Michigan test archive
1980 Michigan State Police Patrol Vehicle Test
Two classes, three disqualifications, a wrecked Volare that won anyway — and a 124.6-mph Gran Fury setting the early archive’s speed record.
The second report Michigan published for the country is also the busiest of the early books. Eleven cars ran the straight-line tests in a single day — 20 October 1979 at Chrysler’s proving grounds, the first car away at 8:14 in the morning and the last, the Impala, at six minutes past six in the evening — split into full-size and mid-size classes, with two extra engines the manufacturers asked Michigan to try for information only. The dynamics laps ran on the 1.635-mile Michigan International Speedway road course: at least twelve timed laps, three drivers, all laps averaged. The IACP’s Equipment Technology Center sent two observers, reprinted the whole book for national distribution — and noted that its own national program had learned to test 49-state and California cars separately, which is why the California results for these same models live in a different book.
The 1980 test earned its drama honestly. After the Chevrolet Impala finished its acceleration, top-speed and brake runs, someone opened the trunk and found an extra spare tire that had been mistakenly left aboard — so the Impala re-ran acceleration and top speed on slightly flat-spotted tires, and the book prints the retest. During dynamics practice, the Plymouth Volare crashed hard enough on a warm-up lap to end its testing; with Chrysler’s concurrence, it was assigned the identical Dodge Aspen’s dynamics score, and the book says so in plain language. And the qualification bar claimed three cars: the Buick LeSabre and Chevrolet Impala in the full-size class, the Ford Fairmont in the mid-size — all eliminated from bidding, all tested to completion anyway, with the IACP’s introduction noting kindly that the “failing cars” did well in handling and braking and would serve many departments fine.
Then there is the speed. The Plymouth Gran Fury 360 ran 124.6 mph — the fastest figure any car would post in this archive until the Mustang arrived in 1983 — and its R-body twin, the Dodge St. Regis, ran 122.7. Both Mopars lapped the pursuit course faster than everything else, cleared every gate, and finished one-two in the scoring. The Gran Fury took the year outright: highest total score, lowest bid, lowest adjusted bid. Michigan bought it.
Full-size class
| Car | Engine | 0–60 (s) | ¼-mile (s @ mph) | 0–100 (s) | Top speed (mph) | Miles to 110 mph | Dynamics (s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plymouth Gran Fury | 360-4V, dual exhaust | 11.31 | 18.15 @ 76.75 | 35.45 | 124.6 | 0.92 | 90.84 |
| Dodge St. Regis | 360-4V, dual exhaust | 11.53 | 18.40 @ 77.50 | 36.70 | 122.7 | 0.90 | 91.10 |
| Ford LTD-S | 351W H.O.-VV, dual exhaust | 11.54 | 18.50 @ 77.75 | 37.33 | 120.5 | 0.95 | 92.18 |
| Chevrolet Impala † | 350-4V | 12.96 | 19.08 @ 73.25 | 46.17 | 110.4 | 1.38 | 92.85 |
| Buick LeSabre † | 350-4V | 13.45 | 19.50 @ 74.33 | 49.38 | 113.1 | 1.39 | 96.24 |
Gold row: the year’s winner — highest total score and lowest adjusted bid. The Impala cleared 0–60 but missed the 23.0-second 0–80 gate by eight tenths and the 43.0-second 0–100 gate by more than three seconds; the LeSabre missed all three. Both GM 350s needed a mile and four tenths to reach 110 mph — the Mopar 360s did it in nine tenths.
Mid-size class
| Car | Engine | 0–60 (s) | ¼-mile (s @ mph) | 0–90 (s) | Top speed (mph) | Miles to 100 mph | Dynamics (s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plymouth Volare | 318-4V | 12.62 | 19.33 @ 74.75 | 29.39 | 120.0 | 0.67 | 96.20 ‡ |
| Chevrolet Malibu | 305-4V | 12.81 | 19.20 @ 73.50 | 33.44 | 113.4 | 0.75 | 93.32 |
| Dodge Aspen | 318-4V | 13.25 | 19.55 @ 73.25 | 32.29 | 117.3 | 0.71 | 96.20 |
| Ford Fairmont † | 255-2V | 15.93 | 20.65 @ 68.50 | 49.13 | 111.6 | 1.15 | 95.67 |
Gold row: the year’s winner on adjusted bid — see the scoring section for how a car that was outscored still won the contract. The Volare’s 120.0 mph was the fastest qualifying mid-size speed of the year — quicker on top than every full-size car except the two Mopar 360s; the Fairmont missed the 0–60 gate by 1.4 seconds and needed 49 seconds to reach 90.
Tested at the manufacturers’ request
| Car | Engine | 0–60 (s) | ¼-mile (s @ mph) | 0–90 (s) | Top speed (mph) | Miles to 100 mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dodge Aspen | 360-4V | 10.96 | 17.95 @ 77.50 | 25.72 | 122.2 | 0.58 |
| Chevrolet Malibu | 350-4V | 12.33 | 19.00 @ 74.25 | 31.89 | 110.8 | 0.77 |
The quickest car of the entire 1980 test was one Michigan wasn’t allowed to buy: the 360 Aspen reached 60 in under eleven seconds, 90 in 25.7, and 122 mph — a police package Chrysler built, tested and could not bid under the mid-size specification’s engine limit.
