PARIS (Reuters) - The next time a criminal in a getaway car in
France looks in the rear window the chances are that the vehicle in
pursuit will be a blue French police Subaru.
The Japanese car brand, part of Fuji Heavy Industries, has sped past
French rivals to win a key contract for fast intervention cars for
the highway police.
"We have a contract to supply 63 cars to the Gendarmerie Nationale
for patrols on the roads," Subaru spokesman Gilles Varmoux said on
Thursday. "There was a tender for four-door, four-wheel drive cars
that could go faster than 240 km per hour (149 miles per hour) and
had a reasonable price," he added.
The Subaru Impreza WRX cars will replace Peugeot's 306 S16 and the
Renault Megane Coupe.
The police forces are among the most faithful clients of the local
car makers, but this time the French offerings were just too slow.
"These new vehicles will allow the national police to fight the most
serious and most dangerous road offences," the Gendarmerie
Nationale, part of the defence ministry, said on its Website.
It added that 156 agents would be trained to drive the cars on the
Bugatti racing circuit of Le Mans in west France.
The cars are for the rapid intervention brigade (BRI) which
previously had vehicles that could not go faster than 190 km per
hour, or about 118 miles per hour.
The BRI, spread over the country at 55 stations, will intervene only
in case of a crime or serious offence when a driver has to be
stopped immediately.
In 2005 there were 53,000 instances of people on the run in cars or
refusing to stop at the police's request.
Most European criminals will also no longer be able to claim that
they did not understand police instructions in French -- the cars
will relay their messages in a light display in five languages --
French, English, German, Spanish and Dutch -- while there is room
for three others.
Mike T comment:
Ouch. Time for Peugeot to introduce a 207 T16 with 4WD?
Mike Tippett
404 Coupé Injection
405 DL
smart fortwo cdi cabriolet
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Received on Thu Mar 30 18:17:34 2006
