The manufacturer

Dodge police vehicles

One hundred and three entries — and a twelve-year hole in the middle, 1990 to 2001, when no Dodge appears in Michigan’s published results.

Ford and Chevrolet have turned up to every Michigan evaluation in this archive. Dodge has not, and the reason is not that the books are missing.

After 1989 no Dodge patrol vehicle appears in Michigan’s published results until 2002. The Charger followed in 2006, and in its first year it was the fastest American police sedan in these books.

The fastest Dodge in every test

All 103 entries are in the filtered table.

The quickest-topping Dodge each year, with how many Dodge 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.
Year	Vehicle	Type	0–60 s	Top mph	60–0 ft	Dodges tested
1978	Dodge Monaco	Sedan	11.15	117.4	171.4	1
1979 — a Dodge is on the test schedules, the only part of the 1979 file held; no results are held
1980	Dodge St. Regis	Sedan	11.53	122.7	165.0	3
1981	Dodge Diplomat	Sedan	12.84	116.3	157.2	2
1982	Dodge Diplomat	Sedan	12.19	115.4	163.3	2
1983	Dodge Diplomat	Sedan	12.81	118.8	159.6	2
1984	Dodge Diplomat	Sedan	11.02	118.8	165.8	2
1985	Dodge Diplomat	Sedan	–	117.6	142.8	1
1986	Dodge Diplomat	Sedan	11.48	121.5	149.2	2
1987	Dodge Diplomat 318-4 †	Sedan	12.72	116.9	142.2	1
1988	Dodge Diplomat	Sedan	11.55	117	155.4	2
1989	Dodge Diplomat	Sedan	11.84	119.1	147.1	2
1990 – 2001 — no Dodge patrol vehicle. The December 2002 bulletin calls the 2002 Intrepid the first police-package sedan DaimlerChrysler had entered in the MSP tests “since the Dodge Diplomat in 1989”. The 2001 book’s preface says a Dodge Intrepid and two Durangos were tested that year as prototypes and their results not published. The only Chrysler products in the published results for the period were Jeep Cherokees
2002	Dodge Intrepid	Sedan	8.72	135	149.4	3
2003	Dodge Intrepid	Sedan	9.14	136	145.1	1
2004	Dodge Intrepid	Sedan	8.56	135	137.4	1
2005	Dodge Magnum	Wagon	9.1	117	143.4	1
2006	Dodge Charger 5.7L HEMI	Sedan	6.52	150	133.5	5
2007	Dodge Charger 5.7L HEMI	Sedan	6.53	148	132.8	5
2008	Dodge Charger 5.7L HEMI	Sedan	6.24	148	143.7	4
2009	Dodge Charger 5.7L HEMI	Sedan	5.96	146	135.2	2
2010	Dodge Charger 5.7L HEMI	Sedan	6	146	143.4	2
2011	Dodge Charger 5.7L HEMI	Sedan	6.24	146	133.9	2
2012	Dodge Charger 5.7L (2.65 axle)	Sedan	5.95	152	–	5
2013	Dodge Charger 5.7L (2.65 axle)	Sedan	6.12	152	129.1	4
2014	2014.5 Dodge Charger 5.7L (2.65)	Sedan	6.12	150	126.5	5
2015	Dodge Charger 5.7L (3.08 AWD)	Sedan	6.32	149	131.4	4
2016	Dodge Charger 5.7L (2.62 RWD)	Sedan	6.48	150	125.8	4
2017	Dodge Charger 5.7L (2.62 RWD)	Sedan	6.17	149	123.2	3
2018	Dodge Charger 5.7L (2.62 RWD)	Sedan	6.31	150	134.4	3
2019	Dodge Charger 5.7L AWD	Sedan	5.87	149	133.8	5
2020	2021 Dodge Charger 5.7L RWD	Sedan	6.06	149	129	6
2021	Dodge Charger 5.7L RWD	Sedan	5.91	140	128.8	4
2022	Dodge Charger 5.7L RWD	Sedan	6.15	139	131.7	4
2023	Dodge Charger 5.7L RWD	Sedan	6.01	140	129.6	4
2024	Dodge Durango 5.7L AWD	SUV	6.67	130	136.1	2
2025	Dodge Durango 5.7L AWD	SUV	7.3	130	139.9	2
2026	Dodge Durango Pursuit 5.7L AWD	SUV	7.24	130	141.1	2

The St. Regis in Michigan

The Dodge St. Regis is best known as the California “dog car” of the St. Regis video. The books held here record it twice, as a full-size sedan: tested in October 1979 for the 1980 book and in October 1980 for the 1981 book. It passed Michigan’s qualification standards both times. The October 1978 test also had a Dodge on its schedules, but its model and results are not held.

From the 1980 and 1981 books. The 60–0 figure is the stop from exactly 60 mph at the car’s average braking rate, computed here from the printed rate. Laps are the average on the road course of the period: sixteen laps in 1980, twelve in 1981. The 1980 lap sheet prints 91.821 seconds; the book’s scoring used 91.100. The place is among the full-size cars left in the bid, by adjusted bid.
Book	Engine	0–60 s	0–100 s	Top mph	60–0 ft	Lap s	Place
1980	360 four-barrel, dual exhaust, 185 hp	11.53	36.70	122.7	165.0	91.82	2nd of 3
1981	318 four-barrel, 165 hp	13.14	45.72	114.7	163.6	93.93	3rd of 4

1980. The St. Regis had the same E58 360, with 185 horsepower and dual exhaust, as the Plymouth Gran Fury, and the two shared every dimension the book prints; only their weights differ. It ran 122.7 mph, second in the full-size class to the Gran Fury’s 124.6, and was second to it to 100 mph and on the road course; both reached 110 mph in under a mile. On ergonomics the two scored identically, item for item. Its bid, $6,572.80, was $36.32 above the Gran Fury’s, and the Gran Fury, the top scorer, was “also the low bidder and will be purchased in 1980”.

