The manufacturer

Chevrolet police vehicles

One hundred and ninety-three entries across forty-eight Michigan tests. The only manufacturer besides Ford to turn up in every year held here — and twice its fastest police sedan to that point left the tests.

Chevrolet has never missed a Michigan evaluation in this archive. Twice, the police sedan with the best top speed in these books to that point left them: the American-built Caprice after 1996, and the Australian-built one after 2017.

The Caprice last appears in 1996, returns from Australia in 2011, and last appears again in 2017. The Camaro B4C recorded 160 mph in 2000 — the fastest figure in this entire archive — and ran its last Michigan test in 2002. What Chevrolet enters in the Michigan tests now includes a Tahoe.

The fastest Chevrolet in every test

Shaded rows are the years the fastest Chevrolet was a two-door; gold rows are the years it was a sport utility. Everything else is a sedan. All 193 entries are in the filtered table.

The quickest-topping Chevrolet each year (the cars the books list as Canadian are left out), with how many Chevrolet entries the database holds for that year (each engine, drivetrain or fuel variant counts once). Braking changed from two measured stops to twelve in the 1999 book and from twelve to twenty in the 2012 book; figures either side of those lines are not directly comparable. Every 60–0 figure is the stop from exactly 60 mph at the vehicle’s average deceleration rate, by the books’ own formula; for the books before 1991, which print only the measured stops and the rate, it is computed here from the printed rate. In 1989 the bulletin brake-tested five cars, which its Table 5 names with their engines; the others that year have no figure.
YearVehicleType0–60 sTop mph60–0 ftChevrolets tested
1978Chevrolet ImpalaSedan10.78115.4159.11
1980Chevrolet MalibuSedan12.81113.4160.53
1981Chevrolet ImpalaSedan11.93113.8145.52
1982Chevrolet MalibuSedan13.29110.1157.33
1983Chevrolet MalibuSedan11.71116.3158.05
1984Chevrolet ImpalaSedan10.3116.4146.83
1985Chevrolet ImpalaSedan–114.3149.41
1986Chevrolet CapriceSedan10.92117160.05
1987Chevrolet CapriceSedan10.32118148.23
1988Chevrolet CapriceSedan10.59116151.62
1989Chevrolet CapriceSedan9.82122148.83
1990Chevrolet CapriceSedan9.36122.1159.83
1991Chevrolet Camaro (automatic)Two-door6.51150145.45
1992Chevrolet Camaro (automatic)Two-door6.55152144.87
1993Chevrolet Camaro (automatic)Two-door6.18154127.67
1994Chevrolet Camaro (6-speed)Two-door6.91153.5–5
1995Chevrolet Camaro (automatic)Two-door6.451551316
1996Chevrolet Camaro (automatic)Two-door6.51159137.86
1997Chevrolet Camaro (6-speed)Two-door6.51157–4
1998Chevrolet Camaro (6-speed)Two-door5.93150–4
1999Chevrolet Camaro (6-speed)Two-door6.12159–5
2000Chevrolet Camaro (automatic)Two-door5.8160135.73
2001Chevrolet Camaro (6-speed) limiterTwo-door5.77159–5
2002Chevrolet Camaro (automatic) limiterTwo-door5.69159140.84
2003Chevrolet ImpalaSedan9.251261333
2004Chevrolet ImpalaSedan9123134.23
2005Chevrolet Tahoe PPV 2WD (E85)SUV8.19125–5
2006Chevrolet Impala 9C1 3.9LSedan8.83142142.44
2007Chevrolet Impala 9C1 3.9LSedan8.82139140.54
2008Chevrolet Impala 9C1 3.9LSedan8.24142143.26
2009Chevrolet Impala 9C1 3.9L (E85)Sedan8.59140144.24
2010Chevrolet Impala 9C1 3.9LSedan8.53139143.94
2011Chevrolet Caprice 9C1 6.0LSedan6.18148128.36
2012Chevrolet Caprice 9C1 6.0LSedan5.91154125.88
2013Chevrolet Caprice 9C1 6.0LSedan6.03154128.34
2014Chevrolet Caprice 6.0LSedan6.01155127.64
2015Chevrolet Impala 3.6LSedan7.7150134.85
2015Chevrolet Caprice 6.0L §Sedan6.17156126.85
2016Chevrolet Caprice 6.0L RWDSedan6.26155129.95
2017Chevrolet Caprice 6.0L RWDSedan6.11155127.14
2018Chevrolet Tahoe 5.3L RWDSUV7.73134146.22
2019Chevrolet Tahoe 5.3L RWDSUV7.75134145.72
2020Chevrolet Tahoe 5.3L RWDSUV7.81134142.52
2021Chevrolet Tahoe 5.3L RWDSUV7.6130127.42
2022Chevrolet Tahoe 5.3L RWDSUV7.65130129.12
2023Chevrolet Tahoe 5.3L RWDSUV7.38130127.74
2024Chevrolet Blazer EV AWD (electric)SUV5.17130135.25
2025Chevrolet Blazer EV AWD (electric)SUV5.08130128.25
2026Chevrolet Blazer EV PPV AWD (electric)SUV5.14130131.75

