Top Gear

The Michigan State Police annually evaluate cars from various automobile manufacturers for potential use by their police force.  One of the evaluation steps they take is to assess the 'pursuit' capabilities of the vehicles.  That essentially means driving fast - but under control!

They do the testing at Grattan Raceway - just 25 miles NE of Grand Rapids.

Carissa surprised Joel during our visit by arranging for Joel to 'ride along' during some of the testing.  Joel loves the show Top Gear - which features all sorts of high performance cars - and she wanted Joel to experience some speed! She has a relative, Doug Schutter, who part of the organization that does the testing.  He was kind enough to invite Joel and I to ride along with the troopers that conduct the tests - during their training runs. 

That's Doug in the driver's seat and Joel getting into his 5 point restraint system and helmet!

Then they headed out to the track for his first run.  Each 'run' was 8 laps.  The car Joel is in is a Dodge Charger.  In the police configuration it has about 370 horsepower.

It's impossible to fully share the experience of riding in the cars.  Essentially, the driver is attempting to go as fast as possible until they get to a turning radius.  Then, they jam on the brakes until the get to their turning speed.  They enter the turns low and spinning tires then power out of the turn at full throttle!  It's powerful, loud, fast and exhilarating.  Doug said that they will go through a set of tires and brakes in a single day on each vehicle.  In fact, the engine and brakes get so overheated during the run that they take a 'cool down lap' at the end of each run to cool the brakes from 900 degrees to 400.  Whoa!

Here's a picture of Joel and Dough powering through one corner.  Pretty tame looking.  Like I said - it's hard to capture the experience in pictures.  I would say that we were going about 115-120 mph on the main straight-away and as high as 60-70 mph through some of the turns.  It was blood-pressure raising.

Here I am happy to have lived through one of my runs.

Doug was a great sport with us.  Thank you Doug - and thanks to Carissa for her creativity in setting up this one-of-a-kind experience.  It was the most thrilling part of our trip!