Michigan test archive
1988 Michigan State Police Patrol Vehicle Test
The Diplomat comes back from the dead, and a 5-speed Mustang runs 60 mph in 6.90 seconds.
A year after the raised qualification bar threw the Dodge Diplomat out of Michigan’s bid by a quarter of a second, two things happened. The bar moved again — the bulletin notes drily that “the qualifying times changed this year,” easing to 13.6, 24.3 and 43.2 seconds — and the Diplomat came back transformed: 60 mph in 11.55 seconds, more than a full second quicker than the car that had been shown the door, clearing every gate with room to spare. The M-body’s story wasn’t over yet.
Ten cars ran on 19 and 21 September 1987, and the field now reads like a fuel-system museum: variable-venturi and 2- and 4-barrel carburetors, throttle-body injection on the V6 Caprice, and port injection on three Fords — including two 5.0 Mustangs whose numbers had stopped looking like police-test results altogether. The 5-speed car reached 60 mph in 6.90 seconds and crossed the quarter mile at 91.10 mph; both figures are the quickest the program had ever printed.
One caution about this page: it is built from the National Institute of Justice’s preliminary TAP Alert bulletin (October 1987), published while the full November report was still being compiled — and the full 1988 book was never digitized. The bulletin’s own oddity is worth keeping: the Caprice and Crown Victoria posted identical 1:28.60 lap averages, and the bulletin footnotes, apparently anticipating raised eyebrows, that this is “entirely coincidental.”
All ten cars — dynamics, acceleration, top speed
| Car | Engine | 0–60 (s) | ¼-mile (s @ mph) | 0–100 (s) | Top speed (mph) | Miles to 100 mph | Dynamics (s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ford Mustang (5-speed) | 5.0L-PFI H.O. | 6.90 | 15.48 @ 91.10 | 19.07 | 134.0 | 0.35 | 82.57 |
| Ford Mustang (automatic) | 5.0L-PFI H.O. | 7.99 | 16.16 @ 87.78 | 21.78 | 135.0 | 0.40 | 83.79 |
| Chevrolet Caprice | 5.7L-4BBL | 10.59 | 18.03 @ 77.55 | 34.91 | 116.0 | 0.67 | 88.60 |
| Ford Crown Victoria | 5.8L-VV | 11.90 | 18.84 @ 76.43 | 37.67 | 117.0 | 0.72 | 88.60 |
| Dodge Diplomat | 5.2L-4BBL | 11.55 | 18.59 @ 75.43 | 38.76 | 117.0 | 0.75 | 89.27 |
| Plymouth Gran Fury | 5.2L-4BBL | 12.14 | 19.01 @ 74.80 | 40.13 | 117.0 | 0.77 | 89.43 |
| Ford Crown Victoria | 5.0L-PFI | 11.41 | 18.35 @ 75.25 | 40.62 | 108.0 | 0.81 | — |
| Chevrolet Caprice (V6) | 4.3L-TBI | 13.76 | 19.90 @ 70.35 | 52.44 | 109.0 | 1.04 | — |
| Dodge Diplomat | 5.2L-2BBL | 14.05 | 20.08 @ 71.85 | 57.21 | 110.0 | 1.17 | — |
| Plymouth Gran Fury | 5.2L-2BBL | 14.22 | 20.18 @ 71.83 | 57.84 | 110.0 | 1.17 | — |
Measured against the year’s gates: the 4-barrel Caprice, Diplomat, Crown Victoria 5.8 and Gran Fury cleared everything. The port-injected Crown Victoria beat every acceleration requirement but topped out at 108 mph — two short of the 110-mph rule. The V6 Caprice missed the 0–60 gate by 0.16 seconds, and both 2-barrel M-bodies missed it outright; the 2-barrel cars needed more than four miles to touch 110. The bulletin does not name the year’s winner — the scoring belongs to the full report (see below).
