Imagine driving along in the French countryside, teasing the limits of your sweet ride...And Bam! A blue beast fills your rear-view mirror and you are soon on your way to the slammer.
Bienvenue dans le monde réel, imbécile!
That blue beast is a Mégane Renault Sport Gendarmerie (a.k.a Mégane RS Gendarmerie) from Renault. Since 2011, the Megane RS has been the steed of choice for the Brigades Rapides d’Intervention (Rapid Intervention Brigade) aka BRI of the French Gendermerie.
The French Gendarmerie Nationale is a law and order entity that is supervised by the French Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense. The Gendarmerie Nationale’s officers are military and are responsible for security in the semi urban and rural areas.
Soon after their formation in 1963, the French government soon realized that their existing police cars were not suitable for the lawless highways. So in 1966/67, specialized motorway platoons called the Brigades Rapides d’Intervention (BRI) were created with in the Gendarmerie Nationale. The Alpine Renault 110 and Matra Djet were the 1st cars pressed into service. And for 30 years, they were exclusively running French cars, until they chose the Subaru Impreza in 2006.
And then in 2011, the Gendarmerie zeroed in on the Renault Megane RS. Starting in late 2011, Renault delivered 75 units of the “Chassis Cup” version of the RS to the BIS for its use as a Rapid Intervention Vehicle.
And rapid it was. Built by coach builder Durisotti, the Megane RS’s engine was tuned to meet the specific needs of the Gendarmerie in terms of acceleration (0-125 mph in 20 seconds) and speed (165 mph).
About this casting - this 1/64 scale (Regular Series) Tomica Gendarmerie RS was on my wishlist of 15 Tomicas I had sent to a friend who were visiting Japan for a week. While they could not find the top 2 items on the list (the new NSX and the 22b STI), they did find 8 of the 15, including this one.
It does not have any moving parts like some other Tomicas I’ve gotten, but the casting itself looks cool, even with them generic Tomica wheels.
In fact, I think this is one model where the black wheels don’t seem out of place, for this is the kind of wheels I’ve seen on cop cars in the US.