Three-peat

The Florida Highway Patrol’s ‘Vette took first place in the 2026 America’s Best-Looking Cruiser contest. [Photo courtesy Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles]

The Florida Highway Patrol’s sleek black and tan Corvette won the 2026 annual America’s Best-Looking Cruiser contest in a close finish. The FHP ‘Vette, backdropped by the Miami skyline, will be featured on the cover of the 2026 American Association of State Troopers calendar.

This marks the third year running that an FHP vehicle has been voted the country’s favorite cruiser, according to the FHP.

The voting opened June 30 and ran until July 11, with votes involving 49 states. According to an AAST Facebook post, the Florida entry garnered 58,399 votes while the second-place entry from Michigan had 57,848 and the third-place entry, Ohio, had 25,505 votes. The contest had 1.8 million views on Facebook.

Thirteen cruisers will be featured in the calendar and all submitted photos will be published on the back cover.

FHP Col. Gary Howze stated in a press release that the cruiser competition is “a great way for our state troopers across the nation to connect with those we serve” and is a “win is for everyone that participated.”

Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Executive Director Dave Kerner is quoted in the release as calling the win “historic.”

“This first-ever three-peat is a credit to our team’s creativity, our agency’s mission and the thousands of Floridians who rallied behind us once again,” Kerner said in the release.

An FHP Facebook post announcing the win thanked voters and “fellow agencies” in Michigan, Oklahoma, Georgia, Alaska, Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky Maryland and Louisiana, which “made this contest exciting.”

Proceeds from sales of the calendar will benefit scholarships for the children of state troopers nationwide, according to the FHP press release.

The winning FHP car for the 2025 calendar was backdropped by the launch of a Delta IV Heavy rocket; the prior year, the winner featured a cruiser with 180-pound, 8 ½-foot long alligator in the foreground.

To order a calendar, go to statetroopers.org