Michigan test archive
2017 Michigan State Police Patrol Vehicle Test
The Impala vanishes, a Charger reaches 149 mph in a tenth of the distance it needed last year, and a tuned Harley runs to 100 mph six seconds quicker than the standard one.
Thirteen vehicles and six motorcycles, and the first thing to notice is an absence. There is no Impala. The nameplate had appeared in every Michigan test since 2000, when it arrived as the Caprice’s replacement, and in 2017 it simply isn’t there. Ford also quietly reclassified its four-cylinder car: the 2.0 EcoBoost is no longer a Police Interceptor but a Special Service Package sedan.
The most revealing change is in the column Michigan introduced only a year earlier — the distance at which each vehicle reaches its top speed. In 2016 the rear-drive HEMI Charger needed 13.28 miles to arrive at 150 mph. In 2017 the same car reached 149 mph after 1.45 miles. The Caprice 6.0 went from 6.62 miles to 3.21. Those are not engine changes. Those are speed limiters, and the new column makes them visible in a way no top-speed figure ever could.
Two records fell, both on the brakes. The Can-Am Spyder F3P averaged 32.57 ft/s² across twenty stops — the highest deceleration rate ever recorded in these tests, beating its own 2016 figure, and a computed 60-to-0 distance of about 118.9 feet. Among the cars, the rear-drive HEMI Charger managed 31.44 ft/s², about 123.2 feet, the best figure any car had posted to that point. The 2026 Mustang Mach-E GT has since stopped in 122.45 feet at 31.62 ft/s².
The police category
| Vehicle | 0–60 (s) | 0–100 (s) | Top speed | Top speed at | ¼ mile | Dynamics | Brakes (ft/s²) | 60–0 (ft) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ford PI Sedan EcoBoost AWD 3.5L | 5.70 | 13.62 | 148 | 1.23 mi | 14.17 @ 101.95 | 1:35.34 | 29.62 | 130.7 |
| Dodge Charger 5.7L (3.08 AWD) | 6.05 | 15.26 | 149 | 1.42 mi | 14.60 @ 97.69 | 1:36.53 | 30.51 | 126.9 |
| Chevrolet Caprice 6.0L RWD | 6.11 | 14.40 | 155 | 3.21 mi | 14.58 @ 100.61 | 1:37.58 | 30.47 | 127.1 |
| Dodge Charger 5.7L (2.62 RWD) | 6.17 | 15.22 | 149 | 1.45 mi | 14.61 @ 97.93 | 1:37.12 | 31.44 | 123.2 |
| Ford PI Utility EcoBoost AWD 3.5L | 6.40 | 16.00 | 131 | 0.92 mi | 14.86 @ 96.41 | 1:38.53 | 30.33 | 127.7 |
| Ford PI Sedan AWD 3.7L | 7.43 | 18.56 | 131 | 1.20 mi | 15.63 @ 92.25 | 1:38.01 | 29.76 | 130.1 |
| Ford PI Sedan FWD 3.5L | 7.78 | 19.70 | 131 | 1.66 mi | 16.03 @ 91.38 | 1:38.82 | 30.44 | 127.2 |
| Chevrolet Caprice 3.6L RWD | 7.91 | 19.29 | 147 | 9.91 mi | 16.06 @ 90.68 | 1:39.76 | 30.39 | 127.4 |
| Chevrolet Tahoe 5.3L RWD | 7.97 | 19.76 | 132 | 1.30 mi | 16.35 @ 90.46 | 1:39.75 | 28.12 | 137.7 |
| Ford PI Utility AWD 3.7L | 7.99 | 20.63 | 131 | 2.23 mi | 16.05 @ 89.37 | 1:40.93 | 30.46 | 127.1 |
| Dodge Charger 3.6L (2.62 RWD) | 8.06 | 20.23 | 141 | 1.66 mi | 16.23 @ 91.87 | 1:38.27 | 30.95 | 125.1 |
| Chevrolet Tahoe 5.3L 4WD | 8.08 | 20.39 | 121 | 0.88 mi | 16.42 @ 89.34 | 1:40.60 | 28.62 | 135.3 |
| Ford SSP Sedan 2.0L EcoBoost FWD | 8.26 | 22.17 | 120 | 1.03 mi | 16.39 @ 87.38 | 1:43.05 | 30.03 | 129.0 |
Gold row: the EcoBoost sedan takes the quickest 0–60, the quickest 0–100, the highest trap speed and the fastest lap — its 1:35.34 is the best car lap on any page since the 2014 AWD Charger. The Caprice keeps the top-speed column at 155 mph for the third time.
