Ring Run #4: We Fixed The RCZ, Then It Broke.

We thought we’d fixed it.

After everything, the oil leak, the stress, the near disaster, the RCZ was finally right.

So we took it to Dartmoor National Park to prove it. And for a while… it was perfect.

Clean. Smooth. Effortless. The kind of drive that makes you believe you’ve turned a corner.

So we stopped.

A rainbow behind the car.
One of those rare moments where everything just feels… right.

Then it changed.

Stranded again with a car that had just decided it wasn’t fixed after all.

What followed was a roadside repair that shouldn’t have worked… but somehow did.

And just when we thought we’d regained control…

A Honda Jazz appeared out of nowhere, driven like it was qualifying for Le Mans—and completely stole the moment.

The RCZ lives.

For now.

Next stop: the Nürburgring.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I'm Rob Hartman, and you're listening to Cheap Thrills. This is episode 4 of The Ring Run, and you're about to find out what happened to the RCZ's infamous oil leak. I thought we could open the Strait of Hamood with the amount of oil that was coming out the bottom of that car. We were going to be saving oil supplies in Europe. So I finally took it into the garage, expecting the worst. The kind of news that starts with a pfft and ends with a number you just don't want to hear. But instead, I heard, we think it's the oil cooler. That was it. A small failure, disguised as something catastrophic. And somehow, by luck or mercy, we've been given another chance. So this time we did it properly. No shortcuts, no guesswork, no that'll do, just a clean fix. Tightened, sealed, sorted. And for the first time in a while, I collected that car, I stood back, I looked at it, and I thought, yeah, we're doing this. So I took it out to Dartmoor National Park because if a car's gonna tell the truth, it'll do it there. The roads opened up, the engine was pulling clean, every gear exactly where it should be, doing exactly what it should do. We stopped for a moment, not because we had to, but because we wanted to. Because behind the car there was a magnificent rainbow that stretched all the way across the skyline. Perfect, still, quiet. And it felt almost magical. The kind of moment that makes you think, maybe everything's alright now. I could hear in the background the engine was idling softly and calmly as I set up my shot. I was waiting for the rain to stop to get that perfect rainbow car dartmoor moment. And then it changed. A tremor in the idle, almost a chirp, not very noticeable, but then again. And suddenly, BONG, lights. The dashboard didn't panic, it shat itself. Engine light, traction control, ABS. Not one problem, everything, all at once. And like that, the car basically folded into itself. And I thought, no, you'd got to be joking. So I jumped in the car, I thought, I'm just gonna give it a bit of a blip just to see if it's in limp mode. Boom. Power faded, throttle dole, and I was left in the middle of nowhere with something that had just decided it didn't want to work anymore. So up goes the bonnet, in goes the scanner, and I'm waiting. I'm waiting and waiting and waiting as it slowly diagnoses the car 1% at a time. And it kicked out, not one, not two, not three or four, but nine fault codes. Nine of them. So I start looking for the answers in the places I don't fully understand. But I did think to myself as I was coming down a hill, I could hear a slight whistle. So that's where I thought I'd look first. And I was right. A hose. Split. But hidden just out of sight, like it had been waiting for that right moment. So I did it. I sealed it. I sealed it with a snap band and some gum. So I jumped back in the car, put the ignition back on, start the scanner, wipe the scanner, and done. Those faults did not come back on. The only faults that did come back on were the AVS and the traction, which, quite frankly, in that car I can live without. But I was very proud. It was a proud moment for me. I haven't done MacGyvering like that for a long time. You know, that is spray it with WD40, hope for the best territory. But I thought, will it start? And it did. It was smooth, it was quiet, like nothing had happened. So I thought, fuck it, we're here now, let's get the shots we wanted to get. And I carried on because that's what I'd do. If it happened again, well, we're chewing some more gum and finding something. I'd wrap it with a plastic bag if I had to, but you know, we're secure and we're safe at the moment. And I found an awesome stretch of road, which is a kind of miniature valley, it's a really steep downhill, really, really tight apex and corner, almost compressed into that corner. And I thought this is a great spot. So I set out the camera and I thought, right, I'm gonna walk back down to the car and I'll do a couple of flying laps around this bend, it'll look cool. What a great little piece of you know footage on a Sunday evening. And I thought it'll be great, it'll be clean, it'll be composed, and it'll be proof that we've made it. And then, out of nowhere, like a Japanese bullet train, there was a Honda Jazz. And this thing came down the hill, zipped through the corner, and up the other side, like something I have not seen on Dartmoor before. There were sheep petrified of the noise. There it was absolute madness. It was a fantastic shot. The shot doesn't really capture it, it doesn't really capture the angles, but it was so fast and it was so cool just to watch this 1.4 Honda Jazz hit that corner like it was the carousel. It was unbelievable, and like out of nowhere as well. I literally heard it coming, and I was like, what the hell is that? And I turned around and whoom, down it came. It was awesome. And I thought, right, well, I mean, I'm not totally insane, and I'm not gonna cut a corner like that on Dartmoor, which is like a 40 mile an hour speed limit because there's livestock wandering all over the road, and it's a bit wet, and it's a bit grey, and the viz wasn't a hundred percent amazing, but you know, we're still gonna get a couple of flybys on it. So off I went, up the hill, down the hill, back up the hill, down the hill, just reminding myself how I am not quite as insanely legendary as that Honda Jazz that just hit that corner. But I'm in my car, I don't know that guy, I can put that footage up there, it'll be fine. But for that brief moment, it just stole everything. The shot, the attention, the story, and honestly, it deserved it. It was awesome. But after my flying runs, it was still time to check the RCZ out. There was no oil, no drip, but there was the smell of the past. The old oil was still festering underneath that engine, just in places smelling. But the engine sounded good, there was no visible oil running out the bottom of it. But it kind of makes me wonder, is this just the pause before the next problem? So all I can do is get out there and drive it. Because that's the thing about these cars. I'm sure they don't fail all at once, they wait for the right moment, the wrong place. The exact second I put my trust into that car, it stabs me in the back. And right then, in that moment, standing there on Dartmoor with a car that seemed fixed, I'm closer than ever to finding out what happens next. The ring is waiting, but something still tells me it won't be simple. And it is nerve-wracking. And I still sit there thinking, am I going or am I not going? I want to go. I hope it can take me there, because I've said it and I've got to do it. And I don't want to take another car, I want to take this car, but you know, at the same time, I don't want to crash. I don't want the humiliation of crashing on the Nurberg ring. I still need to get the ABS fixed, or maybe it'll just start working again like it did before. But that probably will be a problem because then it will just burn out on the ring. So I'm gonna take it back into the garage, get them to give it a once over and see what they think. I'm hoping it's just a speed sensor or a disconnected cable, but don't mind spending a couple of pounds on it because we've saved some serious money with what we thought was the RMS. Fingers crossed, this problematic little 1600 pound box of worry will get us where we want to go doing what we want to do. Because if not, it's going to be one really disappointing story. Well, I'm Rob Hartman. Thank you for listening. This is Cheap Thrills. If you want to be part of this story, because I have a feeling it's about to get really exciting, give me a follow and I'll be keeping you updated as we go. Bye for now.