1981. With the 318 four-barrel and 165 horsepower, the St. Regis was the slowest of the four full-size cars in the bid to 60 and 100 mph and on the road course, and third on top speed. The Gran Fury, with the same engine and axle, again had the lowest adjusted bid. There is no St. Regis in the 1982 book; Dodge’s entries there are the Diplomat 318 and a four-cylinder Aries.

The engine California could not buy

Chrysler’s 1980 Dodge police catalogue, bound into the copy of the 1980 book catalogued as NCJ 78761 (its equipment pages are headed 1980 Dodge Police Fleet Equipment, Cars), offers the “St. Regis Pursuit (A38 Package)” with an “Optional 5.9-liter (360 CID) four-barrel V-8 engine”, marked “(Not available in California)”. A 318 two-barrel was also offered, and “California models are equipped with a four-barrel version of the same engine, which is also available in other states.” So the St. Regis in Michigan’s 1980 test had the engine the 1980 California cars in the video could not have. The 1981 book’s St. Regis had a four-barrel 318, which the 1980 catalogue fitted to California cars and also offered elsewhere; that book does not say which emissions specification its car was built to.

The same catalogue lists a non-certified 85 mph speedometer as standard and one certified to 125 mph as an extra-cost option; the corrections page has what that means for the video.

The twelve years

This is the only gap on any manufacturer page that is not an archive problem. Every one of the twelve years is held here — the books for 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1999 and 2001 and the federal bulletins for 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998 and 2000. No Dodge appears in the published results of any of them. The 2001 book’s preface records that it “also tested the Dodge Intrepid 3.5L, Durango 4.7L 2WD, and Durango 5.9L 4WD”, prototypes “not currently available for any police operations”, and that “DaimlerChrysler is looking at the possibility of re-entering the law enforcement market”; their results were not published.

What does appear in the published results for that period from Chrysler is a Jeep Cherokee, in every one of those books from 1992 — a sport utility that never broke 115 mph.

The Diplomat and its Plymouth twin, the M-body sedans, ran their last Michigan test in 1989. The December 2002 bulletin calls the 2002 Intrepid the first police-package sedan DaimlerChrysler had entered “in the MSP tests since the Dodge Diplomat in 1989”. So the company that had built the 1969 Polara (147 mph in Sanow and Bellah’s history of Chrysler police cars) entered no police sedan in Michigan’s published tests for twelve years.

Twelve tests, 1990 to 2001, and not one Dodge in the published results.

What the gap cost, and what ended it

The last three of those twelve years open the thirteen, 1999 to 2011, in which the Crown Victoria’s best top speed in each test was between 128 and 130 mph. The Caprice was gone after 1996 as well.

Dodge came back in 2002 with the Intrepid, and in 2006 the Dodge Charger recorded 150 mph in its first Michigan test, the best by an American police sedan in these books to that point, at Chrysler’s Chelsea proving ground.

The Charger then went on to set the shortest stopping distance and the highest deceleration rate of any car in this archive, both in 2017, and held both until the electric 2023 Mustang Mach-E.

One disqualification

Dodge entries a Michigan test document names as eliminated or disqualified.
Year	Vehicle
1987	Diplomat 318-4	0–80 in 23.25 seconds against a newly tightened 23.0. The Plymouth Gran Fury with the same body and engine passed at 22.09

It came at the end of the line rather than the beginning, and it did not last: the next year’s bar was eased, and the 1988 Diplomat four-barrel cleared every acceleration gate. This page used to show the 1987 car twice; one Diplomat was tested. See the vehicles that failed.

Where Dodge sits in the record

Best Dodge figures across all 103 entries.
Figure	Vehicle	Year
152 mph — fastest Dodge recorded (also 2013 and 2014)	Charger 5.7L (2.65 axle)	2012
5.81 s — quickest to 60	Charger 5.7L AWD	2020
123.2 ft and 31.44 ft/s² — shortest stop and highest rate by any car to 2017; the 2023 and 2026 Mach-Es better both in this archive	Charger 5.7L (2.62 RWD)	2017
Three 2002 Dodges carry the source’s limiter footnote; from 2003 the books state limiters for the whole field

That last row matters. The Charger’s top speed sat between 146 and 152 mph for fifteen years, and in 2016 one needed 13.28 miles to reach 150 where the following year’s car needed 1.45 — which looks like a limiter. Michigan never marked that car individually, but the book says every vehicle in the field was fitted with one; what it never says is where the limit was set.

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. The 1990–2001 gap is in the published results, not the archive: the books and bulletins for 1990 to 2001 are all held here, and no Dodge appears in their results. The 2001 book’s preface records three DaimlerChrysler prototypes, a Dodge Intrepid and two Durangos, tested but not published. The 1979 file holds only the test method and schedules, and 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.