Michigan test archive
1998 Michigan State Police Patrol Vehicle Test
The year the limiter footnote reached ten of fifteen top speeds — and Ford’s sport utilities did not run the road course.
Fifteen vehicles ran from September 20 to 22, 1997, level with 1983 as the largest field in the books held to that point. Nine special service, six police package, and among them two Subarus, two Volvos, a Ford Expedition and a Chevrolet Tahoe. But the important marks on the 1998 tables aren’t cars at all. They’re footnotes.
The first is a small letter b, attached to ten of the fifteen top speeds, meaning the vehicle was fitted with an electronic speed limiter. The Crown Victoria’s 130, the Lumina’s 123, the Explorers’ 106, the Expedition’s 106 — the bulletin marks each as fitted with an electronic speed limiter, and does not say whether the figure shown is the limiter’s setting. The only top speeds without the mark were the two Camaros’, the Tahoe’s, and the two Volvos’.
The second is a small letter a on both Camaros, sitting beside identical figures of 150 mph, and it means the opposite problem: because of the limitations of the test track, drivers were instructed not to exceed 150. The bulletin’s own competitive objective now reads “up to 150 mph.” A year earlier a Camaro had run 157. On the bulletin’s own account, the track now limited what could be measured of the fastest cars.
The third is a double asterisk on three Fords. Ford Motor Company had indicated that the Expedition and both Explorers were not designed nor intended to be used as pursuit vehicles, and they were therefore not subjected to vehicle dynamics testing. They ran everything else — acceleration, top speed, braking — and have full figures in every other table. Chevrolet’s Tahoe ran the road course.
The police package vehicles
| Vehicle | Engine | 0–60 (s) | 0–100 (s) | Top speed (mph) | Dynamics | Brakes (ft/s²) | 60–0 (ft) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ford Crown Victoria | 4.6L SFI | 9.01 | 25.91 | 130 b | 1:24.51 | 28.69 | 135.0 |
| Volvo S-70 T5 Sedan | 2.3L turbo | 8.14 | 19.32 | 147 | 1:22.55 | 29.38 | 131.8 |
| Volvo V-70 T5 Wagon | 2.3L turbo | 8.57 | 20.62 | 142 | 1:23.40 | 25.88 | 149.6 |
| Chevrolet Lumina | 3.8L SFI | 9.55 | 28.31 | 123 b | 1:26.62 | 23.48 | 164.9 |
| Chevrolet Tahoe (2WD) | 5.7L SFI | 9.40 | 29.50 | 123 | 1:26.62 | 22.29 | 173.7 |
| Ford Crown Victoria (CNG) | 4.6L SFI | 11.79 | 36.47 | 104 b | 1:28.59 | did not complete braking — alternator failure | |
Gold row: the Crown Victoria’s comeback. A year earlier it had missed all three acceleration times, the first by five hundredths of a second; here it cleared all three acceleration gates with room to spare, took nearly a second and a half off its lap time, and had a projected stop of 135.0 feet. Whatever Ford changed between the 1997 and 1998 cars — the bulletin lists the engine as SFI where the previous year read PFI — it was worth a full second to 60 mph.
Below it, near-misses everywhere. The Lumina, newly fitted with the 3.8 in place of the 3.1 and a second and a half quicker to 60, missed the 0–100 gate by 0.11 seconds — and then fell under the braking floor at 23.48. The Tahoe cleared 60 and 80, was 1.30 seconds outside the bulletin’s 28.2 to 100, and posted 22.29 ft/s², the worst braking figure in the field. Its 173.7-foot projected stop is the longest in the test by nearly nine feet. And the Lumina and the Tahoe recorded identical lap averages of 1:26.62, which is worth stating plainly as a coincidence rather than dressing up as anything else.
The Lumina and Tahoe rows are muted for the misses described above. The third muted row is the natural-gas Crown Victoria, which took 11.79 seconds to reach 60, carried a limiter and reached 104 mph, completed its first braking phase and then suffered an alternator failure that ended its brake evaluation. The bulletin records the electronic malfunction in a footnote and leaves the rest of its braking row blank.
