Dear All,

Thanks for letting me on this group 😊

I live in Portugal, and I’am the proud owner for the last 15 years of a Rouse Sport 304R 4x4 sapphire Cosworth, it’s number 91/100 made.

it’s supposedly also the only LHD ever made.

I have everything related with the car, including the Andy Rouse letter, and all documents from the import of the car from the UK to Portugal.

it was bought here by a British Doctor that worked in Algarve, so he required the car should be LHD.

it now has around 67.850km on the odometer and it’s in very good condition, with zero accidents since new.

Only thing that didn’t survived our great Portuguese roads was the front splinter 😂

I know that Andy didn’t produced the totally of the 100 units, is there anyone here on the forum that has an idea of how many of these survived until now ?

Looking forward for your replies 👍

Best Regards

Jorge

 

Nice one Jorge. You don´t see many of them.
The roads over here are in the same wonderfull condition.
Do you use the car a lot?

 

Hi Mondi.

Yes I know that, there should be only 10 to 15 units left I guess, but I would really like to know if there is some kind of register of these cars, I would happily register mine there.

Bought this car around 15 years ago, from the second owner.

This Cossie was very lucky to come to my hands, otherwise at this time it would probably had already disappeared, because the previous owner was not a careful guy and the car was a little neglected.

Since I acquired it I changed the original cylinder head gasket that had a passage , placed new set of valves and guides, ARP bolts and group A new reinforced head gasket, and over halted everything, like new timing belt, water pump, tensioner, all pickups and sensors, etc….that was in 2012.

From 2012 until 2024, the car drove around 5.000 kms only, and one week ago I’ve changed again the Gates timing belt and tensioner.

The belt was like new, but it was time to change it again.

Every year, I change the oil and filters regardless of the millage of my cars, the oil I use on my cars is always either Castrol 10w60 or LiquiMoly 10w60.

I’am not a professional mechanic but I know how to handle these kind of issues, so I do all the major tasks by my self on my garage, I own other several classic cars and had to learn how to be a mechanic 😂

I will post a couple of photos of this last overhalt.

if anyone knows more information about the number of these cars left I would really appreciate 👍

Best

Jorge

 

I forgot to mention that the Turbo was fully over halted by me in 2023, and it’s like new.

it wasn’t easy, had to buy two different turbo repair kits and mix them, since the Turbo of these cars is not the same as the regular sapphires.

Here are some pictures of the change on the timing belt last week.

Cheers

Jorge

 

has the boot spoiler been replaced with a standard one or is it just the angle of the picture?

 

Its just the angle of the pictures.


Only thing missing is the front spoiler and the sticker above the timming bel t cover, with the recommended 10W50 Shell Gemini Oil.


Does anyone has any link for someone selling those ?


Best Regards

Jorge

 

Www.Xsportracing.com

 

Forgive me but that doesn’t look like a rouse boot spoiler to me, it looks like it has the two contrasting parts to it, there looks like a gap between the main section of the spoiler and the lip at the very rear of the spoiler which was black in colour, again forgive if I’m wrong

a rouse boot spoiler is in one piece, considerably larger and one colour, my old 4x4 saph pictured below, rouse boot spoiler and carbon front splitter

 

Hum…never noticed that diference, thought it was the same size.

I will check and if necessary buy the correct one and the front splinter from the link you’ve sent 👍

thanks Luciano for the link.

Did you bought from that company ?

Your front splinter was in carbon fiber, Kevlar or glass fiber ?

Best Regards

Jorge

 

Hi Jorge

I had two front splitters 1st one was fibre glass not from Xsport it came in a gloss finish so I had it rubbed down and painted Matt black so it looked like rubber pic below ⬇️ the 2nd was made by Xsport and was carbon fibre with a clear gel coat, boot spoiler also came from Xsport as pictured above standard boot spoiler is on car in this pic below ⬇️

 

Thanks 👍👌

I will contact them tomorrow and have the boot spoiler and the front splinter ordered from Xsport.

Do they take a long time to deliver or are they fast ?

Best

Jorge

 

They have an EBay store, tried to buy through them store but they don’t have the option to ship to Portugal activated 🙁🙏😑

Already sent the a email…let’s see if they ship to Portugal ( hope so…).

 

to be honest I went and collected boot spoiler as they are fairly local to me, splitter I bought from another member again I collected it

 

will wait for their reply through EBay, hope they ship to PT 🙏

 

strange why someone would replace the spoiler with a standard one,does it still have the special seats ?

 

has everything…..including the importation documents, Andy’s Letter, translation of it to Portuguese by Ford Lusitania , the official Ford Dealer at the time, etc…etc…etc…..

and seats included and all special badges.

got it ?

Thanks

 

[QUOTE=THE RADMAN;6838598]strange why someone would replace the spoiler with a standard one,does it still have the special seats ?[/QUOTE

Just to set your mind at ease …

 

thats good then ,just find the spoiler and splitter and you have a very rare car indeed

 

perhaps the boot spoiler and front splitter were not available in Europe? Or changed because of damage? It has the extra rear valance on the rear bumper and the side skirts

what you need Jorge is a nice set of 17 inch alloys to compliment the rouse kit please keep us up to date with progress on the car and how you get on with Xsport if you get hold of the splitter and rear boot spoiler

 

Thanks Charlie.

I don’t see anywhere on the car the slightest sign of some previous accident, and the previous insurances shows no record of it.

Like I told before, the previous owner was a bit careless about the car, and anything left on the street in the 90’s, especially with the word TURBO on it, would be prone to stealing of parts, so most likely someone stole the spoilers.

I saw a lot of cars on top of bricks in that time, during the night the wheels were stolen.

The Cossies were a huge target for this., a classic amongst stolen fast cars….My car was fitted with a second alarm apart from the original one, and has the license plate etched in every glass on the car, so I suspect that the previous owner was robbed and then took action 😂

I still don’t have a answer from Xsport through EBay…do You have their direct contact ( email or phone ) ?

All the best

Jorge

 

Hi.

one rookie question :

The front splitter of my Rouse is the same as the one used by the RS500 ?

There’s a guy on EBay selling one 🙌

thanks 👍

 

No, the Rouse splitter and the RS500 splitter are not the same. The RS500 splitter has a sort of divider in the middle, while the Rouse splitter is completely smooth. Personally I like the Rouse more.

 

Thanks Marc.

Meanwhile finaly the guys from Xsport contacted me
Lets see if I can organize everything with them now

 

Sorry been out and about in the car today forgive my late reply, Marc has beaten me to it for the info on the splitters

Cosworths and all RS cars are targets for thieves over here in the U.K. too

I thought your spoilers may have been damaged through wear and tear as opposed to accident damage or maybe the rouse parts were not regularly available in Europe

Xsports contact detail are on their website dude but you’ve had contact with them so all is good let us know how you get on

 

yes, thanks 👍👍

already in contact with them, they say it will take 6 weeks to get them ready…

So in 2 months time I think I will have them here, thanks again for the help Charlie 🙌

Best

J