Michigan test archive
2011 Michigan State Police Patrol Vehicle Test
The Caprice comes back after fifteen years and beats everything — and a Kawasaki rewrites the fastest number in the archive.
Two names return to these tables in 2011, and both of them win something.
The first is a Chevrolet Caprice. The nameplate had not appeared in a Michigan test since 1996, when the last B-body ran 139 mph and the line closed. The car that carries it now is a rear-drive 6.0-litre 9C1, and it was the fastest, quickest and best-braking vehicle of the year: 6.18 seconds to 60, 14.77 to 100, 148 mph, and a computed 128.3-foot stop from 60. It beat the HEMI Charger on every one of those measures. Its 128.3 feet is the second-shortest stopping distance in this entire archive, seven tenths of a foot off the 1993 Camaro’s record.
The second is a police motorcycle nobody had tested before: a Kawasaki Concours 14 ABS Police. It ran the quarter mile in 12.66 seconds at 112.17 mph — the quickest and fastest quarter ever recorded in these tests, beating the BMW’s 12.74 at 108.27 — and reached 100 mph in 9.70 seconds, the only vehicle of any kind in this archive to break ten seconds to 100.
The field also grew for the first time since 2008: ten cars against eight, with the Caprice arriving in petrol and E85 forms. The special-service category remained empty for a third year.
The police category
| Vehicle | 0–60 (s) | 0–100 (s) | Top speed | 110 mph in | ¼ mile | Brakes (ft/s²) | 60–0 (ft) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet Caprice 9C1 6.0L (E85) | 6.15 | 14.58 | 148 | 0.34 mi | 14.64 @ 100.26 | ‡ | ‡ |
| Chevrolet Caprice 9C1 6.0L | 6.18 | 14.77 | 148 | 0.35 mi | 14.71 @ 99.85 | 30.19 | 128.3 |
| Dodge Charger 5.7L HEMI | 6.24 | 14.99 | 146 | 0.35 mi | 14.67 @ 98.63 | 28.92 | 133.9 |
| Chevrolet Tahoe PPV 2WD (E85) | 8.24 | 21.68 | 139 | 0.56 mi | 16.49 @ 87.82 | ‡ | ‡ |
| Dodge Charger 3.6L | 8.65 | 23.85 | 130 | 0.63 mi | 16.71 @ 86.86 | 29.08 | 133.2 |
| Chevrolet Impala 9C1 3.9L (E85) | 8.68 | 22.94 | 139 | 0.58 mi | 16.60 @ 87.72 | ‡ | ‡ |
| Chevrolet Tahoe PPV 2WD | 8.70 | 22.42 | 139 | 0.58 mi | 16.80 @ 87.07 | 27.42 | 141.2 |
| Chevrolet Impala 9C1 3.9L | 8.78 | 23.74 | 138 | 0.60 mi | 16.46 @ 88.09 | 27.70 | 139.8 |
| Ford Police Interceptor (3.55 axle) | 8.87 | 24.37 | 119 | 0.66 mi | 16.75 @ 84.80 | ‡ | ‡ |
| Ford Police Interceptor (3.27 axle) | 9.01 | 24.40 | 129 | 0.64 mi | 16.82 @ 85.78 | 27.35 | 141.6 |
Gold rows: both Caprices. They are separated by three hundredths of a second to 60 mph and share a 148 mph top speed — and the E85 car is fractionally the quicker of the two, continuing a pattern the Tahoes have shown since 2008. The Caprice’s 30.19 ft/s² is the highest deceleration rate recorded by a police sedan in this archive.
Read the two Fords at the bottom of the table against the Caprice at the top. The 3.55-geared Police Interceptor ran 119 mph — slower on top than both Impalas, both Tahoes and both Caprices, and slower than the V6 Charger. It needed 24.37 seconds to reach 100 where the Caprice needed 14.58. The Panther-platform car had been the American default for a decade, and in its last years it was the slowest thing in the test.
The Tahoe’s top speed also jumped, from 133 mph in 2010 to 139 — matching the E85 Impala and a mile an hour up on the petrol car and beating both Interceptors by ten miles an hour. A pursuit-rated sport utility was now faster than the police sedan most of America was still buying.
What happened to the Caprice at Grattan
The petrol Caprice’s lap times come with a caveat the book states plainly on its page two. Drivers reported a floating sensation at speed and a vibration under braking, and the third acceleration series was aborted when the car lost power. It was re-run at the end of the day. After the test General Motors stripped the car and found an internal failure in a prototype front strut, along with worn cradle bushings. Michigan re-evaluated the vehicle at Grattan on 7 October and let the original times stand as the official result.
It is worth knowing before reading the Caprice’s figures as a clean win. The car that set them was not healthy.