See the original pages: Tables 4 and 3 in the 1998 bulletin
The special service vehicles
| Vehicle | Engine | 0–60 (s) | 0–100 (s) | Top speed (mph) | Dynamics | Brakes (ft/s²) | 60–0 (ft) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet Camaro (automatic) | 5.7L SFI | 6.00 | 14.64 | 150 a | 1:18.98 | 28.34 | 136.6 |
| Chevrolet Camaro (6-speed) | 5.7L SFI | 5.93 | 14.00 | 150 a | 1:20.59 | ‡ | ‡ |
| Jeep Cherokee (2WD) | 4.0L PFI | 9.96 | 33.30 | 111 b | 1:25.82 | 25.55 | 151.5 |
| Jeep Cherokee (4WD) | 4.0L PFI | 10.42 | 36.23 | 112 b | 1:26.91 | 26.00 | 148.9 |
| Subaru Legacy SUS (AWD) | 2.5L SFI | 11.35 | 36.05 | 112 b | 1:27.33 | 27.43 | 141.2 |
| Subaru Legacy Outback Wagon (AWD) | 2.5L SFI | 11.68 | 38.36 | 111 b | 1:28.37 | 27.56 | 140.5 |
| Ford Explorer (2WD) | 5.0L PFI | 10.15 | 37.86 | 106 b | ** | 24.03 | 161.2 |
| Ford Explorer (AWD) | 5.0L PFI | 10.84 | 42.49 | 106 b | ** | 23.96 | 161.6 |
| Ford Expedition (2WD) | 5.4L SFI | 10.42 | 31.79 | 106 b | ** | 25.64 | 151.0 |
Gold row: 1:18.98 — the fastest lap average in the books held to this point, breaking into the eighteens for the first time and bettering the 1995 Camaro’s 1:19.20. The 6-speed was quicker in a straight line, reaching 60 in 5.93 and 100 in 14.00 seconds — quicker than any Camaro before it in these books — but gave up a second and a half a lap to the automatic. Both cars’ top speeds are unknown: drivers were told not to exceed 150 mph because of the track.
Two ordinary-looking figures deserve a second look. The Subaru Legacy — an all-wheel-drive 2.5-liter, the first Subaru ever to appear in these tests — out-braked every American sport utility in the field, though both Subarus lapped slower than either Cherokee. And the AWD Explorer needed 42.49 seconds to reach 100 mph, 4.6 seconds longer than its two-wheel-drive twin. That is the same 5.0-liter engine in the same body.
Complete acceleration data — every 10-mph increment, all fifteen vehicles
| 0 to… | Camaro auto | Camaro 6-spd | Lumina | Tahoe | Cherokee 2WD | Cherokee 4WD | Crown Vic | Crown Vic CNG | Expedition | Explorer 2WD | Explorer AWD | Subaru Outback | Subaru SUS | Volvo S-70 | Volvo V-70 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 mph | 1.54 | 1.68 | 2.16 | 1.98 | 2.08 | 2.11 | 1.93 | 2.41 | 2.25 | 2.03 | 2.11 | 2.41 | 2.40 | 2.29 | 2.35 |
| 30 mph | 2.44 | 2.60 | 3.38 | 3.29 | 3.48 | 3.56 | 3.19 | 4.18 | 3.88 | 3.46 | 3.65 | 3.90 | 3.86 | 3.58 | 3.69 |
| 40 mph | 3.37 | 3.52 | 4.91 | 4.77 | 4.97 | 5.15 | 4.73 | 6.06 | 5.58 | 5.27 | 5.54 | 6.10 | 5.95 | 4.88 | 5.06 |
| 50 mph | 4.55 | 4.65 | 7.05 | 6.88 | 7.39 | 7.69 | 6.68 | 8.41 | 7.73 | 7.53 | 8.06 | 8.75 | 8.52 | 6.31 | 6.59 |
| 60 mph | 6.00 | 5.93 | 9.55 | 9.40 | 9.96 | 10.42 | 9.01 | 11.79 | 10.42 | 10.15 | 10.84 | 11.68 | 11.35 | 8.14 | 8.57 |
| 70 mph | 7.52 | 7.55 | 12.49 | 12.27 | 13.19 | 13.94 | 11.82 | 15.41 | 13.55 | 13.68 | 14.73 | 15.99 | 15.48 | 10.10 | 10.75 |
| 80 mph | 9.35 | 9.36 | 16.41 | 16.13 | 18.53 | 19.65 | 15.50 | 19.88 | 17.62 | 18.26 | 19.69 | 21.89 | 20.97 | 12.40 | 13.15 |
