Michigan test archive
1997 Michigan State Police Patrol Vehicle Test
The first test with no Caprice in it — and the year the sport utility walked into the police package.
Read the vehicle list before you read a single number, because the list is the story. Eleven vehicles ran at Michigan International Speedway from September 21 to 23, 1996, and the car that had won or nearly won every year since the middle eighties simply wasn’t among them. The Caprice was gone — Chevrolet had closed the B-body line — and nothing replaced it. What arrived instead was a Chevrolet Tahoe, entered as a police package vehicle rather than a special service one, alongside a Crown Victoria that ran on compressed natural gas and a Volvo 850 Turbo. Of eleven vehicles, five were sport utilities.
The numbers then delivered the year’s real verdict. Michigan’s acceleration bar stood at 10.0, 17.2 and 28.2 seconds. The Ford Crown Victoria — the only conventional full-size police sedan in the entire test, and the car American policing was about to spend fifteen years buying — reached 60 mph in 10.05 seconds. It missed the gate by five hundredths of a second, then missed the other two as well. On the acceleration standard Michigan set for a patrol car in 1997, the only vehicles that cleared every gate were two Camaros and a Swedish turbocharged station-wagon-shaped sedan.
The Volvo deserves its own line. It reached 60 in 8.02 seconds, 100 in 20.64, ran 145 mph and lapped in 1:23.41 — quicker around the course than the Crown Victoria, the Tahoe and every Jeep and Explorer in the field. A 2.3-litre turbocharged Volvo had just out-run every American police sedan Michigan could find.
The police package vehicles
| Vehicle | Engine | 0–60 (s) | 0–100 (s) | Top speed (mph) | Dynamics | Brakes (ft/s²) | 60–0 (ft) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ford Crown Victoria | 4.6L PFI | 10.05 | 28.99 | 129 | 1:25.97 | 28.42 | 136.2 |
| Volvo 850 Turbo | 2.3L PFI | 8.02 | 20.64 | 145 | 1:23.41 | 27.26 | 142.0 |
| Chevrolet Tahoe (2WD) | 5.7L SFI | 9.42 | 28.90 | 121 | 1:26.25 | 23.99 | 161.4 |
| Chevrolet Lumina | 3.1L SFI | 11.09 | 36.11 | 113 | 1:30.06 | 24.96 | 155.1 |
| Ford Crown Victoria (CNG) | 4.6L PFI | 12.51 | 37.70 | 107 | 1:29.44 | 25.45 | 152.1 |
Gold row: the only police package vehicle to clear all three acceleration gates. The Crown Victoria missed 0–60 by 0.05 seconds, 0–80 by 0.43 and 0–100 by 0.79. The Tahoe cleared 60 and 80 and then missed 100 by 0.70. Two vehicles also fell below the 25.0 ft/s² braking floor, set in the 1996 book — the Tahoe at 23.99, and the Lumina at 24.96, four hundredths short. Note the Crown Victoria’s braking, though: 28.42 ft/s² and a computed 136.2-foot stop, the best figures in the entire eleven-vehicle field.
The special service vehicles
| Vehicle | Engine | 0–60 (s) | 0–100 (s) | Top speed (mph) | Dynamics | Brakes (ft/s²) | 60–0 (ft) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet Camaro (6-speed) | 5.7L SFI | 6.51 | 16.33 | 157 | 1:20.36 | ‡ | ‡ |
| Chevrolet Camaro (automatic) | 5.7L SFI | 6.40 | 16.21 | 156 | 1:19.75 | 28.18 | 137.4 |
| Jeep Cherokee (2WD) | 4.0L PFI | 9.50 | 31.37 | 111 | 1:24.84 | 27.21 | 142.3 |
| Jeep Cherokee (4WD) | 4.0L PFI | 9.88 | 35.53 | 111 | 1:25.95 | 26.02 | 148.8 |
| Ford Explorer 5.0 (4WD) | 5.0L PFI | 10.60 | 43.13 | 113 | 1:29.35 | 25.63 | 151.1 |
| Ford Explorer 4.0 (4WD) | 4.0L PFI | 9.40 | 30.15 | 106 | 1:29.46 | 24.23 | 159.8 |
Gold row: 157 mph — two miles an hour down on the 1996 automatic’s 159, and the only year in the books held in which the 6-speed out-ran the automatic on top speed. The automatic lapped quicker, at 1:19.75; the 1995 car’s 1:19.20 and the 1996 car’s 1:19.21 were both faster still. And note the two Explorers — the 4.0 was quicker to 60 and to 100 than the 5.0, yet the 5.0 pulled seven miles an hour higher on top. That is how the bulletin prints it.
