Next year's class of patrol vehicles

Racecar drivers have to endure hours sitting in a vehicle. Their machines zip along over 100 miles per hour, sometimes 200+. A few pit stops and tire changes later a winner stands up and receives a bottle of champagne to shake—not to mention a trophy and cash prize.

They had a lot of prep for the day, but it’s still just one day. In comparison, the Michigan State Police (MSP) Vehicle Evaluation Driving team drove vehicles for a four full work days. And there wasn’t even a celebratory over-pressured bottle of Pepsi at the end.

The 2016 Michigan State Police Vehicle Evaluation program categorizes their tests in four groups: Braking, Dynamics, Acceleration and Top Speed. This year’s events ran from Sept. 15 to 21 and were hosted in various locations throughout Michigan state. They went from utilizing the State Patrol’s driving unit’s training area, the Grattan Raceway in Grattan, and the Chrysler Proving Grounds in Chelsea.

The vehicles

• Chevrolet Caprice 3.6L RWD, 6.0L RWD; Impala 3.6L FWD; Tahoe 5.3L RWD, and 5.3L 4WD
• Dodge Chargers 3.6L 2.62 RWD, 3.6L 3.08 RWD, 5.7L 2.62 RWD, and 5.7L 3.08 AWD
• Ford Interceptors sedan 3.5L FWD, sedan 3.7L AWD, sedan 3.5L Ecoboost AWD, sedan 2.0L Ecoboost FWD; Utility 3.7L AWD, and 3.5L Ecoboost AWD
• BMW R 1200 RT-P
• Can-AM Spyder F3-P
• Harley Davidson FLHTP (Electra Glide), and FLHP (Road King)
• Zero Motorcycles DSP ZF 12.5 ABS

“It was exactly the same tests as we did last year,” says Lt. Ronald Gromak, who has run the event for the past few years now. “Really the only difference, most of the platforms were carry-over from last year with [one] exception…Ford introduced a two-liter Ecoboost sedan.” However, this vehicle wasn’t intentionally designed high-speed pursuit. Gromak explains that Ford put a smaller engine in their Interceptor. Best guess is it will be marketed towards administrative and/or detective work, yet it still ran through evaluation.

“We suggested to [Ford] that because they are using a police platform and police suspension, brakes, tires, wheels…that they test it as a pursuit-rated vehicle,” says Gromak. He adds that it had similar performance to what the Crown Victoria used to have. That said, the message behind submitting a vehicle for tests, he says, “is that the manufacturer is backing the car reliability wise and performance wise, saying that this car is capable of pursuit and emergency driving.” With the large field of pursuit-rated vehicles, MSP has limited testing to those alone. While Special Service Vehicles were evaluated at one time years ago, they’ve since limited vehicles submitted.

Braking: MSP takes a 1.6-mile straightaway with “cold” brakes and proceeds into a two rigorous rounds (or phases) of 10 stops each. This is to “determine the deceleration rate” with ABS brakes. With averaged results, MSP calculates the distance the vehicle will need to reach zero from 60 MPH.

Dynamics: Grattan Raceway is two miles of tight corners, chicanes and straightaways—there’s even a small hill where vehicles tend to “jump.” Every applicable driver takes turns in every vehicle in an eight-lap series; the top five of which are used in the final results. These are averaged per driver, then those are averaged again as an overall time.

Acceleration / Top Speed: Picture the oldest vehicle you have in your patrol fleet. The best days are behind it and it probably isn’t used for catching up to the speed-demons on the highway. MSP starts each vehicle from a full stop, then accelerates as the machine will allow to it’s top speed—during which time sensors report back data on the time it takes to reach various speeds. They determine top speed by running 14 miles around the Chrysler Proving Grounds.