| 90 mph | 11.85 | 11.52 | 21.55 | 22.05 | 24.68 | 26.30 | 20.10 | 26.31 | 23.82 | 23.77 | 25.67 | 28.78 | 27.35 | 15.60 | 16.66 |
| 100 mph | 14.64 | 14.00 | 28.31 | 29.50 | 33.30 | 36.23 | 25.91 | 36.47 | 31.79 | 37.86 | 42.49 | 38.36 | 36.05 | 19.32 | 20.62 |
| Top speed | 150 a | 150 a | 123 b | 123 | 111 b | 112 b | 130 b | 104 b | 106 b | 106 b | 106 b | 111 b | 112 b | 147 | 142 |
Ten of the fifteen top speeds carry the limiter footnote. Read that row again and notice what it means for the whole exercise: in 1980 this program measured what a police car could do, and the answer was 124.6 mph. In 1998 two-thirds of the figures came from vehicles fitted with a limiter, and the bulletin does not say whether any of them reached it; the two fastest cars in the field were held to 150 by the track.
Complete braking data — both phases, fourteen vehicles
| Vehicle | Phase I speed | Phase I distance (ft) | Phase I rate | Phase II speed | Phase II distance (ft) | Phase II rate | Average rate | 60–0 from average (ft) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet Camaro (auto) | 60.20 | 136.30 | 28.60 | 59.90 | 137.40 | 28.09 | 28.34 | 136.6 |
| Chevrolet Lumina | 60.40 | 169.70 | 23.12 | 60.50 | 165.20 | 23.83 | 23.48 | 164.9 |
| Chevrolet Tahoe (2WD) | 60.10 | 173.50 | 22.39 | 59.70 | 172.80 | 22.18 | 22.29 | 173.7 |
| Jeep Cherokee (2WD) | 59.80 | 152.30 | 25.26 | 60.00 | 149.80 | 25.85 | 25.55 | 151.5 |
| Jeep Cherokee (4WD) | 60.20 | 150.90 | 25.83 | 60.30 | 149.40 | 26.18 | 26.00 | 148.9 |
| Ford Crown Victoria | 60.60 | 134.80 | 29.30 | 60.40 | 139.80 | 28.07 | 28.69 | 135.0 |
| Ford Crown Victoria (CNG) | 61.50 | 141.00 | 28.85 | did not complete — electronic malfunction (alternator failure) | ||||
| Ford Expedition (2WD) | 60.40 | 155.10 | 25.30 | 60.40 | 151.00 | 25.99 | 25.64 | 151.0 |
| Ford Explorer (2WD) | 61.10 | 171.20 | 23.45 | 60.70 | 161.10 | 24.60 | 24.03 | 161.2 |
| Ford Explorer (AWD) | 61.40 | 169.80 | 23.88 | 60.40 | 163.30 | 24.03 | 23.96 | 161.6 |
| Subaru Legacy Outback Wagon | 60.20 | 142.50 | 27.35 | 60.30 | 140.90 | 27.76 | 27.56 | 140.5 |
| Subaru Legacy SUS | 60.10 | 141.10 | 27.53 | 59.50 | 139.40 | 27.32 | 27.43 | 141.2 |
| Volvo S-70 T5 Sedan | 60.10 | 132.30 | 29.37 | 60.10 | 132.20 | 29.39 | 29.38 | 131.8 |
| Volvo V-70 T5 Wagon | 60.10 | 153.00 | 25.39 | 60.60 | 149.80 | 26.37 | 25.88 | 149.6 |
Gold row: best braking in the test, and it isn’t close in character — the Volvo sedan stopped in 132.30 feet on its first attempt and 132.20 on its second, a tenth of a foot apart after a four-minute cool-down. Its 29.38 ft/s² average was the highest in the field, though not in these books: the 1993 automatic Camaro had averaged 30.34, the 1994 Camaro 29.75 and the 1995 Camaro 29.57. Its own wagon twin managed only 25.88. The Lumina and Tahoe rows are muted for falling under the 25.0 ft/s² floor; the third muted row is the CNG Crown Victoria, whose first-phase 28.85 ft/s² was the third-best first-phase figure in the test, behind the Volvo’s 29.37 and the gasoline Crown Victoria’s 29.30, before the alternator ended its evaluation.
