History

The police Mustang leaves, and comes back with no engine

In 1993 two Special Service Package Mustangs ran their last test in these books — the only cars in its lap table not marked as having anti-lock brakes. Twenty-nine years later the badge returned as an electric crossover, and in 2026 its GT stopped shorter than any car in the books held here.

1982: the test the book did not publish

The preface of the 1982 book records it. “Because of specific interest expressed by a number of police agencies in a smaller ‘pursuit only’ type of car”, and with Ford’s cooperation, Michigan ran a twelfth vehicle, a Mustang 302 H.O., for acceleration and top speed — and did not publish its figures, “Because it was not a ‘police package’ vehicle, and also because of its limited use in most police applications”. Readers with a particular interest were invited to call.

The 1983 book prints a Mustang’s figures.

1983: the numbers arrive

In 1983 the Mustang appears properly, and it is worth reading the figures against the company it was keeping. A 302 H.O. with a four-speed manual, 175 horsepower, 2,970 lb:

Sixty-nine seconds to 100 mph for the fuel-injected Crown Victoria, against twenty-two for the Mustang. The next-fastest car in the test was twelve miles an hour slower on top, and the Mustang’s 1:28.31 was the fastest lap average of the test. And the Mustang’s first braking stop, at 151.3 feet, was the shortest of the entire field — from a car that was not being scored.

1984–1990: the peak

The Mustang spent the late eighties doing something no police car had done before, which was making the qualification bar look beside the point.

The run starts in 1984, the next book held after 1983, with two Mustangs, neither of them scored. The four-barrel five-speed reached 60 mph in 7.43 seconds and 100 in 20.77 and crossed the quarter mile in 15.90 seconds at 89.00 mph, then overheated on its top-speed run at 129.6 mph and was withdrawn. The fuel-injected automatic, which the book notes did not have police-package brakes, lapped the road course in 1:26.81, more than three seconds quicker than any of the scored sedans and the best lap average on the year pages held here to that point.

The next Mustangs held are in 1986. Both now had port fuel injection, and the five-speed car reached 60 mph in 7.30 seconds and 100 in 19.81, ran 137.2 mph and lapped the road course in 1:24.22, each the best on the year pages held here to that point. Its ergonomics total was the lowest in the test, 147.90, with 1.00 out of 10 for rear legroom.

In 1987 Michigan tightened the entry exam again — the tightening that ended the Dodge Diplomat’s bid by a quarter of a second — and two Mustangs ran 139 mph straight through it. In 1988 the five-speed car reached 60 mph in 6.90 seconds and crossed the quarter at 91.10 mph, the quickest figures in the books held here to that point.

Then 1989 produced the detail that turns up again thirty-seven years later. The two Mustangs ran 137.2 and 138.0 mph, and for the first time the automatic out-lapped the five-speed — 1:21.56 against 1:22.51, and the automatic’s average was the quickest in the books held here to that point. A transmission, rather than an engine, made the difference.

The 1990 book, from Ford’s proving ground, has the five-speed better again off the line: 6.64 seconds to 60, 18.66 to 100 and 15.22 seconds at 91.90 mph through the quarter, all ahead of the 1988 car and averages of three runs, after the timer failed on the first run. On top speed (136.0 mph, by the automatic) and round the road course (1:22.18, by the five-speed) the 1990 cars did not match 1987 or 1989.

1993: the last one

The end had shown two years earlier. The 1991 results bulletin has the first Camaros held here beside both Mustangs: the automatic Camaro ran 150.00 mph against their 136.10 and 135.50, and lapped in 1:21.08 against 1:23.80 and 1:23.06. In 1992 it ran 152.0 mph against 136.1 and 136.0, and lapped in 1:20.56 against 1:22.54 and 1:22.69. Scored against each other, the Camaro totalled 0.45 and the Mustang 10.30; the Mustang won only on fuel.