Results

Note: Top performers for each test group and vehicle types (motorcycles, sedans and SUVs) have been highlighted in their respective tables, pages 18 to 19.
Braking: Before we go any further, data from last year’s Can-AM Spyder and this year’s tested F3-P model cannot be compared “apples-to-apples.” The company submitted a prototype to the previous MSP tests and determined an alternative model would better suit law enforcement’s purposes. This new platform features a cruising riding position, a UFit system, vehicle stability system, more torque, lighter weight, improved braking, more powerful LEDs and larger storage with a removable pre-wired box for electronic equipment. Compared to the prototype, overall braking did actually improve. There was slightly less consistency (the F3-P had a 1.61 difference between phases) from the RT, yet the projected stopping distance was the shortest at 122.6 feet. However, it ended up being the most inconsistent in braking of the entire tested fleet as well.

If consistency is key, take a look at the Ford Interceptors sedan 3.5L Ecoboost AWD and the Utility 3.7L AWD—both had a difference of 0.07 in their average deceleration rate from the two phases. Impressively, all vehicles, including motorcycles and SUVs, had a less than 1.0 difference between phase one and two. Clearly today’s law enforcement vehicle manufacturers hold stopping power a high priority.

Acceleration / Top Speed: Lt. Gromak places top speed way down on importance. “Unless you’re in Montana and you have vast stretches of freeway to get through,” he says. The least amount of exposure on the road at 100 MPH to 120 MPH, the better for everyone on the road.

BMW’s acceleration time has held its own for a few years now. This may be indicative of how well its wet clutch works, or evidence of what the R 1200 RT-P does impressively well.

From a full stop, how far can your vehicle go in 10 seconds? The Chevrolet Caprice 6.0L RWD, Dodge Charger 5.7L 2.62 RWD, 5.7L 3.08 AWD, Ford Interceptor sedan 3.5L Ecoboost AWD and Utility 3.5L Ecoboost AWD can all get you to 60 MPH in under seven.
But you’ve got to get going first, right? That initial jump to 20 MPH could be the key.

The majority of tested four-doors were up to 20 MPH in under a scant two seconds—and that includes the Interceptor Utilities. Not surprisingly, the quickest to this mark was the Dodge Charger 5.7L 3.08 AWD at 1.54 seconds. In comparison though, both Harley-Davidson models, the Can-AM and BMW, beat that time “off the line” with hundredths of a second between them all.

Dynamics: Grattan Raceway’s lap times can’t fully tell a machine’s story. With the course’s elevation changes, tight turns and long straightaways, the road puts the brake and acceleration tests to a real-life scenario. Gromak explains that if the vehicle accelerates well but stops poorly drivers need to adjust braking points. “The key is consistency,” he says. A consistent time can be indicative of the machine’s durability withstanding as much punishment test after test, lap after lap. Furthermore, if times are close between drivers, he adds, it shows that the tests are for the vehicle and not the driver.

And Grattan seems to do just that. Save for the new 2L Ecoboost “administrative” model, every vehicle had around a half a second—the majority of models being under—average deviation between lap times. The Dodge Charger 3.6L 3.08 RWD showed a 0.2-second change of all the laps and drivers. While it didn’t have the quickest lap average, the vehicle seems to be able to do one thing, and do it well.

Interestingly enough, this very same model Charger had a 1.97-second slower average this year. In comparison this year’s shortest lap time, the Ford 3.5L Ecoboost AWD (at 1:35.7) was a half a second slower than last year as well (at 1:35.02).

“All the vehicles in the past three to four years have been a good vehicle,” says Gromak. “Ten to 15 years ago there may be something that stood out, but it’s very competitive now…you have to pick the car best for your mission in your police department.”

Lt. Gromak and the Precision Driving Unit takes regular calls from departments across the country—and welcomes questions. He can be contacted at GromakR at michigan.gov or through 517-22-5598. Further results can be found at the MSP Precision Driving Unit’s website: www.michigan.gov/msp.

Editor’s Note: All published results are preliminary and are subject to change upon verification of the data. Any calculated results on consistency are internal. Lt. Gromak’s contact information published with his approval.