Part 2 of the guest gallery

Please e-mail your pictures to richard@renault18.com!

R18s from Estonia

E-mails and pictures from R18s come from all over the world! Here are the photo's and story from Gristo's Estonian R18s.

Gristo Joesaar from Estonia

Is this a Renault 18? Yes it is! And it hasn't been tuned or tempered with!!! This is Aldo's American build Renault 18 TS. Aldo lives in Mexico and this car has been his dream car ever since he first lay eyes on one when the car was first released (that's a familiar story :-) ). Beside the different head lights and bumpers, I also noticed an other peculiar feature. Look at the second picture and notice the wheel...... My dad's 1974 Renault 12 had one like that!!!

Aldo writes about his car:

I am sending you one picture showing the front of my car, side views and the rims. This rims were for the more R18 and are not very common here either anymore because Renault was the only manufacturer in America using 3 lugs. However it is still possible to get this rims on second hand. My car should be a TS because has the 1647cc engine, has four speeds and at this time is rust free, it has had some small scraps and dents but no mayor damage on the body. All instruments work well, and I have all the car history, because the original owner sold this car 3 months before I bought it from the second owner. My car used to live in Mexico City and was taken to Monterrey (about 900km north of Mexico city) by a student who decided to sell it because his dad gave him a new Ford Escort. A week before he knew his dad would give him another car, I saw the R18 parked near to my home and put a note on the windshield asking to call me if he were interested in selling his car. I doubted some body could sell such a pretty and well maintained car, but I was lucky. I wanted a car like this since they were new (even the exterior and interior colors were the ones I wanted), but I didn't had money to buy it or when I looked for them on second hand never found one that were worthy. So, as exited as you can imagine I bargained with the student and got one of my teenage dreams (I am 33 actually). I have also a 1969 VW bettle, a 1998 Ford Mustang and a 2000 Ford Windstar, so the oldies are used just once in a while. I am lucky enough to have space in my garage to keep the VW and the R18 covered and safe.  As you will see in the pictures, the front bumper is a little bended, but I didn't want to fix it because it will loose the original crome, which still is in very good shape. I have changed all hoses, belts, fixed the electric generator, batery, brake pads, gas pump, etc. In the future I will repaint him in white, fix the front bumper, and try to change the transmission for a 5 speed gear box.

Best Regards!!

Aldo

Click the Thumbnails to see the pic's full size.

Danielle Forster owned two  Renault 18 break's. Driving a Renault has become a sort of family thing. Her dad owned a 4CV, Dauphine, R5, R8, R10, R11, R12, R18GTL, R25.

"The R5 was my 1st, the white R18 second and the silver R18 my 3rd car. The R5 pic was taken during my first holiday by car in Italy. Both R18 pics where taken in the UK. I visited 1-2 times a year the UK by car in the 80ties. Its fun to drive on the left side!!!!"

(click the pics for full size)

After driving a Land Rover Discovery for some years she got fed up with it and sold it for a brand new ...... Renault. A Kangoo this time.

Here are some Renault 18 pictures I received from Thomas Forsman. He lives in Sweden and made a great site about French cars. You can find it here. He owned a red Renault 18 from 1980, which unfortunately had to be scrapped due to severe corrosion. However he still owns a very nice Renault 17 TS you can find on his page.

Click on the thumbnails to see them full size.

This is a Mexican Renault 18 with a 2.0 litre engine. One detail I noticed on the picture: It has the modern Renault logo on the grill, in stead of the old one with the stripes:

Bali wrote:

Elmar Werkman owns a superb R18 GTS from 1981. He lives in the Netherlands, and this is one of the last remaining R18's from the first series here.

Here's the story that goes the pictures:

This is my 1981 Renault 18 GTS. My father bought this car new in early 1981 and after about six years I bought it with 120.000 km's. I used it for three years, albeit not that extensively because I was a student at the time and I just had a proper bike to go to college (and bikes do not run on petrol but on pedal power!).

In 1990 I started working and got a company car, so I put my R18 to sleep in a dry and dark place. About 5 years later, I bought a house with a garage and I decided to start driving my first own car again. It was restored to an excellent condition (the basis was not bad after 9 years and 145k of service and the sleeping period of 5 years). The major overhaul comprised only of getting the brakes to work properly and some welding especially inner mudguards and the well known pieces of metal between the front window and the bonnet. All the work was carried out by a Renault dealer who liked to work on this 15 year old car, it took about half a year but only a fraction of the time spent was calculated. After that  I removed the interior for a very thorough cleanup and bought some new bumpers and some windowrubbers and strips which make the car look like new.

From 1996 I have been using the car at least once a week and now with almost 180k on the clock it is still running beautifully and it remains a pleasure to drive. The color is original Black and as a high spec model it has bronze colored windows, the headlamp wash and wipers and of course electric windows, central door locking and a 5 speed gearbox. My daily use of transport is a 1999 Laguna 2.016v RXI which really is a wolf in sheep clothing but driving my R18 still remains a special experience. In the Netherlands R18 are very rare nowadays, especially the ones with metal bumpers from the first series. Only a few 18 Breaks are around, nearly all of them a bit tired and rusty but still running.

The photo's are from 1996 and 1997 but now the car is in the same excellent condition. I tend to drive it with no rainy weather.

Click on the thumbnails to see them full size!

Oliver sent me a pic of his German Renault 18. He had to sell it due to the emisson based taxes in Germany and bought a R21 with catalytic converter instead. At the moment he drives a  Clio.

You can see his Clio here.

Tangi made a very complete site on the Renault's 14 and 18. He owns a white R18 GTD of which he sent me two pics. (click the thumbnail to see full size)

(Click the thumbnail to see full size)

Alejandro Di Benedetto sent me two R18 pics from Argentina. It's apparent that for real R18 enthusiasts Latin America is the place to be! The 18 was produced there well in to the nineties and Alejandro wrote that they even race them there. An 18 won the 1998 Argentina relly edition against amongst others a Renault Megane!

Alejandro drives an 18 GTD.

Although I try to keep my R18 as original as possible, you can tune the 18 to great extend. Here are some examples send to me by Mommy Destriasmono from indonesia. Here are some tuning tips:

I want to add some tips for lowering kit for R18... at her original coil spring, it too dificult for get your car low with 17 inches rims... I suggest to get use the coil spring from Mercedes Benz 200 thats more tiny than R18's. More specific from Mercedes made by 1975 or older. I try in my R18..and the results was quiet nice and more stabil. I send you the picture. Of course with some of my concept for R18 customizer. And so I got one like you have. With sandstone color.........Thanks for Everythink

Click on the thumbnails to see them full size!

hello, Im from argentina, I have a renault 18 gtx2, this car is the mejor 18 in argentina, all electric sistem, I send you this pic for you page sahara metalic...Ah, sorry for my bad english, I only speak spanish

Alejandro.