Complete acceleration data — every 10-mph increment, all eleven vehicles
| 0 to… | Camaro auto | Camaro 6-spd | Lumina | Tahoe 2WD | Cherokee 2WD | Cherokee 4WD | Crown Vic | Crown Vic CNG | Explorer 5.0 | Explorer 4.0 | Volvo 850T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 mph | 1.56 | 1.75 | 2.21 | 1.85 | 2.00 | 1.98 | 2.08 | 2.81 | 2.20 | 1.96 | 2.04 |
| 30 mph | 2.51 | 2.63 | 3.69 | 3.13 | 3.35 | 3.35 | 3.51 | 4.81 | 3.69 | 3.39 | 3.16 |
| 40 mph | 3.57 | 3.68 | 5.44 | 4.85 | 4.83 | 4.91 | 5.36 | 6.83 | 5.48 | 5.03 | 4.37 |
| 50 mph | 4.80 | 5.01 | 8.08 | 6.79 | 7.06 | 7.23 | 7.48 | 9.26 | 7.89 | 6.96 | 6.02 |
| 60 mph | 6.40 | 6.51 | 11.09 | 9.42 | 9.50 | 9.88 | 10.05 | 12.51 | 10.60 | 9.40 | 8.02 |
| 70 mph | 8.15 | 8.58 | 14.69 | 12.74 | 12.49 | 13.16 | 13.20 | 16.36 | 14.17 | 12.52 | 10.06 |
| 80 mph | 10.26 | 10.70 | 19.74 | 16.54 | 17.45 | 18.59 | 17.63 | 20.82 | 19.33 | 16.25 | 12.88 |
| 90 mph | 13.09 | 13.31 | 26.95 | 21.29 | 23.28 | 24.48 | 22.66 | 27.58 | 25.65 | 22.32 | 16.59 |
| 100 mph | 16.21 | 16.33 | 36.11 | 28.90 | 31.37 | 35.53 | 28.99 | 37.70 | 43.13 | 30.15 | 20.64 |
| Top speed | 156 | 157 | 113 | 121 | 111 | 111 | 129 | 107 | 113 | 106 | 145 |
The natural-gas Crown Victoria’s ladder is the one to read slowly. It needed 2.81 seconds just to reach 20 mph — the slowest first increment of any vehicle in the test, including two-ton sport utilities — and it never recovered, finishing 2.46 seconds behind its gasoline twin at 60 and 8.71 behind at 100, with a top speed 22 mph lower.
