I don’t want to be considered the penultimate nattering nabob of negativism, but amidst the discussion of the properties an ideal muscle/collector car oil should have, there are numerous reasons why it isn’t terribly likely we’ll see one anytime soon:
The marketing alone would either make or break the oil … probably the latter. People are already very brand specific when they buy oil … except people who buy the cheapest cr@p on the shelf … and this certainly is not who this premium line of oils would be aimed at.
This oil would probably cost between $2-3 per quart assuming a decent base oil (Group II+ ?) and super-premium additive package. Feel free to expound on the price structure,
’Kule, I know you have some specific numbers.
Anyway, even among the targeted folks, it would probably be an uphill battle to persuade cynical jerks such as myself that this oil formulation of yours is
really different and not just the same old goo squirted into a fancy shmancy bottle … but with an inflated price tag. This is the kicker. You’d have to persuade them that the oil they’ve used all their lives isn’t really good enough (despite their experiences that it
has been, for the most part) nor are currently available fleet oils, specialty synthetics or the latest group of high-mileage formulas. It’s one thing for
you to convince
me of the formulation’s uniqueness, but quite another to win over “Joe Fourbarrel.”
The back of your bottle could feature thoughtful text which rivals the Magna Carta for word count but a lot of people would still not be convinced. Unfortunately, not a lot of people would want to read that many words all in one place.
Uphill battle indeed.
Now, having just pi$$ed on this parade,
’Kule, did you have different oils in mind for cars of the 50s and 60s which are purely “classics” (gently driven) versus the high-horsepower toys from that era and later? Seems to me that an ideal oil for a 1955 Thunderbird driven infrequently on the weekends would be very different from that blended for an LS-6 Chevelle taken to the drag strip a couple times each year. I see it as a “storage oil” versus a “performance oil” issue.
Oils for cars before that muscle era (early 50s and pre-war) might require a different formulation entirely as poured bearings are susceptible to erosion from modern additive packages … especially detergents, I believe. And the oils you have in mind for late 50s, 60s and later vintage hot rods would probably be
loaded with that stuff, yes?
Still, if you marketed it right and targeted affluent customers and the shops which cater to them, you might just have a successful niche product.
But, you’d have to market it yourself as most of the big petro-chemical boys probably wouldn’t want a product scavenging their existing sales.
---
Bror Jace
