Michigan test archive
2007 Michigan State Police Patrol Vehicle Test
Nineteen vehicles, and for the first time three of them have two wheels — one of which is quicker than anything the programme has ever timed.
The 2007 evaluation broke the programme’s own shape. Nineteen vehicles were tested, and alongside the sedans and sport utilities were a pickup truck, a hybrid, and three police motorcycles: a Harley-Davidson Electra Glide FLHTP, a Harley-Davidson Road King FLHP, and a BMW R1200RT-P.
The BMW rewrote the record book on its first appearance. It reached 60 mph in 4.44 seconds and 100 in 10.55, and crossed the quarter mile in 12.85 seconds at 109.5 mph. For comparison, the quickest car in this test — the HEMI Charger — needed 6.53 seconds to 60, 16.32 to 100, and 14.99 for the quarter. The fastest car in the entire archive, the 2002 Camaro, ran 14.14. A police motorcycle had just beaten every four-wheeled vehicle Michigan had tested in thirty years, and it stopped better than most of them too: 28.38 ft/s² and a computed 136.5-foot stop, shorter than either Police Interceptor.
It also comprehensively beat its American rivals. The BMW ran 130.1 mph against the Road King’s 107.1 and the Electra Glide’s 103.9, reached 60 nearly a second quicker than the Road King and two seconds quicker than the Electra Glide, and stopped from 60 in 136.5 feet where the Harleys needed 158.6 and 157.0 — more than twenty feet further.
Among the cars, the story was continuity. The HEMI Charger ran 148 mph, the Dodges again swept the braking column, and the Ford Police Interceptor again finished behind them — though it did take the fastest lap of the sedans this year, its 3.55-geared car lapping Grattan in 1:40.91.
The police category
| Vehicle | 0–60 (s) | 0–100 (s) | Top speed | ¼ mile | Dynamics | Brakes (ft/s²) | 60–0 (ft) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dodge Charger 5.7L HEMI | 6.53 | 16.32 | 148 | 14.99 @ 95.68 | 1:37.69 | 29.15 | 132.8 |
| Dodge Magnum 5.7L HEMI | 6.54 | 16.53 | 131 | 15.03 @ 95.23 | 1:37.65 | 29.21 | 132.5 |
| Chevrolet Tahoe PPV 2WD (E85) | 8.49 | 23.45 | 137 | 16.50 @ 85.80 | 1:43.78 | 28.03 | 138.2 |
| Chevrolet Tahoe PPV 2WD | 8.66 | 24.52 | 136 | 16.64 @ 84.80 | 1:44.08 | 28.03 | 138.2 |
| Ford Police Interceptor (3.27 axle) | 8.71 | 24.01 | 130 | 16.58 @ 85.75 | 1:41.00 | 27.20 | 142.4 |
| Ford Police Interceptor (3.55 axle) | 8.72 | 24.01 | 119 | 16.63 @ 85.10 | 1:40.91 | 27.02 | 143.3 |
| Chevrolet Impala 9C1 3.9L | 8.82 | 24.11 | 139 | 16.65 @ 87.13 | 1:42.95 | 27.55 | 140.5 |
| Dodge Charger 3.5L | 8.83 | 24.13 | 132 | 16.77 @ 85.33 | 1:41.11 | 29.35 | 131.9 |
| Dodge Magnum 3.5L | 8.99 | 24.95 | 131 | 16.89 @ 84.73 | 1:41.82 | 29.81 | 129.9 |
Gold row: fastest car of the test at 148 mph, though the two HEMIs finished the road course four hundredths apart — 1:37.65 for the Magnum against 1:37.69 for the Charger, with the wagon nominally ahead.
The braking order is unchanged from 2006 and just as stark: all four Dodges under 133 feet, the Magnum 3.5 shortest at 129.9, and every Ford and Chevrolet sedan above 140. What has changed is the Tahoe. The pursuit-rated PPV now stops in 138.2 feet and runs 136 mph — faster than either Police Interceptor, and a twelve-mile-an-hour jump on its own 2006 figure of 124.
And note the 3.55-geared Interceptor: 119 mph, the slowest top speed of any police-category vehicle here, including both sport utilities.