Brakes, fuel economy, ergonomics — and the radio installers’ verdict
| Car | 60–0 Phase I (ft) | 60–0 Phase II (ft) | Avg decel (ft/s²) | EPA urban (mpg) | Ergonomics (pts) | Communications (pts) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-size (heat-ups from 90 mph) | ||||||
| Chevrolet Impala | 163.3 | 169.0 | 23.70 | 14 | 171.19 | 113 |
| Dodge St. Regis | 163.5 | 171.1 | 23.47 | 11 | 180.05 | 112 |
| Buick LeSabre | 175.5 | 168.0 | 22.68 | 15 | 150.20 | 105 |
| Plymouth Gran Fury | 172.2 | 182.5 | 22.48 | 11 | 180.05 | 110 |
| Ford LTD-S | 187.9 | 171.4 | 22.00 | 14* | 157.21 | 81 |
| Mid-size (heat-ups from 80 mph) | ||||||
| Ford Fairmont | 169.1 | 158.1 | 24.21 | 18 | 144.79 | 83 |
| Chevrolet Malibu 305 | 154.6 | 164.1 | 24.13 | 17 | 152.43 | 108 |
| Plymouth Volare | 164.5 | 167.8 | 23.93 | 16* | 189.59 | 96 |
| Dodge Aspen 318 | 172.7 | 177.3 | 22.28 | 16* | 189.59 | 96 |
| Chevrolet Malibu 350 | 163.7 | 156.1 | 24.68 | 13 | — | — |
| Dodge Aspen 360 | 173.4 | 161.7 | 23.34 | 14 | — | — |
The St. Regis and Gran Fury ergonomics totals are identical, as are the Aspen’s and Volare’s — shared bodies, a pattern this archive will see again with their M-body successors. The communications category produced the year’s bluntest verdict: the radio installers scored the LTD-S at 81 of a possible sheet full of tens — its under-dash fuse access rated 4 out of 10, and fitting a second trunk radio a 3 — while the Impala took the top mark at 113.
The scoring and the money — both classes, start to finish
The 1980 weighting: 25% vehicle dynamics, 25% fuel economy, 15% top speed, 10% acceleration, 10% brakes, 10% ergonomics — and 5% for communications, its own category in this era. Scores are weighted Z-statistics summed per car; each car’s total then converts to dollars at 5% of the class’s median bid per point, added to or subtracted from its actual bid. The disqualified cars were not scored. What the money tables show is the system doing precisely what it was designed to do — twice, with opposite outcomes.
| Car | Total weighted score | Actual bid | Adjustment | Adjusted bid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plymouth Gran Fury | +0.409 | $6,536.48 | −$134.29 | $6,402.19 |
| Dodge St. Regis | +0.227 | $6,572.80 | −$74.70 | $6,498.10 |
| Ford LTD-S | −0.636 | $6,905.85 | +$208.99 | $7,114.84 |
| Car | Total weighted score | Actual bid | Adjustment | Adjusted bid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plymouth Volare | +0.048 | $5,802.51 | −$14.39 | $5,788.12 |
| Chevrolet Malibu 305 | +0.423 | $6,235.48 | −$126.22 | $6,109.26 |
| Dodge Aspen | −0.471 | $5,969.33 | +$140.61 | $6,109.94 |
In the full-size class, the best car was also the cheapest: the Gran Fury won the score and the bid outright. In the mid-size class the system cut the other way — the Malibu outscored the Volare by a wide margin, earned a $126 credit for it, and still lost by $321, because the Volare came in $433 cheaper before adjustment. A crashed car with a borrowed dynamics score won a state contract, fair and square, by the book’s own math.
What Michigan ordered
The September 1979 specifications (Mich. 3905-0010 full-size, wheelbase 114.4–119.9 inches; 3905-0010a mid-size) are the earliest in this archive, and several details differ from what came later. The battery requirement split by class — 465 cold-cranking amps full-size, 455 mid-size. Every car came with five keys, keyed alike per car (later specs said four). The transmission had to be a three-speed automatic, heaviest duty available, with a low-gear lockout to prevent manual shifting — the overdrive era hadn’t arrived. Four-wheel disc brakes were “preferred, if available”; nobody offered them.
The rest is the familiar liturgy taking shape: the ⅛-inch by 10-inch steel roof plate welded under the roof panel, drilled 19 inches back and pre-wired with one #12 and two #16 stranded wires running 48 inches past the corner-post base; Unity #225-6 spotlights with 4537-2 aircraft landing lamps, individually fused; an 80-amp alternator with 45 at idle; maximum cooling with coolant recovery; heavy rubber mats front, rear and trunk; armrest ash trays deleted or inoperable; blue cloth (all-vinyl not acceptable); quartz-halogen high beams; a ±3% speedometer reading 0–120 in 2-mph steps; paint to Dulux 93-032 on Goodyear rayon police radials — P225/70R15 full-size, P205/70R14 mid-size, Michigan spec 5260-S1. Test cars were due in East Lansing by 5:00 PM on 16 October 1979 and returned by 1 December, damage at the maker’s risk. See how to identify a genuine police package car and the police package option codes guide.
What 1980 settled
This is the R-body’s page. The Gran Fury and St. Regis went one-two in score, ran 124.6 and 122.7 mph — figures nothing in this archive would touch for three years — and the Gran Fury swept score, bid and contract. Worth remembering when you meet the 1980 St. Regis elsewhere on this site wearing its reputation as a malaise-era punchline: the federal-spec car Michigan tested was, by the numbers, one of the two best police sedans in America. The California story — a different engine package tested in a different state’s program — is a different book.
The rest of the year reads like a preview of the decade: both GM full-size 350s disqualified at the gates, the bid-adjustment system proving it could both reward the best car and let a cheaper honest car beat a better score, and the fastest machine of the test — a 360 Aspen — barred from bidding by the specification’s own engine limit. Michigan’s math had rules, and it followed them even when they produced strange winners.