See the original page: Table 5 in the 1998 bulletin
Ergonomics, communications and fuel
| Vehicle | Ergonomics & communications | EPA city (mpg) |
|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet Tahoe | 238.89 | 13.4 |
| Ford Expedition | 224.62 | 12.9 |
| Ford Crown Victoria | 219.71 | 16.0 |
| Ford Crown Victoria (CNG) | 216.65 | 17.3 |
| Ford Explorer | 215.25 | 13.8 (2WD) / 13.7 (AWD) |
| Chevrolet Lumina | 194.29 | 18.1 |
| Volvo V-70 T5 Wagon | 194.09 | 18.7 |
| Chrysler Jeep Cherokee | 189.20 | 15.5 (2WD) / 15.1 (4WD) |
| Volvo S-70 T5 Sedan | 186.32 | 18.7 |
| Subaru Legacy Sport Utility Sedan | 179.26 | 20.6 |
| Subaru Legacy Outback Wagon | 176.92 | 20.6 |
| Chevrolet Camaro | 161.17 | 16.8 (auto) / 17.8 (6-speed) |
The Tahoe improved on its own 1997 mark, to 238.89 — the highest ergonomics and communications total in the books held here since the 1994 test — and the Expedition arrived in second. The two thirstiest vehicles in the test, one of them the slowest-stopping, were the two that scored highest on ergonomics and communications. The Crown Victoria’s 219.71 is a substantial jump on its 1997 score of 190.56 and puts it within striking distance of the trucks.
What the bulletin doesn’t hold
This page is built from the NIJ/NLECTC bulletin of October 1997 — an eight-page synopsis. The full report, which the bulletin lists as forthcoming under the title Equipment Performance Report: 1998 Model Year Patrol Vehicle Testing, is not held; the 1996 and 1999 full books print per-lap dynamics data, vehicle specifications and fuller test sheets that the bulletin leaves out.
The bulletin’s lap scoring is stated two ways on the same page: its methodology says the final score is “the average of the fastest of at least 9 timed laps”, while the footnote beneath the results table says “Average time for fastest 12 laps”.
What 1998 settled
Ten of fifteen vehicles arrived with an electronic speed limiter fitted, and the two fastest of the five that carried no limiter mark, the Camaros, ran into a limit of a different kind: drivers were told not to exceed 150 mph because of the track. From here a Michigan top speed often has to be read with its footnotes.
Ford’s sport utilities missing the road course is the other marker worth keeping. In 1998 Ford advised that the Expedition and both Explorers were not designed nor intended to be used as pursuit vehicles, while the Tahoe and the Expedition received the two highest ergonomics and communications marks of the year.
And in the middle of it, a year after missing all three acceleration times, the first by five hundredths of a second, the Crown Victoria cleared every gate, lapped nearly a second and a half quicker, had a projected stop of 135 feet, and scored nearly thirty points higher in ergonomics and communications.