..

Well, main problem I have with getting a good alarm is that most are equiped with all kind of things you can't use in a corvette but you are paying for anyway.

Furthermore not all alarms that are on the US market are legal in the Netherlands and therefore can't be purchased, except through internet. So most of the alarm equipment that I can buy is made for european four door sedans and hardly suitable for a C3 corvette.

Hope someone can give me some tips where to look for or has his/her C3 equiped it an additional alarm.

Theo

Question: Is an Alarm really the way to go?? As most of you know, I live in Manhattan and from others who live in big cities can probably attest to this as well, alarms are nothing short of just adding to the noise pollution. Alarms go off but does anyone really do anything? NO - the just continue to go off, over, and over and over. Owners are no where to be found, many go off from noise sensors so when those open pipe Harley's go by all the alarms go off. They go off so much, I think even the owners begin to ignore them. I've also seen cars with the alarms going off and someone is there in the car. Does anyone do anything about calling the police? Do you even know if that's the owner or not? How about the alarms going off while cars are on the back of a tow truck? Do you know that the tow truck is legit? Do you call the police? Am I making my case here??

You can HOPE that an alarm will deter someone from taking your car, but trust me, if they really want it - that's not going to prevent them from taking it.

My 2 cents here is get yourself a good kill switch. If they can't start it, then it's a lot harder to steal. No alarm in the world will protect you from someone smashing your windows. I think your goal is to make it difficult to steal - I don't see alarms helping out there.

So a kill switch for the engine, wheel locks, t-top locks, steering wheel bar, anything like that I think would be a lot more effective than an alarm. (IMHO)

I am installing one that has a two way fm tansmitter that will show you the status on the car on a pager type device almost a mile away.

also.. the alarm has a starter kill switch

i dont live in manhattan though, around here, people still look when alarms go off.

cthulhu said: ... around here, people still look when alarms go off.

Would that be becuz most of them have outstanding warrants on them...?!?!?

Norsky said:   cthulhu said: ... around here, people still look when alarms go off.   Would that be becuz most of them have outstanding warrants on them...?!?!?

Well, first I'm not trying to add to the noise pollution in the world. But if it doesn't make some noise my insurance will not pay. Anyway here the people do look because a C3 is something rare.
As I live in the centre of Amsterdam every street and canal has a speedbump every 50 yards or so. Only the main streets are speedbump free. So C3 vettes are rarely seen in this part of town (except if you live here and own a vette).
And because of the rigid parking regime ($4,- per hr./ 24-hrs a day) your car can be towed away for impounding (approx. $300,- returning fee) or get a wheel clamp ($150,- for release) from local city parking employees. Therefor you are never sure what's going to happen or where your car is taken to.
That's why it is better to have it make some noise or inform me in an other way that something is going on.

Actually a C3 always is touched and admired but unfortunately not only by the owner.

I just hope someone can share his positive reactions with a good car alarm system that's build into his C3 and can give me a couple of tips which alarm to look for.

Bytheway, I do have a simple kill switch installed already and the car is equiped with wheel locks.