1) Is the Redline street 10w-30 a straight weight labeled as a 10w-30 or does it have a small amount of VIIs? It has roughly the same VI as the ACD straight weight so I'm leaning toward no VIIs.
I spoke with a Red Line rep a while back and he said that they use no VIIs whatsoever in any of their oils except the 5w-40. This was before they introduced their 0w-xx oils so I'm not sure about those, but I know the 5w-30 and 10w-30 were included in that statement.
As I understand, the line between a "straight" and a "multigrade" oil is not always clear with synthetics anyway. For example, they could be mixing two base stocks with different viscosities. Is one of them a VII in that case? Maybe so, but if it doesn't shear, does it really matter?
Looking a little closer, the Redline 5w-30 seems the same or better in every way over the 10w-30. Higher flashpoint, same HTHS, lower 40c viscosity, about the same 100c visc. I wonder if this is a better basestock or if it has some or more VIIs...
FWIW, I often hear that oils with narrower (not sure of the actual term here) viscosity classifications are always tougher all else equal, even if their specs aren't as good on paper. E.g. a straight-30 is tougher than a 10w-30, which is tougher than a 5w-30, even if none of them contains VIIs. Something about the inherent properties of high VII basestocks. Maybe someone better informed can chime in on this...
Then again, I'm sure the 5w-30 is plenty tough for most apps, and there's probably no reason to compromise cold properties.