ANDERS HILDEBRAND
Changes in automotive legislation, the way cars are built, concerns for the environment and longer recommended service intervals means the make-up of engine oils has changed over the years, even if the branding of a given product remains the same...
My business, Anglo American Oil Company, was established in June 1999. Up until the summer of 2015, the firm was based out of two locations: our office, located in Dorset on the south coast of England, and our warehouse and blending plant, located in Berkshire.
In June 2015, the whole operation relocated to a single purpose-built facility comprising a two-storey office block, laboratory, workshop, oil bottling department, warehouse, tank farm and fuel production area. Anglo American Oil Company represents and distributes Sunoco Race fuels on an exclusive basis through our European and Middle Eastern distributors, plus we’re European agents for Driven Racing Oil, PJ1 track compounds (drag racing strip treatments) and Kleers Motorsport cleaning and detailing products.
Our R brand products (racing fuels and oils, hence the R) are blended in-house to very tight specifications. As of 2017, we also introduced products from Us-based Freezetone, a supplier of environmentally friendly engine additives offering the best protection against oxidation, corrosion and electrolysis for all types of engines requiring liquid as a coolant.
Our main business is built on a dedicated customer base of over 9,500 racers and garages dealing with high-performance vehicles. In addition to sports car and racing products, however, Anglo American Oil Company has stocked Aspen fuel for the UK market since 2006. This is now distributed through a fast-growing network of more than three hundred garden machinery dealers. This product, based on our knowledge of clean fuel technology, resulted in a dedicated in-house department focusing on low-emission fuels for hand-held, petrol-driven engines and diesel-powered construction plant machinery, as well as a new exciting range of biodegradable oils.
Taking all this into account, not to mention my years spent racing sports cars and my love of modern classics (I own a 928), it’s safe to say I know a thing or two about engine oil. In a forthcoming issue of this magazine, I’ll be collaborating with 911 & Porsche World editor, Dan Furr, on a tech article evaluating different oil types and, importantly, the evolution of motor oil. For anyone running an older Porsche, this is essential information. I’ll go into more detail in the extended feature, but one of the key messages I want to get out there is this: the oil recommended by the manufacturer when your car rolled off the assembly line won’t necessarily be suitable for it in the present, even if the product’s label and packaging remain the same.
Put simply, the requirements of engine oil in decades past are very different to the requirements of engine oil today.
Why is this? Well, for a start, the specification of current engine oil has to adhere to very different environmental standards. Additionally, thanks to huge leaps in engineering design and technology, manufacturing tolerances during engine production are now much tighter. Recommended engine service intervals for new engines have also changed. One of the upshots of all this is a shift in the anti-wear and detergent properties of engine oil. I hope you can now sense why a bottle of your chosen oil from years gone by might not contain quite the same ingredients as what appears to be the identical product bought off the shelf today.
The implications of this are obviously huge — one only has to consider the negative impact a higher volume of detergents can have on anti-wear properties to realise a more focused approach to engine oil selection needs to be observed for older cars. And, of course, the use and storage of what’s now considered a classic or modern classic is likely to have changed. An air-cooled 911, for example, is unlikely to be used as an everyday car in the present. Many of these Porsches will be tucked away during winter, only coming out to play when the weather is good.
Regardless of an oil’s altered ingredients, there are very real considerations you should keep in mind regarding the type and make-up of oil left in your car in this setting, which clearly differs from what the manufacturer had in mind at the point the originally recommended oil type and service interval frequency were written in its handbook.
As I’ve already revealed, I’ll shortly be sharing some of the extensive research my company and others in the industry have carried out on this front. Rest assured, there’s a suitable modern engine oil to help prolong the life of your Porsche, no matter how frequently you use it. ●