Complete acceleration data — every 10-mph increment, all ten cars
| 0 to… | Mustang 5-spd | Mustang auto | Caprice 5.7 | Crown Vic 5.8 | Diplomat 4BBL | Gran Fury 4BBL | Crown Vic 5.0 | Caprice 4.3 | Diplomat 2BBL | Gran Fury 2BBL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 mph | 1.81 | 1.80 | 2.21 | 2.62 | 2.54 | 2.80 | 2.04 | 2.79 | 3.10 | 3.11 |
| 30 mph | 2.60 | 3.13 | 3.68 | 4.46 | 4.20 | 4.51 | 3.74 | 4.59 | 5.28 | 5.38 |
| 40 mph | 3.89 | 4.48 | 5.59 | 6.46 | 5.98 | 6.41 | 5.66 | 7.02 | 7.61 | 7.69 |
| 50 mph | 5.33 | 5.96 | 7.84 | 8.74 | 8.56 | 9.01 | 8.22 | 10.18 | 10.34 | 10.44 |
| 60 mph | 6.90 | 7.99 | 10.59 | 11.90 | 11.55 | 12.14 | 11.41 | 13.76 | 14.05 | 14.22 |
| 70 mph | 9.28 | 10.36 | 14.37 | 15.64 | 15.13 | 15.94 | 15.59 | 19.21 | 18.91 | 19.05 |
| 80 mph | 11.70 | 13.03 | 19.32 | 20.65 | 21.91 | 22.21 | 20.96 | 26.89 | 25.19 | 25.12 |
| 90 mph | 14.81 | 17.02 | 25.47 | 27.74 | 28.86 | 29.56 | 28.21 | 37.35 | 36.30 | 35.16 |
| 100 mph | 19.07 | 21.78 | 34.91 | 37.67 | 38.76 | 40.13 | 40.62 | 52.44 | 57.21 | 57.84 |
The 5-speed Mustang needed 0.35 miles to reach 100 mph and 0.49 to reach 110; the automatic 0.40 and 0.56. Among the sedans, the 4-barrel Caprice reached 110 in 1.25 miles, the Crown Victoria 5.8 in 1.23, the Diplomat in 1.25 and the Gran Fury in 1.35.
Brakes and fuel economy
| Car | 60–0 Phase I (ft) | 60–0 Phase II (ft) | Avg decel (ft/s²) | EPA city (mpg) | EPA highway | EPA combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ford Crown Victoria 5.8 | 144.6 | 149.9 | 26.79 | 12.4 | 17 | 14 |
| Ford Mustang (5-speed) | 152.5 | 147.6 | 25.69 | 16.5 | 24 | 19 |
| Chevrolet Caprice 5.7 | 150.3 | 158.1 | 25.55 | 13.5 | 20 | 16 |
| Dodge Diplomat 4BBL | 160.0 | 157.5 | 24.92 | 12.7 | 15 | 14 |
| Plymouth Gran Fury 4BBL | 168.3 | 161.9 | 23.74 | 12.7 | 15 | 14 |
Remaining EPA city figures from the bulletin: Mustang automatic 18.2, Crown Victoria 5.0-PFI 17.3, Caprice 4.3-TBI 19.0, and 14.6 for both 2-barrel M-bodies. A year after the 1987 book blamed premature rear lockup for the Mustang’s low deceleration numbers, the 5-speed’s average improved from 23.99 to 25.69 ft/s².
What the bulletin doesn’t hold
This TAP Alert carried preliminary results only. The ergonomics and communications scores “were not available at the time of publication,” the final weighted scoring, the year’s winner, the bid prices, and the hardware specifications all belong to the full report published that November — which was never digitized. Those numbers will be added to this page from an original copy of the 1988 book; as far as I can tell, they are not available anywhere else online.
What 1988 settled
The Diplomat’s redemption is the year’s headline: thrown out in 1987 by a quarter of a second, back in 1988 more than a second quicker to 60 and clear of every gate. Detroit could still make a carbureted three-speed sedan keep up — barely, and not for much longer.
Because the other headline is the future arriving in duplicate: a 6.90-second, 91-mph-quarter-mile Mustang, and port injection spreading through the Ford fleet while Chevrolet’s throttle-body V6 tested the water. Within a year, injection would reach the big Chevrolet — and rewrite the sedan record book.