The motorcycles
| Machine | 0–60 (s) | 0–100 (s) | Top speed | ¼ mile | Dynamics (cumulative) | Brakes (ft/s²) | 60–0 (ft) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMW R1200RT-P | 4.44 | 10.55 | 130.1 | 12.85 @ 109.5 | 5:55.7 | 28.38 | 136.5 |
| Harley-Davidson Road King FLHP | 5.40 | 20.35 | 107.1 | 14.42 @ 92.7 | 6:21.8 | 24.41 | 158.6 |
| Harley-Davidson Electra Glide FLHTP | 6.44 | 17.55 | 103.9 | 15.56 @ 89.7 | 6:27.5 | 24.67 | 157.0 |
Gold row, and it is the most emphatic result in this archive. The BMW’s 12.85-second quarter mile at 109.5 mph is the quickest and fastest quarter Michigan has ever recorded from anything, on any number of wheels — the 2002 Camaro’s 14.14 at 102.48 was the previous best. Its 10.55-second run to 100 mph is nearly six seconds quicker than the HEMI Charger’s.
One oddity is printed as found: the Road King reaches 60 mph a full second before the Electra Glide but takes 2.80 seconds longer to reach 100 — 20.35 against 17.55 — despite finishing with a higher top speed. The two machines share an engine, and the report offers no explanation.
The special-service vehicles
| Vehicle | 0–60 (s) | Top speed | ¼ mile | Brakes (ft/s²) | 60–0 (ft) | Fade? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dodge Magnum 3.5L (2WD) ‡ | 8.81 | 116 | 16.76 @ 85.28 | 27.39 | 141.4 | No |
| Ford Explorer 4.6L (2WD) ‡ | 8.84 | 101 | 16.89 @ 84.88 | 25.07 | 154.4 | No |
| Chevrolet Tahoe 5.3L (4WD) ‡ | 9.18 | 98 | 17.07 @ 82.43 | 25.78 | 150.2 | Yes |
| Ford Expedition 5.4L (2WD) ‡ | 9.65 | 104 | 17.33 @ 83.18 | 25.63 | 151.1 | No |
| Ford Escape Hybrid 2.3L (4WD) | 9.77 | 100 | 17.31 @ 82.63 | 27.79 | 139.3 | No |
| Ford Expedition EL 5.4L (2WD) | 10.31 | 95 | 17.81 @ 79.58 | 26.18 | 147.9 | No |
| Ford F-250 Super Crew (2WD) | 12.76 | 102 | 19.38 @ 74.63 | 24.97 | 155.0 | No |
Two firsts sit in this table. The Ford Escape Hybrid is the first hybrid vehicle in this archive, and it did something none of the trucks managed — it stopped in 139.3 feet, better than every other special-service vehicle and better than both Police Interceptors in the police category. The F-250 Super Crew is the first pickup, and it took 12.76 seconds to reach 60 mph.
The four-wheel-drive Tahoe is the only vehicle anywhere in the 2007 test to answer yes to the severe fading question — exactly as the special-service 4WD Tahoe did in 2005, while its pursuit-rated PPV sibling showed no fade in either year.
Ergonomics, communications and fuel
| Vehicle | Ergonomics & communications | EPA city (mpg) |
|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet Tahoe PPV | 208.48 | 15.6 |
| Dodge Charger | 192.93 | 18.8 (3.5) / 16.9 (5.7) |
| Ford Expedition (special service) | 192.10 | — |
| Ford Police Interceptor | 191.11 | 15.6 |
| Dodge Magnum | 187.87 | 18.8 (3.5) / 16.9 (5.7) |
| Chevrolet Impala 9C1 | 183.80 | 19.2 |
| Ford Escape Hybrid (special service) | 172.24 | — |
| Ford Explorer (special service) | 170.98 | — |
| Ford F-250 Super Crew (special service) | 147.98 | — |
The F-250’s 147.98 is the second-lowest total in this archive after the 1996 Geo Tracker’s 132.16, and for the same reason: four of its line items are scored 0.00 — bucket seat design, power window switch, automatic door lock switch and outside mirror controls — because the vehicle did not have them. Its bucket-seat depth scored 2.60.
One correction to the previous year is worth recording. In 2006 the flex-fuel Tahoe’s E85 rating was 11.0 mpg city against 14.6 on petrol. For 2007 both Tahoes are rated 15.6, with no E85 penalty shown at all. Whether that reflects a change in the vehicle or in how the figure was reported, the book does not say.
What 2007 settled
The programme stopped being about cars. Nineteen vehicles, and among them a hybrid, a crew-cab pickup and three motorcycles — a spread that would have been unrecognisable to the men who ran the first test in 1976 with six full-size sedans and a stopwatch.
And the fastest thing Michigan had ever timed turned out to have two wheels and come from Bavaria. The BMW R1200RT-P went to 60 in 4.44 seconds, to 100 in 10.55, through the quarter in 12.85 at 109.5 mph, and stopped shorter than a Police Interceptor. Every one of those numbers beats every car in thirty years of this archive. The programme built to measure police sedans had just measured something that made the fastest of them look ordinary.