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In the third of our series of interviews with leading industry figures, we speak to Steven Ballard, Director of Product Development and Marketing at Performance Products Ltd, manufacturer of the famous ‘Snooper’ brand of radar, laser and GPS based speed trap locator products.
Steven is known in industry circles as being a thoroughly nice guy, a very snappy dresser (if there was such a thing as ‘Best Dressed Man in Speed Trap Detection’, he’d have won it for the last four or five years on-the-trot) and an ardent Manchester United fan (so he’s by no means perfect).
Snooper is a family run business, now headed-up by brothers Steven and Jason Ballard.
Originally established in 1979 by Chris Ballard (Steven and Jason’s father), Snooper were the original pioneers of the radar detector marketplace in this country, introducing the first radar detector to the UK in the same year. Snooper first employed GPS technology as a means of locating speed cameras in 1999 and have just released their first integrated portable satellite navigation and GPS speed camera detection system - Indago, featured in this issue.
Q. What was the first car you bought with your own money?
A. Vauxhall Nova 1.2 ‘Exotic’ or something like that.
Q. What’s the most embarrassing car you have ever owned?
A. The same car, but after I had added a Pico Big Bore exhaust, stylish ‘SR’ body kit and a thumping sound system. That said, I nearly cried when I sold it, I loved it so much.
Q. You have 1,000 miles of open road, who would you like in your passenger seat and what would you be driving?
A. The Rolling Stone’s Tour Bus - complete with hot tub and water bed. I’d take Brad Pitt and Anjolina Joli, Brad would be doing all of the driving, while myself and Anjolina would be taking advantage of the facilities.
Q. The 70 mph motorway speed limit, too much, too little or just right?
A. Spending most of my time driving during rush hour, it would be a joy to reach 70mph, let alone exceed it.
Q. Clean licence Steven?
A. Three penalty points - parking offence obviously.
Q. Where do cars figure in your personal scale of life’s priorities?
A. Fourth, after Man Utd, beer and of course my beautiful wife. They were higher until the engine of my last car blew up and cost me more than a small terraced house to repair.
Q. Best driving experience?
A. Driving from Manchester to Barcelona to see Manchester United beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League final.
Q. Worst driving experience?
A. Finally getting to drive on a German Autobahn with an unlimited speed limit, but in a Ford Transit van that couldn’t even hit 60mph.
Q. What winds you up most about other drivers?
A. That there are any.
Q. If you were a car, what would you be and why?
A 1. Porsche 911, so I could be like Tim Rock at Origin.
A 2. Tony Blair’s limo, so that I could drive him somewhere else - France for instance.
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