Author Topic: New Pennzoil Platinum synthetic racing oil: puffery or power protector?  (Read 2094 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

velocity

  • Guest
In late June, I was the guest of Shell and Pennzoil at the Shell Technology Center as well as the Grand Prix of Houston. While many were enamored with the double-header of open-wheel racing I was focused on getting details about the Pennzoil Platinum synthetic motor oil. Yeah, OK, another snake oil in a pretty silver package, right? Maybe.

What caught my attention is that this “synthetic” is derived from nearly pure natural gas. Some big brains figured out how turn gas into a liquid to form a base oil into which they then blend in some additives and come away with what Shell/Pennzoil claims will kick the butt of Mobil 1 and Royal Purple. Seriously.

Now it helped that Roger Penske uses the stuff in his Indy engines. My respect for “The Captain” runs deep; he does not run junk nor does he "cheap out." Ever. Never.

Did you know Indy cars can’t use “secret snake oil” anything they put in their racing engines MUST be commercially available.

The Shell Technology Center is no little shack, home to some 2,000 scientists and engineers, the oil giant spends a staggering amount of cash on R&D each year – more than a billion annually since 2007.

If they were opening their doors to me, I figured it was worth a few days to find out if land speed racers might benefit from this ingenious method of lubrication.

To prepare for the trip I consulted with some leading and respected LSR engine builders: Al Teague, Mike Le Fevers, Ken Duttweiler, John Beck, Dave Brant, Rex Svoboda, Doug Albietz and Rick Yacocci to get their views on dinosaur oils versus synthetic versions.

I explained that Pennzoil was claiming its Platinum Synthetics would provide complete protection, without compromise, in five key ways:

1. Cleaner pistons
2. Better fuel economy
3. Protects horsepower
4. Unsurpassed wear protection
5. Excellent extreme temperature performance

The engine builders held basically the same opinion that synthetics had a clear advantage in protecting any engine, but the price made many people hesitate when taking something off the shelf – especially when talking about street-driven cars.

While I savor technical discussion, I am no lubricant or fuel expert so I am grateful for the time they spent coaching me on what was important. All were very generous with their knowledge and insightful about what was important for me to discover. From the conversations, I came away with specific questions for the Pennzoil science and tech people. some I have answers to, others are in-process of being answered.

My goal was to take home details about how the stuff worked in high performance and racing engines. I am all too aware of how LSR must simultaneously protect their investment while wringing out every last pony of giddy-up out of every run.

I was introduced to power-packed group of people and given a great deal of time to talk with each candidly. Participants in the PurePlus™ Technology Innovation Tour included Shell’s brain trust of  Dr. Opinder Bhan, Dr. Alison Falender and Scott Rappaport  together with senior motorsports engineer Paul Bastien, and Penske driver Helio Castroneves.

Later, trackside, we met with Chris Hayek, Shell Lubricants Global Brand Director; Dr. Richard Dixon, Shell NA Motor Oil Technology Manager; Penske drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Will Power; Dr. Tony Sime, Senior Design Engineer, Ilmor Engineering.

You might think that was enough, but Shell hit us with the power tools later that same evening where we  enjoyed private, leisurely cocktails followed by dinner with all of the above PLUS Tim Cindric, President, Penske Racing; Derrick Walker, President, IndyCar Competition and Operations and Will Phillips, IndyCar VP Technology

I am NOT crowing about the VIP line-up. Rather I believe it important to mention these people because all were willing to talk at-length and in-depth about what I kept calling the “fancy new snake oil.”

What a fine, respectful guest I turned out to be. . . .,  thankfully, the irreverence was taken in the spirit it was intended: lighthearted but pointedly skeptical until proven otherwise.

The non-technical highlight of the entire five-day immersion was a rip-snorting, fun-poking, who’s-the-best-driver banter at dinner between Castroneves, Power and Montoya reminding all of us that we were the slowest in the room. It was bench racing at its finest and funniest. Those boys could easily do stand-up with Leno or Ferguson on their days off.

Once I get the questions back and answers sorted, I intend to share the information with the entire land speed racing community. That will include my Fuel For Thought column in the Goodguys Gazette, Bonneville Racing News and of course, right here on LR.com.

Stand by, this stuff has some merit, but there are miles to go to show you what and why. It was a hellofva trip.



Offline Seldom Seen Slim

  • Nancy and me and the pit bike
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 13158
  • Nancy -- 201.913 mph record on a production ZX15!
    • Nancy and Jon's personal website.
Thanks for the example, Louise, of the sort of information that I'll want to somehow archive on this website.  I might just put it in the same archive with other specific bits of data, or I might put it into the yet-to-be-built place for news releases.  And I won't put your post in there - rather I'll wait for the "real" article you've promised.

It must be rough doing research like this job.  I'm sorry that you didn't ask me to go along for some help. :evil:
Jon E. Wennerberg
 a/k/a Seldom Seen Slim
 Skandia, Michigan
 (that's way up north)
2 Club member x2
Owner of landracing.com

velocity

  • Guest
Jon - I didn't even take my husband, this was work! my brain exploded about 20 times discussing long and short chain molecular morphing and the wavering degrees of temperature shift, duration and all that changes with the catalyst used and how long the the little critters spend in the pressure chamber.

Remember the Sam Jaffe character in "the Day the Earth Stood Still?"  He played the big brain and had a blackboard filled with an multi-line equation he was pondering for months --  spaceman Michael Rennie waltzed in and fixed one little thing and Poof! PROBLEM SOLVED!

Not in real life, the number of labs, halls, offices put my eyebrows on high alert. All that for oil? gas? a little lube? Naivete extraordinaire about whence my gasoline doth come. It was an education about the industry, but I still hammered them for answers.