Michigan test archive

2007 Michigan State Police Patrol Vehicle Test

Nineteen vehicles, and for the first time three of them have two wheels — one of which is quicker than anything the programme has ever timed.

The police category

Every vehicle on this page had a speed limiter fitted. The report states it for the whole field in its General Information section, printed page 2: “All vehicles listed in this report were equipped with electronic speed limiters.”

Unqualified, as it is in every document held here from 2003 to 2014 (the 2003, 2004 and 2005 bulletins and the 2005, 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2013 books). No exceptions, no motorcycle clause — every vehicle in the table above had a limiter fitted, so any top speed in it may be a setting rather than what the vehicle could do.

Gold row: fastest car of the test at 148 mph, though the two HEMIs finished the road course four hundredths apart — 1:37.65 for the Magnum against 1:37.69 for the Charger, with the wagon nominally ahead.

The braking order is unchanged from 2006 and just as stark: all four Dodges under 133 feet, the Magnum 3.5 shortest at 129.9, and every Ford and Chevrolet sedan above 140. What has changed is the Tahoe. The police-package PPV now stops in 138.2 feet and runs 136 mph — faster than either Police Interceptor, and a twelve-mile-an-hour jump on its own 2006 figure of 124.

And note the 3.55-geared Interceptor: 119 mph, the slowest top speed of any police-category vehicle here, including both sport utilities.

The motorcycles

Gold row, and it is the most emphatic result in this archive. The BMW’s 12.85-second quarter mile at 109.5 mph is the quickest and fastest quarter Michigan had recorded to that point from anything, on any number of wheels — the previous bests were the 2002 Camaro’s 14.14 seconds and the 2001 six-speed Camaro’s 103.48 mph, and the 2015 BMW later ran 12.51 at 116.08. Its 10.55-second run to 100 mph is nearly six seconds quicker than the HEMI Charger’s.

One oddity is printed as found: the Road King reaches 60 mph a full second before the Electra Glide but takes 2.80 seconds longer to reach 100 — 20.35 against 17.55 — despite finishing with a higher top speed. The two machines share an engine, and the report offers no explanation.

The special-service vehicles

Two firsts sit in this table. The Ford Escape Hybrid is the first hybrid vehicle in this archive, and it did something none of the trucks managed — it stopped in 139.3 feet, better than every other special-service vehicle and better than both Police Interceptors in the police category. The F-250 Super Crew is the first pickup since the 2005 Silverado 2500 HD, and it took 12.76 seconds to reach 60 mph.

The four-wheel-drive Tahoe is the only vehicle anywhere in the 2007 test to answer yes to the severe fading question — as the special-service 4WD Tahoe had in 2005 (when the special-service Explorer also answered yes), while its police-package PPV sibling showed no fade in either year.

Ergonomics, communications and fuel

The motorcycle top speeds on this page were measured over a shorter run-up than the cars’. The book sets the car objective as the top speed “attainable within 14 miles from a standing start” and the motorcycle objective as the top speed “attainable within a distance of 10 miles from a standing start” — two different distances in the same volume. 2007 is the first year of motorcycle testing and it starts as it means to go on; 2009 does the same, and by 2015 both are 14 miles. So a motorcycle figure from these early years and a car figure from the same book are not measured the same way, and the bikes had four fewer miles to reach their number.

The F-250’s 147.98 is among the lowest points totals in these books (the 2018 and later books print averages): only the 1996 Geo Tracker (132.16), the 1989 Mustang (144.40), the 2001 Hummer (144.43), the 1980 Fairmont (144.79), the 1991 Camaros (146.03) and the 1986 Mustang (147.90) scored lower, though totals depend on how many items each book graded, and the 1980 one has no communications items. Four of its line items are scored 0.00 — bucket seat design, power window switch, automatic door lock switch and outside mirror controls. The 1996 Tracker’s three blank items, by contrast, are printed as dashes. Its bucket-seat depth scored 2.60.

One change from the previous year is worth recording. In 2006 the E85 Tahoe was rated 11.0 mpg city and the petrol Tahoe PPV 14.6. For 2007 both Tahoes are rated 15.6, with no E85 penalty shown at all. Whether that reflects a change in the vehicle or in how the figure was reported, the book does not say.