§ The 2015 Caprice 6.0L’s 156 mph is from its retest of 7 October 2014, printed on its data sheet. It was first submitted with an incorrect speed-limiting calibration and ran 147, the figure the 2015 book’s summary table and chart print (printed pages 3, 44, 49 and 52).

Twelve tests running when the fastest Chevrolet was a two-door

From 1991 to 2002 the quickest thing Chevrolet brought to Michigan was a Camaro, in every test held here. Not once in those twelve tests did a Chevrolet sedan top its own manufacturer’s entry.

That is more tests than Ford’s equivalent Mustang run, ten from 1983 to 1993 (the 1985 scoring sheet lists only sedans), and it ran on after the Caprice had gone. Beside the Caprice, and then in its place, Chevrolet had a two-door — and the two-door was faster than anything else in the test, full stop.

The fastest police vehicle ever recorded by Michigan is a Chevrolet. It has two doors, no room for a cage, and nobody counts it.

Two absences and a return

The Caprice 9C1 in the Michigan record.
Period
1986–1996Rear-drive, American-built. Reaches 141.2 mph in 1994, the fastest American police sedan in these books until 2006, and leaves at 139
1997–2010No Caprice appears in the books held here from 1997 until 2011
2011–2017Built by Holden at Elizabeth, near Adelaide, according to Government Fleet (13 January 2017) and GM Authority (1 July 2017); the books held here do not say. Records 156 mph on retest in 2015 and a 125.8 ft stop in 2012
2018–Gone again. Nothing replaces it

Both times the Caprice left these tests, it held the best top speed of any police sedan in the books held to that point.

One disqualification

Chevrolet entries a Michigan test document names as eliminated or disqualified.
YearVehicle
1980Impalaeliminated from the full-size bid for missing the minimum acceleration requirements, with the Buick LeSabre

This page used to list two more: the 1996 Geo Tracker and the 2008 four-wheel-drive Tahoe. Neither book calls them disqualified — the Tracker had no time requirements, and the 2008 Tahoe sat in a table headed “not designed for high speed or pursuit driving”. No Tahoe has been disqualified. See the vehicles that failed.

Where Chevrolet sits in the record

Best Chevrolet figures across all 193 entries.
FigureVehicleYear
160 mph — the fastest figure in this archive, by any vehicleCamaro (automatic)2000
5.08 s — quickest to 60Blazer EV AWD (electric)2025
125.8 ft and 30.77 ft/s²Caprice 9C1 6.0L2012
156 mph — fastest police sedan in the archive §Caprice 6.0L2015

§ The 2015 Caprice’s retest figure; see the note under “The fastest Chevrolet in every test” above.

Nineteen Chevrolet entries carry the source’s own limiter or governor mark, from 1992 to 2002 — footnoted in 1992 and from 1995, and named in the 1994 preface. The clearest are the Tahoes of 2002, held at 98 mph, which Michigan marked as fitted with a limiter, so the figure may be a setting rather than a capability.

What Chevrolet enters now

A Tahoe, two Silverado police pickups, in every book held here since 2023, and since 2024 an electric Blazer. No sedan and no two-door; the fastest of them in 2025 ran 130 mph.

How those entries compare with everyone else’s is in the comparison table.

Sources. Every figure transcribed from the Michigan State Police Police Vehicle Evaluation for the year shown and linked to that year’s page, and compiled by script from those pages. “Present every year” means every year whose results this archive holds, 1978 and 1980 to 2026. The 1979 file holds only the test method and schedules, which list a Chevrolet; for 1985 only the scoring sheet survives. Figures are drawn from the test results table, published under CC BY 4.0. See how this site is researched and corrections.