Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona

[Johnny]

Wow! what a race, one of the best I've seen in a long time, and I could not be more pleased with the results.

I'm on a borrowed computer so will post more when I return home after February 3d, but here is a quick oil report.

Prototype cars:

The first and third place Brumo Porsches use a special synthetic formulation of Kendall GT-1 made for them by Conoco.

The second place Lexus/Riley uses a special Texaco syntheic made by Chevron.

All of the other Prototype cars, Ford, Pontiac, Porsche, and Lexus powered used Mobil 1. And not just some special oil, but the exact same product that Valvoline says is no good. That's right, regular Mobil 1 5W-30. I walked through every pit garage and asked every one of them and a few showed me the cases of oil and I saw one of them pouring it in. They also all use Mobil Delvac 1 75W-90 gear oil.

All of the GT cars except for 4 or 5 also used Mobil 1 5W-30, 10W-30, or 0W-40. The cars that did not use Mobil 1 either used Castrol Syntec or Motul.

In the Koni Challenge Class that raced on Friday, most use Mobil 1 with a few using either Motul or Red Line.

The only car that I saw using any Valvoline product was the Mustang of Jack Rousch Jr.

So, conclusion for me is, Mobil 1 may not work in your grocery getter but it sure darn works in those high dollar race cars.

I will post more when I return home and after my son sends me the disc with the over 400 pictures we took, I will try to post some of them.

If you have never been to this race I highly recommend you go. It's not just a race, it's a happening.

Johnny

 

[RWEST]

Quote:
All of the other Prototype cars, Ford, Pontiac, Porsche, and Lexus powered used Mobil 1. And not just some special oil, but the exact same product that Valvoline says is no good. That's right, regular Mobil 1 5W-30. I walked through every pit garage and asked every one of them and a few showed me the cases of oil and I saw one of them pouring it in.

Hmmm. Interesting!!

Quote:
So, conclusion for me is, Mobil 1 may not work in your grocery getter but it sure darn works in those high dollar race cars.

Good one.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Did they got paid to use Mobil 1 oils ? Exxon/Mobil may pay to have decals on their cars and provide free oils ?

 

[farrarfan1]

Now we can set back while all the "experts" pick apart the race teams choice of the dreadful M1 5W30. And StevieC will get to post more smilies and tell us how good the show's going to be. Good times, good times.

 

[Johnny]

Well, here's the interesting part. Not one of them had a Mobil decal on their cars. They did not have any oil decals on their cars. The only oil names on any of the prototype cars was Kendall GT-1 on the Brumo Porsches and a small Texaco star on the 01 Ganassi Lexus/Riley. So no, I do not believe Mobil was paying them to use the products. I asked the chief engineer for the for Wayne Taylors Sun Trust Ford/Dallra why the used Mobil 1 products and his comments was, because it works.

 

[Ben99GT]

No PP?

 

[Nyquist]

Originally Posted By: Johnny
Wow! what a race, one of the best I've seen in a long time, and I could not be more pleased with the results.

I'm on a borrowed computer so will post more when I return home after February 3d, but here is a quick oil report.

Prototype cars:

The first and third place Brumo Porsches use a special synthetic formulation of Kendall GT-1 made for them by Conoco.

The second place Lexus/Riley uses a special Texaco syntheic made by Chevron.

All of the other Prototype cars, Ford, Pontiac, Porsche, and Lexus powered used Mobil 1. And not just some special oil, but the exact same product that Valvoline says is no good. That's right, regular Mobil 1 5W-30. I walked through every pit garage and asked every one of them and a few showed me the cases of oil and I saw one of them pouring it in. They also all use Mobil Delvac 1 75W-90 gear oil.

All of the GT cars except for 4 or 5 also used Mobil 1 5W-30, 10W-30, or 0W-40. The cars that did not use Mobil 1 either used Castrol Syntec or Motul.

In the Koni Challenge Class that raced on Friday, most use Mobil 1 with a few using either Motul or Red Line.

The only car that I saw using any Valvoline product was the Mustang of Jack Rousch Jr.

So, conclusion for me is, Mobil 1 may not work in your grocery getter but it sure darn works in those high dollar race cars.

I will post more when I return home and after my son sends me the disc with the over 400 pictures we took, I will try to post some of them.

If you have never been to this race I highly recommend you go. It's not just a race, it's a happening.

Johnny

I've always wanted to go to one of these and almost have the fiance talked into going sometime for a winter vacation in a couple years. If I pull this off, I will be a very happy camper!

 

[BR549]

Thanks for all your hard work Johnny, didn't seem to be alot of oil related failures either. Awesome finish!!!

 

[cven]

Thanks for the report and glad you had a good time.

 

[hooligan24]

does anyone know how large their oil tanks are? Do they get a chance or feel they need to do an oil change during the race? How about oil temperatures?

I would love to see UOA's on all the different oils after all the torture it went through.

I was only able to see the last couple hours, so I dont know how their pit stops went.

 

[bdcardinal]

if they are anything like NASCAR, the sumps are in the 3-5 gallon range.

did anyone else notice the quick change brakes? Ganassi had rotor/pad/caliper assemblies with quick disconnects on the line assemblies. similar to the Holden quick change rotors, but they change the whole system.

 

[ewetho]

Does this really change much??? What I have hacked out of here is that the only problem with Mobil1 really is some possible micro corrosion over the long haul (regular to extended OCI) leading to high Fe readings in UOA. Now in the end, otherwise it just works Sequence IV be [censored].

In the short term would not be an issue at all.

The question after that is it worth the current price versus other alternatives.

 

[rshaw125]

I always thought that they used Mobil 1. But the special race oil. It is interesting that they're using the stuff we can buy at Walmart.

 

[Footpounds]

How do the drivers deal with all of those noisy Mobil 1 engines?

 

[ccdhowell]

I am green with envy Johnny. I would have been like a giddy schoolgirl walking in the pits talking to race engineers...awesome stuff man. Thanks for the report on Mobil One use.

 

[JAG]

Originally Posted By: Johnny
All of the GT cars except for 4 or 5 also used Mobil 1 5W-30, 10W-30, or 0W-40.
...
So, conclusion for me is, Mobil 1 may not work in your grocery getter but it sure darn works in those high dollar race cars.
That is interesting and puzzling that anyone there would use the maligned M1 5W-30 over 10W-30 or 0W-40. I know you said all 3 were used, but my question is why the 5W-30 at all? I'd love to hear their rationale! Thanks for your post.

 

[d00df00d]

I'd guess they used 5w-30 because it's:

1. Cheap
2. Consistent
3. Available in huge supply
4. Formulated to HTO-06 so it won't coke, ever
5. Made with few or no VIIs

 

[tom slick]

Thank you for the report on the 24 Hours of Daytona. I'd love to walk its pits someday.


Last year at the Festival Of Speed at Laguna Seca, I spied:

This oil

Filling this engine

For this car

Certainly no magic oils for these guys

 

[Johnny]

Tom, thanks for those pictures from last years Festival of Speed. The #58 and #59 Brumos Porsches were using Kendall GT-1 20W-50 at Daytona this past weekend. They are sponsored by Kendall, and according to one of their chief engineers they have been using Kendall for the past 20 years. More than likely they did not have easy access to the Kendall product and chose to use the Mobil 1 15W-50 as a replacement. But then again, who knows.

 

[tom slick]

I didn't notice until just now that the rear wing says "Kendall GT1" in 10" letters.

IIRC there was someone yelling about "Don't have anymore _________ in the trailer, make sure to get a few cases of mobil from ________!" I didn't think anything about it at the time. It does show that they choose Mobil1 as a substitute.