We've looked at five features that make police cars different from their civilian counterparts, and concluded they don't really get better engines. Yet as the Michigan State Police found out this fall, those motors can still be impressively effective. Their testing was part of an annual program that dates back to 1975 and over the years has become an industry benchmark.
This time around, 13 cars — and five motorcycles — were put through their paces on two separate courses. Chelsea Proving Ground, located in Chelsea, MI., and owned by Stellantis, was used to evaluate the vehicles' top speed, acceleration, and braking. Vehicle dynamics were tested at Grattan Raceway in Belding, MI. Incidentally, the historic Grattan track was for sale when this article was written, with a listing price of a cool $15 million.
As for the fastest, that was the all-wheel-drive Ford Police Interceptor Utility. It leveraged its 3.0-liter EcoBoost V6 — making 400 horsepower and 415 pound-feet of torque – to hit an electronically limited 148 mph. That was faster than the faster police motorcycle, too. On the two-wheeled side of the ledger, the leader was the BMW R 1300 RT-P in its standard setup — with a maximum velocity of 141 mph that was again electronically limited. In fact, all the vehicles in the test had top speeds limited by manufacturers.
The results are nothing new, though. The Blue Oval's Interceptor Utility has been the fastest car in the Michigan State Police ranks since it shared that honor with the Dodge Charger back in 2020. Rounding out the 2026 top 6 for top speed were the AWD Ford Police Interceptor with hybrid and gas-only powertrains, both listed at 136 mph, and the RWD Chevrolet Tahoe PPV with the 5.3-liter V8, the Chevrolet Blazer PPV EV with AWD, and the Dodge Durango Pursuit with a 5.7-liter V8 and AWD. That trio clocked in at 130 mph.
What was the quickest police car?
Of course, top speed is only one important criteria for police performance, so the MSP went on to measure the vehicles' 0 – 60 sprint times — even though tracking a car going from 5 – 60 is usually a superior performance metric. Anyways, results here went about the way you might have expected once you realized not one but two EVs were on the test roster. The nearly instant torque delivered by the Blazer EV and the AWD Ford Mustang Mach-E GT helped them set the bar for acceleration: The former measured at 5.14 seconds and the latter leading the way at a brisk 4.03 seconds.
Ford's PIU with the 3.0-liter EcoBoost and the Ford F-150 Police Responder, which upsizes to a 3.5-liter EcoBoost mill, are the only other non-motorcycles to get in under 6 seconds. The quickest police cars with internal combustion engines did the job in 5.95 and 5.68 seconds, respectively. The quickest motorcycle, the BMW 1300 R-PT with the Dynamic Pack and AutoShift, was then the only vehicle to break the 4.0-second mark. It finished the sprint in only 3.61 seconds.
It's also worth pointing out that the MSP checked 0-to-100 times, with pretty much the same results. The quickest EV was again the Mach-E, the two quickest gas-powered cars were the Ford PIU and F-150 Police Responder, and the quickest bike was the BMW with the Dynamic Pack/AutoShift.
Details about their braking and dynamics
Considering how dangerous high-speed pursuits are, a good set of stoppers and superior vehicle dynamics are vital for police vehicles as well. With that in mind, the MSP put its test vehicles through multiple "60 – 0 mph full ABS maximum deceleration stops" to come up with a final projected stopping distance from that speed. The Mustang Mach-E came out on top in this testing, bolstered by a projected stopping distance of 122.45 feet. No other vehicle tested was below 130 feet. Moreover, one pass with the Mach-E saw the car go from 59.7 mph to a complete halt in 116.75 feet. Meanwhile, the MSP's fastest police vehicle — the Ford PIU with the 3.0-liter EcoBoost — had the seventh-shortest stopping-distance projection, at 137.24 feet. The 2026 Ram 2500, with four-wheel drive and a 6.4-liter V8, provides some context with a projected stopping distance of 170.13 feet that was by far the longest in the MSP testing.
Overall dynamics and handling were evaluated at Grattan Raceway, where four drivers completed eight laps each in all 13 vehicles — for a total of 32 laps per vehicle. The metric used was average lap time, since the track's 2-mile layout has enough curves and changes in elevation that it "simulates actual conditions encountered in pursuit or emergency driving situations."
And the winner once again was the PIU with its 3.0-liter EcoBoost. Just be aware that the Michigan State Police did not put the five motorcycles through the dynamics portion of the test regimen. Things might have been different if they had, but the end result was that the Ford's average lap time of 1:35.09 bested all competitors by at least 2.9 seconds.