Mobil 1 and Royal Purple at Indy

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I was at the Motorola 220(CART) yesturday and trackside all weekend for work. Our company does some of the certifications and telemetric for the Indy cars. Naturally I was taking to the mechanics in some of the Indy cars and most of the TransAm cars. There have been many threads that bash Mobil 1 because of some "webpage" or "rumor" they heard. Let me tell you my "up-close" observation, almost EVERY TransAm car uses Mobil 1 0-W40 oil even.... are you ready.... the Royal Purple sponsored car. They do not even use their own oil!! and they are the primary sponsor which means their name is the largest on the side of the car and wing. Indy teams are very quite about there cars, but I can tell you that I saw about 25% of the cars and they also use Mobil 0w-40 oil and are not Mobil1 sponsored. Well, I figure I would put another tread out there for people contemplating "which oil the use". Interesting findings though. :> )
 
Don't get us wrong. We're not bashing Mobil 1. I like the product myself as well. However, I believe there are other better alternatives out there such as Mobil Delvac 1, Schaeffers, etc.

Regards,

Oz
 
Very interesting. I was there Saturday and Sunday and wanted to spend more time finding out this type of information. I had my kids with me and everytime I would start to observe or ask questions, the kids would say, come on dad lets go over here. Next time I go by myself.

Could not have asked for better weather for a race. What Wisconsin is all about.
 
Johnny, my supervisor went to the TransAm race at Mosport yesterday and I asked him if he noticed what oil the teams were running. He says he wasn't sure but he does recall seeing a TON of Pennzoil stickers on the cars!
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Pennzoil stickers on TransAM cars.
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If so, that is great advertising for us. But to tell you the truth, I do not know of any TransAM drivers using Pennzoil.
 
I thought that was strange too, as I didn't know any of the TransAm cars used it either.
Maybe they had a bunch of support series races there too last weekend, and those were
the cars he was seeing with the Pennzoil stickers on them?
 
That's odd. I went to an earlier Trans-Am race this year at Limerock in Connecticut and except for the one car which had Royal Purple sponsorship (Fix's #77 Jaguar ... the slowest of the cats http://www.paulfix.com/ ) everyone who showed a preference for oil wore a Red Line sticker and sometimes you could see the bottles. I did not see a single Mobil 1 oil bottle or sticker all day.

And, I am very skeptical of a whole lot of professional race teams using an off-the-shelf oil formulated for the street with detergents, anti-corrosives, minimal barrier additives, etc ...

--- Bror Jace
 
In 2001 I was at the Toronto Molson Indy and the Penske Team had drums of Mobil1 5w-30 oil in their shop area that they were using. I think they were sponsored by Mobil1 at the time though, but I doubt that makes much difference when it comes to expensive cars like CART and F1, cause those race teams use what works not who sponsors them.
 
Most trans-am guys use redline I do know this for a fact. Also NHRA uses redine in pro stock 0w and 2w alot. Top fuel uses 60w and 70w oil brand is a toss up. The lower fields use valvoline VR1 racing 50w or 20w-50 alot.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Bror Jace:
That's odd. I went to an earlier Trans-Am race this year at Limerock in Connecticut and except for the one car which had Royal Purple sponsorship (Fix's #77 Jaguar ... the slowest of the cats http://www.paulfix.com/ ) everyone who showed a preference for oil wore a Red Line sticker and sometimes you could see the bottles. I did not see a single Mobil 1 oil bottle or sticker all day.

And, I am very skeptical of a whole lot of professional race teams using an off-the-shelf oil formulated for the street with detergents, anti-corrosives, minimal barrier additives, etc ...

--- Bror Jace


It's up to the individual race team whether or not to use *additional proprietary* additives with their preferred motor oil. Mobil 1 happens to be the most widely used in F1/cart. Results are mixed, some teams use their additives as well- and some dont.
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It is very common for companies to be race EVENT or SERIES sponsors. In return, they require all the cars in the race to display their stickers, regardless of whether the team is using the product or vendor. I cannot say for a fact that this explains the Pennzoil stickers, but it is very probable.
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RacerX, Yes, Lucas Oil Products does what you described a lot. They sponsor entire events or series like offshore boat racing, offroad truck racing, tractor pulls, etc ...

I've already described in another thread that Red Line can't be throwing money around in racing to lure in highway-driving consumers. Racers are their primary market.

Cold Fusion, I know some (probably a lot) of folks in Indy Car racing use Mobil 1 ... but those engines (and even the CART engines) are limited in horsepower and need only last 500 miles ... maximum. If it were my car, I'd insist that Mobil whip me up a special batch of oil ideally suited for my motor ... or I'd use Red Line.

