Michigan test archive
1989 Michigan State Police Patrol Vehicle Test
Fuel injection reaches the big Chevrolet — 9.82 seconds to 60, 122 mph — and the carbureted sedan’s clock starts running out.
For 1989 the Chevrolet 350 traded its four-barrel carburetor for throttle-body injection, and the numbers moved like a decade had passed in one model year: 60 mph in 9.82 seconds — the first sedan in the program’s published record to break ten — 100 mph in 29.35 seconds, a top speed of 122 mph, and a lap average of 1:26.20, nearly two and a half seconds a lap clear of every other sedan in the test. Eleven cars ran between 16 and 20 September 1988, and the injection map tells the story: TBI on all three Chevrolets, port injection on three Fords, and carburetors on every Chrysler product in the field.
The qualification bar tightened again — 12.7, 23.1 and 41.7 seconds — and it started claiming injected victims: the 305 Caprice and the port-injected Crown Victoria both missed the 0–100 gate. The carbureted 4-barrel M-bodies, in what was becoming an annual ritual of defiance, sailed through — and posted the fastest top speeds of their lives: 119.1 mph for the Diplomat, 120.2 for the Gran Fury. Meanwhile the Mustangs ran 137.2 and 138.0 mph, and for the first time the automatic out-lapped the 5-speed, 1:21.56 to 1:22.51 — the quickest laps the program had ever recorded.
This page is built from the NIJ’s preliminary TAP Alert bulletin (October 1988); the full November book was never digitized. The bulletin also carried a period gem: an offer of free MS-DOS software called AutoBid — built on this very test data, needing 384K of RAM — to help fleet managers rank patrol cars by performance or value. Agencies could order a copy by writing in on letterhead.
All eleven cars — dynamics, acceleration, top speed
| Car | Engine | 0–60 (s) | 0–80 (s) | 0–100 (s) | Top speed (mph) | Dynamics (s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ford Mustang (automatic) | 5.0L-PFI H.O. | 8.60 | 13.85 | 22.89 | 137.2 | 81.56 |
| Ford Mustang (5-speed) | 5.0L-PFI H.O. | 7.04 | 11.82 | 19.24 | 138.0 | 82.51 |
| Chevrolet Caprice | 5.7L-TBI | 9.82 | 17.59 | 29.35 | 122.0 | 86.20 |
| Ford Crown Victoria | 5.8L-VV H.O. | 11.98 | 20.46 | 36.55 | 119.1 | 88.24 |
| Plymouth Gran Fury | 5.2L-4BBL | 11.77 | 20.97 | 38.02 | 120.2 | 88.63 |
| Dodge Diplomat | 5.2L-4BBL | 11.84 | 21.69 | 38.95 | 119.1 | 88.66 |
| Chevrolet Caprice | 5.0L-TBI | 12.35 | 23.35 | 42.88 | 114.1 | 88.83 |
| Ford Crown Victoria | 5.0L-PFI | 12.39 | 21.88 | 42.14 | 110.0 | 89.49 |
| Chevrolet Caprice (V6) | 4.3L-TBI | 15.57 | 29.80 | 58.16 | 109.0 | 92.51 |
| Dodge Diplomat | 5.2L-2BBL | 14.38 | 25.36 | 55.58 | 113.6 | — |
| Plymouth Gran Fury | 5.2L-2BBL | 14.98 | 26.41 | 58.13 | 111.2 | — |
Measured against the year’s gates: the TBI Caprice 5.7, both 4-barrel M-bodies and the Crown Victoria 5.8 cleared everything. The 305 Caprice (42.88) and the port-injected Crown Victoria (42.14) both missed the 41.7-second 0–100 requirement, and the 5.0 Crown Victoria only just touched the required 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 eleven cars