Complete braking data — both phases, ten vehicles
| Vehicle | Phase I speed | Phase I distance (ft) | Phase I rate | Phase II speed | Phase II distance (ft) | Phase II rate | Average rate | 60–0 computed (ft) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet Camaro (auto) | 60.00 | 136.40 | 28.39 | 59.40 | 135.70 | 27.97 | 28.18 | 137.4 |
| Chevrolet Lumina | 60.70 | 160.00 | 24.77 | 60.90 | 158.70 | 25.14 | 24.96 | 155.1 |
| Chevrolet Tahoe (2WD) | 60.20 | 163.60 | 23.84 | 60.70 | 164.20 | 24.14 | 23.99 | 161.4 |
| Jeep Cherokee (2WD) | 60.30 | 142.50 | 27.45 | 60.10 | 144.10 | 26.96 | 27.21 | 142.3 |
| Jeep Cherokee (4WD) | 60.20 | 146.50 | 26.61 | 59.70 | 150.80 | 25.42 | 26.02 | 148.8 |
| Ford Crown Victoria | 60.80 | 139.20 | 28.56 | 60.10 | 137.40 | 28.28 | 28.42 | 136.2 |
| Ford Crown Victoria (CNG) | 60.30 | 151.80 | 25.76 | 60.60 | 157.20 | 25.13 | 25.45 | 152.1 |
| Ford Explorer 5.0 (4WD) | 60.50 | 155.10 | 25.38 | 60.30 | 151.10 | 25.88 | 25.63 | 151.1 |
| Ford Explorer 4.0 (4WD) | 60.30 | 163.20 | 23.96 | 60.30 | 159.60 | 24.50 | 24.23 | 159.8 |
| Volvo 850 Turbo | 60.40 | 144.60 | 27.14 | 60.40 | 143.30 | 27.38 | 27.26 | 142.0 |
Gold row: best braking in the test. The Crown Victoria is the only vehicle here that stopped harder in its second run than most cars managed in their first, and its 136.2-foot computed stop beat the Camaro’s. Nothing in the field came close to the 1993 Camaro’s 127.6 feet, which still stands as the archive’s shortest.
Ergonomics, communications and fuel
| Vehicle | Ergonomics & communications | EPA city (mpg) |
|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet Tahoe | 218.16 | 13.5 |
| Ford Explorer | 193.37 | 13.5 (5.0) / 15.1 (4.0) |
| Ford Crown Victoria | 190.56 | 16.2 |
| Ford Crown Victoria (CNG) | 187.53 | 17.3 |
| Chevrolet Lumina | 184.03 | 19.6 |
| Jeep Cherokee | 181.89 | 15.5 (2WD) / 14.9 (4WD) |
| Volvo 850 Turbo | 162.91 | 19.2 |
| Chevrolet Camaro | 157.67 | 17.0 (auto) / 16.4 (6-speed) |
Here is the argument the sport utility was about to win. The Tahoe scored 218.16 for the officers who had to sit in it and the technicians who had to wire it — twenty-eight points clear of the Crown Victoria and the best result in the test by a wide margin. It couldn’t reach 100 mph inside the bar and it had the worst brakes in the field, and none of that mattered as much as the room. Meanwhile the Volvo, so quick on the track, finished second-to-last with the people who had to fit a radio into it.
What the bulletin doesn’t hold
This page is built from the NIJ/NLECTC bulletin of October 1996 — the four-page synopsis. The full 1997 report holds the per-lap dynamics data, the vehicle photographs and specifications, the final weighted scoring, the year’s winner, and the bid prices and adjusted bids. Those will be added here from an original copy of the book.
One internal contradiction is worth recording, because it belongs to the source and not to me: the bulletin’s stated methodology says each vehicle’s dynamics score is the average of its fastest 9 laps of at least 12 timed, while the footnote beneath the results table says the figures are averages of the fastest 12. Both sentences appear on the same page. The full report should settle which applies.
What 1997 settled
The police sedan lost its bench. For a decade Michigan’s tables had been an argument between big American sedans, with the pony cars off to one side as specialists. In 1997 the argument had no participants: one Caprice-shaped hole, one Crown Victoria that couldn’t clear the acceleration bar, one compact front-driver, one natural-gas experiment that took nearly three seconds to reach 20 mph, and a Volvo that beat all of them. Everything else in the test was a truck.
And the trucks were making a serious case. The Tahoe couldn’t hit 100 inside the bar and stopped worse than anything else in the field, then went out and scored 218.16 on ergonomics and communications — the highest mark of the test, by the officers who would live in it and the technicians who would build it. Michigan’s tables had spent twenty years measuring how fast a police car could go. The vehicle that won the part of the test about doing the job was a sport utility that couldn’t keep up.