Given that, I cannot believe for a second that F-1 teams use off-the-shelf oils. Nothing else on or in their cars is off-the-shelf so why would you think that they would make an exception for a motor oil?
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I saw a quote from Ron Dennis of Team McLaren and he said glowing things about the company (Mobil) but never once did he say they used their regular formulas in their cars. His statement was full of wiggle words and the team could be using just about anything in those one-off, highest-of-high-tech machines.

Johnny, did you know Paul Gentilozzi (sp?) uses a Ford engine (351C?) in his "Jaguar" ??
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--- Bror Jace
 
Bror, interesting rules would allow that. I guess ci is ci .
Synergyn oils is threading it's way deep into Drag Racing,some light stuff available to the average Joe.

I bet more "exotic" Mobil Oil is used by the big name guys than one thinks,just not what we can buy . Same for Pennzoil.Off the shelf Redline racing Oil

All Proof held some Indy motors together back in he early 70,s,

Odd how oil is used by racers in that a "good dino" when up to temp will do very well for a time,lets say a 45 minute race. Yet most 1/4 bracket racers stick with a dino that gets hardly any heat built into it before running/ I will take the syn for racing for the HP add if nothing else.
This I certainly would like to know. What oil is Honda using in the factory supported Superbikes?
 
I'd bet Castrol mixes up oil for Honda Superbikes.

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[ August 23, 2002, 11:47 PM: Message edited by: satterfi ]
 
I am very surprised and disappionted by remarks made by “dagmando” in a recent post . His comment ,”Almost EVERY TransAm car uses Mobile 1 0-W40 oil even .... are you ready .... the Royal Purple sponsored car. They do not even use their own oil.” This statemant could not be farther from the truth.I am the driver and owner of The Fix Motorsports/Royal Purple #77 Jaguar XKR. We are a professional team competeing in the Trans Am Series, that is proudly sponsored by Royal Purple Synthetic Motor Oil. We have used all the Royal Purple products exclusively for the 3 years of Trans Am competition and are extremely happy with the results.In previous years we fielded Vintage Road Racing cars and we were introduced to Royal Purple 4 years ago during a dyno run, the increase in horsepower, decrease in operating temperature and inspection of internal engine parts proved to us the high quality of the Royal Purple products .I invite anyone that is at any of our Trans Am Series races, to stop by our transporter and see for themselves,let us show you why we are so confident in the Royal Purple products.We use theRoyal Purple Racing Grade 21 engine oil,Puple Ice for the cooling system,Royal Purple SyncroMax for the 5 speed Wiesman transmission,Royal Purple75W90 for the differential,Royal Purple Max Film spray lubricant,Royal Purple Max EZ power steering fluid and Royal Purple Ultra Performance #2 grease.

Paul Fix
 
Paul Fix: A big welcome to the board. Thank you for your first hand knowledge concerning this issue. I would be interested in your knowledge of what other TransAM cars are using as lubricants, and what you were using before going with Royal Purple. Thanks again for your post.
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First, a welcome to the board Paul. I would like to ask you a question. What do you know of other race teams (and yourself if you dont mind) of adding additional additives to the stock-out-of-the-box formula provided by Royal Purple, Red Line, and Mobil 1 etc. I know some do it and some dont, what I'm looking for is a ballpark figure. TIA
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Paul,
Thanks for posting here and setting the record straight.

Just the other day a kid told me that all the Porsche racers in GT1 were using Mobil 1 MX4T motorcycle oil in their race cars and they were taking other manufacturer’s oil bottles, dumping the contents and refilling them with the aforementioned Mobil 1 cycle oil for use at the track. The kid did not like it when I told him that the most likely scenario is that he was being lied to by this supposed team member who had fed him this “insider” information. Truth is, half-baked conspiracy theories abound on the ‘net and they are passed along quite readily.

While I’ll acknowledge I’m not a fan of Royal Purple, I’m a follower of lots of different types of racing including the SCCA Trans-Am series. Please don’t misconstrue my mentioning that you have been towards the back of the pack during the races I have witnessed both in person (Limerock Park) as well as on the Speed Channel as some sort of personal attack. You are involved in something (professional road racing) which I never will be and for that fact alone, you have my admiration.

Belated congratulations to you on your Road America drive where I think you ended up 10th in a field of about 30 cars. You can correct me if I’m wrong but I think that’s your best finish this year. Good luck on the remainder of the season.
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--- Bror Jace
 
Dagmando, Having raced and owned in ProSportsCar/IMSA I can tell you that your post above does alot more damage than good.

Pro Road Racing in the US and Canada competes poorly for sponsorship and media exposure to begin with. What a shame as it is such an exciting form of racing ! It is a major struggle to get paying sponsors and Trans Am cars are some of the most expensive to field.

I don't know Paul personally but I do know what it takes to get corporate sponsorship and keep it.

Please be careful with that kind of post, you could inadvertantly ruin a up and coming racers chance to compete. I know you did not mean it in a punitive way but I'll assure you RP has been on the line to Paul about that.

Sincerely, Terry Dyson
 
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