| 0 to… | Mustang 5-spd | Mustang auto | Caprice 5.7 | Crown Vic 5.8 | Gran Fury 4BBL | Diplomat 4BBL | Caprice 5.0 | Crown Vic 5.0 | Diplomat 2BBL | Gran Fury 2BBL | Caprice 4.3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 mph | 1.84 | 2.00 | 2.23 | 2.67 | 2.58 | 2.72 | 2.46 | 2.19 | 3.14 | 3.30 | 2.84 |
| 30 mph | 2.65 | 3.38 | 3.54 | 4.52 | 4.26 | 4.45 | 4.19 | 3.99 | 5.43 | 5.57 | 5.02 |
| 40 mph | 3.84 | 4.83 | 5.12 | 6.53 | 6.12 | 6.24 | 6.27 | 6.10 | 7.74 | 8.00 | 7.64 |
| 50 mph | 5.38 | 6.40 | 7.29 | 8.79 | 8.65 | 8.82 | 9.13 | 8.77 | 10.52 | 10.85 | 11.48 |
| 60 mph | 7.04 | 8.60 | 9.82 | 11.98 | 11.77 | 11.84 | 12.35 | 12.39 | 14.38 | 14.98 | 15.57 |
| 70 mph | 9.38 | 11.02 | 13.34 | 15.64 | 15.32 | 15.51 | 16.99 | 16.47 | 19.32 | 19.97 | 20.90 |
| 80 mph | 11.82 | 13.85 | 17.59 | 20.46 | 20.97 | 21.69 | 23.35 | 21.88 | 25.36 | 26.41 | 29.80 |
| 90 mph | 14.96 | 18.02 | 22.67 | 27.13 | 28.25 | 29.02 | 30.89 | 29.34 | 35.89 | 37.73 | 41.09 |
| 100 mph | 19.24 | 22.89 | 29.35 | 36.55 | 38.02 | 38.95 | 42.88 | 42.14 | 55.58 | 58.13 | 58.16 |
Brakes, ergonomics, fuel economy
| Car / body | 60–0 Phase I (ft) | 60–0 Phase II (ft) | Avg decel (ft/s²) | Ergonomics (pts) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dodge Diplomat ‡ | 146.8 | 145.1 | 26.32 | 190.20 |
| Chevrolet Caprice ‡ | 152.8 | 148.3 | 26.03 | 189.50 |
| Ford Crown Victoria ‡ | 154.4 | 150.5 | 26.09 | 168.53 |
| Ford Mustang ‡ | 158.0 | 156.7 | 24.45 | 144.40 |
| Plymouth Gran Fury | — | — | — | 190.20 |
‡ The scanned bulletin prints the four brake-result columns without fully legible headers; the assignment above follows the bulletin’s alphabetical vehicle order and will be verified against the full report. The Diplomat and Gran Fury ergonomics totals are identical as printed — shared body, as ever — and the aging M-bodies took the best ergonomics scores of the year.
| Car | EPA combined (mpg) | Car | EPA combined (mpg) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet Caprice 4.3-TBI | 19.0 | Ford Crown Victoria 5.0-PFI | 17.4 |
| Chevrolet Caprice 5.0-TBI | 17.2 | Ford Mustang (manual) | 16.9 |
| Ford Mustang (automatic) | 16.8 | Chevrolet Caprice 5.7-TBI | 14.3 |
| Dodge Diplomat 2BBL | 14.2 | Plymouth Gran Fury 2BBL | 14.2 |
| Ford Crown Victoria 5.8-VV | 13.1 | Dodge Diplomat 4BBL | 12.7 |
| Plymouth Gran Fury 4BBL | 12.7 |
What the bulletin doesn’t hold
This TAP Alert carried preliminary results only: the per-lap dynamics tables, the quarter-mile times, 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 1989 book; as far as I can tell, they are not available anywhere else online.
What 1989 settled
The moment GM’s fuel injection reached the 350, the sedan record book was rewritten in one September: first sub-10 sedan to 60, 122 mph, and a lap average no four-door had ever approached. Every sedan benchmark the Caprice would carry into its legendary early-nineties form starts here.
And the M-bodies went out sprinting. In their second-to-last Michigan test, the carbureted Diplomat and Gran Fury cleared a bar that tripped two injected rivals, and ran the fastest top speeds of their twelve-year service life — 119.1 and 120.2 mph. The old guard didn’t fade; it was simply out-teched.