Vehicle dynamics
| Vehicle | Overall average |
|---|---|
| Chevrolet Caprice 9C1 6.0L (E85) | 1:37.02 |
| Chevrolet Caprice 9C1 6.0L | 1:37.35 |
| Dodge Charger 5.7L HEMI | 1:38.47 |
| Dodge Charger 3.6L | 1:38.49 |
| Ford Police Interceptor 3.55 4.6L | 1:40.57 |
| Ford Police Interceptor 3.27 4.6L | 1:41.18 |
| Chevrolet Impala 9C1 3.9L (E85) | 1:42.10 |
| Chevrolet Tahoe PPV 2WD (E85) | 1:42.46 |
| Chevrolet Impala 9C1 3.9L | 1:42.78 |
| Chevrolet Tahoe PPV 2WD | 1:43.14 † |
Gold row: the E85 Caprice took the fastest lap of the year at 1:37.02, three tenths ahead of the petrol car. Both Caprices lapped quicker than either Charger, and the quicker of the two Police Interceptors was four seconds off the pace.
† The Tahoe PPV’s block prints its overall average without the “Overall Average” row label the other nine carry. The value is in the book; only the label is missing.
The motorcycles
| Machine | 0–60 (s) | 0–100 (s) | Top speed | ¼ mile | Dynamics | Brakes (ft/s²) | 60–0 (ft) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kawasaki Concours 14 ABS Police | 4.50 | 9.70 | 131 | 12.66 @ 112.17 | 5:41.05 | 27.46 | 141.0 |
| BMW R 1200 RT-P | 4.70 | 11.46 | 127 | 13.21 @ 105.95 | 5:37.18 | 27.10 | 142.9 |
| Harley-Davidson Road King FLHP ‡ | 5.76 | 21.36 | 108 | 14.61 @ 91.02 | 6:08.65 | 26.15 | 148.1 |
| Harley-Davidson Electra Glide FLHTP ‡ | 5.97 | 24.94 | 106 | 14.85 @ 89.28 | 6:07.98 | 25.72 | 150.5 |
Gold row, and it takes two archive records on debut: the quickest quarter mile ever recorded here, 12.66 seconds, and the highest trap speed, 112.17 mph. Its 9.70-second run to 100 mph is the only sub-ten-second figure in thirty-three years of these tests. The BMW’s 4.10 seconds to 60, set in 2008, still stands as the quickest launch.
And then the result that makes the point of a road course. The Kawasaki is quicker than the BMW everywhere in a straight line — and the BMW is nearly four seconds faster around the MSP Precision Driving Unit course, 5:37.18 against 5:41.05. Michigan weights dynamics at 30 points and acceleration at 20 precisely because those two columns disagree.
Ergonomics, communications and fuel
| Vehicle | Ergonomics & communications | City mpg (petrol) | City mpg (E85) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet Tahoe PPV | 219.76 | 15 | 11 |
| Ford Police Interceptor | 212.81 | 14 | — |
| Chevrolet Caprice 9C1 | 203.57 | 14 * | 14 * |
| Dodge Charger | 202.70 | 19 (3.6) / 16 (5.7) | — |
| Chevrolet Impala 9C1 | 195.95 | 17 | 12 |
The Caprice’s line-item scores are the most lopsided on the page and they explain a great deal about the car. Its rear-seat legroom scored 9.22 out of ten — against 4.44 for the Impala and 4.78 for the Charger, and the highest single figure any sedan scores here — the Tahoe’s headroom takes 9.78. Then its dashboard accessibility scored 5.05, the Caprice’s worst mark; the Impala’s rear legroom is lower still at 4.44, because the technicians who had to fit equipment into it could not get at anything. A rear-drive sedan with a proper back seat and nowhere to put a radio.
Note also the Charger’s new 3.6-litre V6 — the Pentastar, replacing the 3.5 — returning 19 mpg city, the best figure of any police sedan in the test, while running 130 mph.
What 2011 settled
Fifteen years after Chevrolet closed the B-body line, a rear-drive Caprice came back and beat everything in the test — quicker to 60 than a HEMI Charger, faster on top than anything else, and stopping in 128.3 feet, a figure only the 1993 Camaro has bettered in the history of this archive. The car it replaced in Michigan’s tables, the front-drive Impala, needed nine seconds more to reach 100 mph.
And the Ford. The Police Interceptor finishes this page last on acceleration, last on top speed with the 3.55 axle at 119 mph, and slower to 100 than a full-size sport utility. It had won the American police market by outlasting everything else rather than by beating it, and by 2011 the outlasting was nearly done. What replaced it would not be a Panther, and it would not be a sedan everyone recognised.