Jay Leno: Oil Nerd

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Leno is a stand-up guy, pun intended. Excellent video. Leno in a Not-Reasonably-Priced-Car around the track. One interesting thing is that the Mobil1 tech guy indicated this is a custom race oil, where Pennzoil claims Penske Indycars use off-the-shelf consumer PU 5w-40. Granted F1 is tougher on the oil than Indycar.
 
I really liked his question about having a magnetic drain plug in the gear box. That's a pretty down-in-the-details question that only a motorhead would ask.
 
Originally Posted By: FetchFar
Leno is a stand-up guy, pun intended. Excellent video. Leno in a Not-Reasonably-Priced-Car around the track. One interesting thing is that the Mobil1 tech guy indicated this is a custom race oil, where Pennzoil claims Penske Indycars use off-the-shelf consumer PU 5w-40. Granted F1 is tougher on the oil than Indycar.


Indy cars DO use off-the-shelf oil; it's written in the regulations. I can't remember the exact wording, but the regulations mention something like "readily available to consumer" or something. F1 isn't too much harder on oil than the Indy cars anymore. Although neither sport rarely, if ever will give exact power figures, Indy engines make somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 hp, whereas the F1 engines are estimated at around 600 hp (engine only, not including the electric motor), although this season especially it varies wildly between engine manufacturers. That works out to about 318 hp/liter for Indy (2.2L engine), and 375 hp/liter for F1 (1.6L).
 
Klutch9, awesome answer, did not know any of that. Wonder what all the other Indycars use then (Penske-Pennzoil SOPUS)?
 
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
I really liked his question about having a magnetic drain plug in the gear box. That's a pretty down-in-the-details question that only a motorhead would ask.


Liked that part too. I use a goldplug.com because its got power. The part of the video where the Mobil1 guy says the plug gets the big iron out is not quite true, as even small iron dust will collect on those things, kind of a fuzzy dark coating.
 
Originally Posted By: FetchFar
Klutch9, awesome answer, did not know any of that. Wonder what all the other Indycars use then (Penske-Pennzoil SOPUS)?


I would like to know that as well. I know for awhile in the previous Indy v8 era, the Penske teams were using PU Euro 5w-40. I'm sure all the teams are using something in the 40 or 50 grade. I'm going to the Indy races in Detroit in about a month's time, and sometimes I go places in the paddock I shouldn't be...
smile.gif
so maybe I'll see some bottles lying around that might give us some answers.
 
A great video.

I thought Jay asked some pretty insightful oil related questions.
In particular I liked his comment about the tube of gearbox oil he was tilting back and forth; that it looked fairly thick which elicited a response from the M1 guy that that's deceptive as it wasn't really which is as close to an admission that the oil is very light as you're going to get without telling the actual grade.
 
Originally Posted By: Klutch9
Originally Posted By: FetchFar
Klutch9, awesome answer, did not know any of that. Wonder what all the other Indycars use then (Penske-Pennzoil SOPUS)?


I would like to know that as well. I know for awhile in the previous Indy v8 era, the Penske teams were using PU Euro 5w-40. I'm sure all the teams are using something in the 40 or 50 grade. I'm going to the Indy races in Detroit in about a month's time, and sometimes I go places in the paddock I shouldn't be...
smile.gif
so maybe I'll see some bottles lying around that might give us some answers.


If I was a team in the paddock, I would keep all my special secret race oil in drums and quart containers that said "Pennzoil Yellow Bottle" just to throw off the spies. LOL
 
I always hated Leno's TV show. His on-line car stuff is really good. Something about a person really into his subject--any subject--is infectious.
 
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