Read the “top speed at” column against 2016 and the year’s real story appears. Last year four vehicles needed more than six miles to reach their maximum, and one needed 13.28. This year only one vehicle takes longer than 3.21 miles — the 3.6-litre Caprice, at 9.91. Everything else arrives inside two and a quarter miles because everything else is now governed. The one car still running out to ten miles for its top speed is also the one whose figure has barely moved in three years.
On braking the Dodges hold their advantage but the gap has narrowed sharply: eleven of the thirteen vehicles now stop within seven feet of each other, between 123.2 and 130.7. The two exceptions are both Tahoes, at 135.3 and 137.7 feet — the only vehicles in the test above 131.
The motorcycles
| Machine | 0–60 (s) | 0–100 (s) | Top speed | Top speed at | Dynamics | Brakes (ft/s²) | 60–0 (ft) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMW R 1200 RT-P | 4.31 | 9.85 | 136 | 4.63 mi | 1:39.14 | 28.55 | 135.6 |
| Harley-Davidson Electra Glide FLHTP Stage 3 | 4.43 | 11.94 | 110 | 4.36 mi | 1:48.19 | 28.28 | 136.9 |
| Harley-Davidson Electra Glide FLHTP | 5.38 | 18.44 | 109 | 4.28 mi | 1:49.50 | 28.68 | 135.0 |
| Harley-Davidson Road King FLHP | 5.42 | 17.83 | 112 | 4.25 mi | 1:50.38 | 28.16 | 137.5 |
| Can-Am Spyder F3P | 5.76 | 16.55 | 120 | 8.87 mi | 1:57.73 | 32.57 | 118.9 |
| Zero DSRP (electric) | — | — | — | — | 1:46.40 | 27.14 | 142.7 |
The Electra Glide Stage 3 is the year’s surprise. Against the standard Electra Glide tested beside it, the tuned machine is nearly a second quicker to 60 (4.43 against 5.38) and six and a half seconds quicker to 100 (11.94 against 18.44) — close enough to the BMW’s 4.31 to make a fight of it, from a Harley-Davidson that had spent a decade being the slowest thing in the motorcycle section.
The Can-Am’s 32.57 ft/s² is the highest deceleration rate in the history of these tests. It is also, at 1:57.73, more than eighteen seconds a lap slower than the BMW and nearly ten seconds slower than the electric Zero. And the Zero DSRP lapped in 1:46.40 — quicker than all three Harleys and the Can-Am, on a machine that cannot be refuelled from a can.
Ergonomics and communications
| Vehicle | Ergonomics & communications | City mpg |
|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet Tahoe | 340.76 | 16 |
| Dodge Charger | 325.95 | 17 (3.6) / 15 (5.7) |
| Ford Police Interceptor Utility | 313.05 | 15 |
| Ford Police Interceptor sedan | 291.39 | 17 (3.5 FWD) / 16 (3.7 AWD) / 15 (EcoBoost) |
| Chevrolet Caprice | 289.74 | 18 (3.6) / 15 (6.0) |
On the underlying line items the pattern is familiar. The Tahoe takes 9.50 for headroom, 9.10 for ease of entry and exit and 9.10 for seat adjustability; the Ford sedan takes 5.90 for rear-seat entry and exit and 6.30 for rear legroom, the worst two figures on the page, as it has every year since 2013. The Ford SSP four-cylinder sedan returns 19 mpg city, still the best in the test by a full mile per gallon.
What 2017 settled
The top-speed column finally stopped meaning anything, and Michigan’s own new measurement is what proved it. A car that needed thirteen miles to reach 150 mph in 2016 reached 149 in a mile and a half in 2017 — same engine, same body, same proving ground. Nothing about the vehicle got faster; a number in its software changed. Any figure in the top-speed column now describes a decision rather than a capability, and the only car still running nearly ten miles to find its maximum is the one nobody had bothered to govern.
The braking column, meanwhile, went the other way and became the most interesting one on the page. Eleven of thirteen vehicles stopped within seven feet of each other, a rear-drive Charger set a car record at 123.2 feet that stood until 2026, and a three-wheeler set an all-time record at 118.9. Forty years ago Michigan measured the difference between police cars in top speed. By 2017 it was measuring it in feet.