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Performance art: how supercar engines put oil to the ultimate test

2,400 formulations, 1.9m miles of testing: here’s what it takes to stay ahead of the game

Published: 25 Oct 2016
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    Car manufacturers continue to design and build engines that simultaneously get smaller and more efficient but also increasingly powerful. And this means the oil in those engines needs to withstand ever more extreme pressures, often in excess of 10,000kg per square centimetre. And if it’s an engine in a supercar, the stakes are raised ever higher. Oil is the only engineering component that touches all other moving parts in any engine, and when cars produce the sort of power that the world’s leading supercars produce, that oil needs to be incredibly strong. Strong like Castrol EDGE SUPERCAR.

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  • Every variant of Castrol EDGE with TITANIUM FST™ is the result of years of research and development but it is easy to overlook that it is a product created by people, not machines. The Titanium Fluid Strength Technology in Castrol EDGE, for example, took fiveyears to develop and involved a team of experts in the United States together with a research scientist at the University of Edinburgh.

    In the same way a leading chef will use only fine ingredients, so do Castrol. “This isn’t just oil,” explains Castrol Expert Technologist, Gareth Dowd, “it’s Castrol EDGE oil. Like a great whisky – or perfume – there is an awful
    lot of time and care needed to get ‘the recipe’ right. Very often, it’s all about small differences."

  • Castrol is committed to finding those differences. This is why, during its development, more than 2,400 unique formulations were evaluated before Castrol found the one that became Castrol EDGE. It was a process that involved an astounding 1.9 million miles of testing, in laboratory, on road and on track, with supercar manufacturer partners. That’s almost four trips to the moon and back...

    And too much foam on your pint is a bit of a nuisance but, believe it or not, oil can also begin to foam as it flows through an engine. Which is more than just a nuisance; it can seriously affect performance. The low foam technology of Castrol EDGE SUPERCAR helps to avoid this, ensuring there is more oil than foam between moving metal parts. This is what keeps an engine performing at its best.

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  • The partnerships Castrol has with the world’s leading supercar manufacturers are crucial to creating a product like Castrol EDGE SUPERCAR. By proving how well its oil performs in cars of this nature, Castrol is giving all drivers the confidence that Castrol EDGE is an oil that will also work for them.

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