By 1993 the Mustang was still fast and no longer enough. Michigan tested the last Mustangs in these books before the Mach-E beside two 5.7-litre Camaros.

Seventeen miles an hour and nearly three seconds a lap (the bulletin averages the Camaro’s fastest 12 laps and the five-speed’s fastest 9). The Camaro was quicker at every measured speed. And the bulletin marks anti-lock brakes on every other car in its lap table but not on the two Mustangs; its braking table calls the automatic Mustang “Non-ABS”. The same table also brakes a Crown Victoria and a Taurus without anti-lock brakes beside their anti-lock versions.

The 1993 pairs stopped 9.7 feet (Crown Victoria) and 15.7 feet (Taurus) apart from 60 mph at their average rates. Non-ABS cars were braked again in 1994 and 1995, and in 1996 a Crown Victoria without anti-lock brakes was braked beside one with them: the answer was sixteen feet. By then the Mustang was gone from these books.

2022: the badge comes back

There is no Mustang in the Michigan books held here for twenty-nine years. Then the 2022 evaluation lists a 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E: all-wheel drive, battery electric, no engine of any kind, and the first battery-electric car in these books. It reached 60 mph in 4.03 seconds, quicker than any car before it, and stopped in 125.0 feet, the shortest stop in that field. It also lapped Grattan slowest of the eleven cars, with the forty-minute charge between runs that the manufacturers had agreed, and scored 5.33 out of ten for communications, more than three points below anything else.

A year later the 2023 evaluation tests a 2023 Mach-E with the same 480 horsepower. It reached 60 mph in 3.93 seconds, the quickest time by a car in these books, and stopped shortest again, in 122.8 feet. It lapped slowest of the cars again, this time with four drivers, and received exactly the same communications score.

The 2024 car is listed with the same 480 horsepower but much less torque, 428 lb-ft against 600. It was slower to 60, at 4.07 seconds, but reached 100 in 10.87, and for the first time it was not the slowest car round Grattan. It shared that field with the first Chevrolet Blazer EV, and with no police sedan at all.

2026: the GT

After a year’s absence the 2026 evaluation lists a Ford Mustang Mach-E GT: all-wheel drive, battery electric, no engine of any kind.

It is easy to be sniffy about that, and the numbers make it difficult.

Only the 2023 Mach-E and motorcycles have gone quicker to 60 mph in the books held here. The 122.45-foot stop beats the 2023 Mach-E’s 122.8 feet and the 2017 Dodge Charger’s 123.2. The book prints it as a projected stopping distance from 60 mph, worked out from the car’s average deceleration, so it is Michigan’s own figure rather than one calculated for this site.

The two Mustangs, side by side

The old car is faster at the top end and nowhere else. Thirty-three years took two and a half seconds out of the run to 60 and nearly eight out of the run to 100 — and anti-lock brakes are standard on it, which is the difference that would actually matter on a Tuesday afternoon.

What hasn’t changed

Here is the part that makes this more than a novelty. In 1993 the Mustang was the fastest thing Ford brought and a poor place to work — its ergonomics total of 170.33 was the lowest in that test, against 230.87 for the Caprice.

In 2026 the Mach-E is the quickest car and the best-braking vehicle in the entire field, and it finishes thirteenth of thirteen on communications, at 5.33 out of ten, the same score the 2022, 2023 and 2024 Mach-Es received. The Michigan Public Safety Communications System personnel, who score how difficult the communications and emergency warning equipment is to install, rated it lowest of everything on the page, and its ergonomics score is last as well.

That is the joke the archive has been building towards, and it is not really a joke. For decades Michigan’s books weighted ergonomics and communications at ten points out of a hundred, and a police car is a workplace before it is a performance car. The Mustang has finished last on it in two very different generations, from opposite directions.

It also tells you something about what the programme is for. A test that only measured acceleration would have called the 2026 Mach-E a triumph. Michigan’s own tables say something more useful: it is the quickest car in its field, and it scores lowest on how readily it can be equipped for patrol.