The vehicle

Chevrolet Impala

Thirty-two entries across twenty-four Michigan tests: the rear-drive 350 V8 Impala from 1978 to 1985, and the front-drive V6 Impala from 2000 to 2016. Two different cars under one name.

Every test

The principal Impala each year. The six-cylinder, Canadian and E85 versions are in the full list below. Shaded rows are the front-drive car.

† Eliminated from the 1980 full-size bid for failing the minimum acceleration requirements; its acceleration and top-speed figures are a re-test, run after an extra spare tyre was found in its trunk; its braking figure is from the first session, with the spare still aboard. ‡ 1985: the scoring sheet, the only results document held for that year, prints one acceleration figure per car without saying which interval; it is shown as 0–100 because the specification’s acceleration category is 0–100. § 2006: braking retest (see below). ¶ 2009: the book prints one Impala brake sheet, for the E85 car, with a projected 144.2 feet; it is in the full list below.

The V8 Impala, 1978 to 1985

• 1978. The book names the Plymouth Fury as its top-rated car: “The Chevrolet Impala finished a very close second, followed by the Pontiac Catalina and the Dodge Monaco.”
• 1980. Michigan found an extra spare tyre left in the Impala’s trunk after its first runs and re-ran its acceleration and top speed. In the re-test it missed the 80 and 100 mph minimums, and the preface records that “the Buick LeSabre and Chevrolet Impala were eliminated from the bid process on full-size vehicles”. It ran 110.4 mph.
• 1981. Of the four full-size cars in the bid it was the quickest to 60 and 100 mph and the quickest on the road course, and the slowest on top speed, at 113.8 mph. Its adjusted bid was second to the Gran Fury’s.
• 1982. At 107.8 mph it had the lowest top speed of the V8s except the Fairmont, and it took the highest published total score.
• 1983. Last of the five cars scored. A six-cylinder Impala and a Canadian-market Impala 350 were also tested; the Canadian car was quicker to 60 and to 100, and reached 107.1 mph, after which, the book says, its speed fell away because of mechanical difficulties.
• 1984. Second of the four cars scored, and the quickest of them to 60, at 10.30 seconds. Its 116.4 mph is the fastest of any rear-drive Impala in these books.
• 1985. Of the test itself, only the scoring sheet is held. The Impala had the best ergonomics and communications total and the best fuel economy of the four cars on it, and the slowest top speed, 114.3 mph; its total score was the weakest of the four.

The front-drive Impala, 2000 to 2016

The 2000 bulletin brings the Impala back as a front-drive sedan with a 200-horsepower 3.8-litre V6, entered as the replacement for the Caprice, which it says was discontinued after the 1996 model year. It reached 60 in 8.99 seconds and ran 124 mph, slower than the Ford Police Interceptor; but its ergonomics and communications total, 213.75, was a fraction ahead of the Ford’s 213.58.

From 2000 to 2005 the Ford Police Interceptor was faster on top in every test (in 2004 and 2005, the version with the 3.27 axle; the 3.55-axle car was slower than the Impala). Then the order reversed. In 2006 the Impala ran 142 mph, past the 1994 Caprice’s 141.2, and from 2006 to 2011 it was faster on top than every Ford sedan in every test. These are top speeds with limiters fitted: the 2000 bulletin says the Police Interceptor “features a 130-mph speed limiter”, the 2001 and 2002 books mark the Impala and the Fords as limited, the 2003 bulletin says Chevrolet raised the Impala’s “fuel cut-off” to 129 mph, and from 2003 the documents state limiters for the whole field (see speed limiters).

The 2006 braking figures are a retest, and the book says why: “During Saturday’s Brake Testing the Chevrolet Impala did not make MSP’s minimum deceleration qualification for braking.” Chevrolet then found “a calibration error in the ABS software on the test vehicle”, and Michigan retested the car’s braking only.

From 2008 to 2012 Michigan also tested an E85 Impala beside the petrol car; there were no E85 vehicles in the 2013 test. The 2012 car brought a 3.6-litre V6 and reached 100 mph in 18.72 seconds, against 23.74 for the 3.9 the year before; the E85 version ran 150 mph. From 2014 the books’ vehicle description pages call it the Impala Limited. The last one is in the 2016 book, and the 2017 book has none.

Recognising one: what the books record

What Chevrolet gave Michigan to test, from the books’ own vehicle description pages. It shows what the police Impala had in those years, not what any particular car left the factory with.

The 2006 book gives the engine as 3.9 litres in its tables and as 3.8 litres (231 cubic inches) on its description page. 9C1 is Chevrolet’s police package code, explained on the option codes page. What the books cannot tell you is whether a particular car was built as one; the method is on how to identify a genuine police package car.

Where it sits in the record